Chery. Stages of a long journey
Chery is a Chinese automobile company founded in 1997 at the initiative of the Wuhu City Hall in Anhui Province. Several state-owned companies and holdings of the province, as well as small investors, became shareholders of the company. They purchased the equipment of the European Ford plant. Production began in 1999 after the purchase of a license for Seat’s Toledo chassis. Currently, the company is part of the large CHERY Holding. The holding owns the following brands: Chery Jaguar Land Rover (50%), Qoros (50%), Rely, Chery, Cowin, DR Motor, Karry, Jetour, Rely, Riich. In 2020, the 300,000th car rolled off the assembly line of the Chery Jaguar Land Rover joint venture. Worldwide, there are 9.05 million fans of the brand’s cars, of which 1.7 million are outside of China (as of 2020).
At the end of 2020, the total number of world sales of Chery cars exceeded 730,000 units. The best-sellers are: Tiggo 8, New Tiggo 5x (Tiggo 4) and New Tiggo 7 (Tiggo 7 PRO). The most popular model in the range is the 7-seater Chery Tiggo 8 SUV, which was chosen by more than 100,000 consumers. And the Cheri Arrizo 5 was the only Chinese sedan to receive a JD Power 2020 China Initial Quality Study SM (IQS) vehicle quality rating.
The annual sales of Chery electric vehicles amounted to 43,000 units (as of 2020), including the Ant and Little Ant, as well as Chery New Energy cars. Last year, tests were completed on the Big Ant electric vehicle powered by high-tech lithium-ion energy. During the tests, the car showed that it was able to travel 510 kilometers on a single charge in various temperature conditions.
Origins
After its foundation in 1997, the young company could not obtain a license to sell cars throughout China for a long time and supplied taxis for the local administration of Wuhu. In 2001, during the directive redistribution of assets of state-owned companies, carried out by the PRC government, the Shanghai company SAIC became the owner of 20% of Chery Automobile shares. It was only then that Chery was able to use its license to sell its cars in China. And soon after that, it began to supply cars to Syria, becoming the first Chinese automobile exporter.
In 2003, Chery established its research and development department. In 2004, SAIC withdrew from Chery’s shareholders. But the company retained the right to sell and export vehicles throughout China.
There are 9.05 million fans of the brand worldwide, of which 1.7 million are outside of China.
In 2005, Chery produced 185,000 vehicles, 10% of which were exported. At the end of 2005, Chery ranked fifth in China in terms of car production and began to negotiate the entry of its cars to the US market. Cooperation began with the following design firms: British Lotus Engineering and Japanese Mitsubishi Automotive Engineering, as well as design firms from Italy (Bertone, Pininfarina), and from Japan (Cavax). The company began to independently produce Euro 4 engines, which were developed by the Austrian AVL List.
In 2006, cars started to be assembled in Indonesia and Ukraine. The company exported its products to 29 countries around the world. By March 2007, the 800,000th Chery car was assembled, and by August, the millionth. The company ranked first in China in terms of passenger car sales per month and came in third in terms of total cars sold.
In 2007, Chery and Fiat formed a joint venture to produce the Alfa Romeo and Fiat vehicles for the Chinese market. In the same year, Chery and Chrysler entered into an agreement to jointly develop, manufacture and sell Chery vehicles in North America, Europe and other markets under the Chrysler Group brand. Unfortunately, in December 2008, the companies announced that they were ending their cooperation due to Chrysler’s financial problems.
In early 2012, a joint venture between Chery Technology and Valeo (France) was established to produce automotive lighting products for the Chinese market. Chery и Jaguar Land Rover have built a plant near Shanghai.
