Chery Automobile Focuses on New-energy Vehicle, Connected Technology Development

Chery Automobile's passenger car production in China fell 5.7% year-on-year in 2018. However, in the first three months of 2019, Chery’s two new brands Jetour and Exeed became the driving forces of production, volume increasing by 11.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. Amid a stagnating Chinese automotive market, Chery Automobile is welcoming strategic investors, launching luxury brands, strengthening new-energy vehicle (NEV) business and developing connected technologies to strengthen and expand its business. Chery Automobile needs more capital to respond to new technology trends in the automotive industry such as new energy vehicles and connected vehicles, strengthen brand power, and develop overseas markets. For this reason, Chery Automobile and its parent company Chery Holdings welcomed the investment of Qingdao Wudaokou New Energy Industrial Fund in December 2019. The investment will enable Chery Automobile to strengthen its NEV, connected, sharing and overseas businesses in an effort to increase annual sales to 2 million units and to 250 billion Chinese yuan by 2025. Chery Automobile launched the TX / TXL SUV, the first mass-produced model of the luxury vehicle brand Exeed, in April 2019 in order to expand and differentiate its product lineup. It is assumed to compete with Geely Automobile’s Lynk & Co and Great Wall Motor’s Wey brands. Chery Automobile’s Jetour brand, launched in 2018, is intended to meet the mobility needs of families. For this reason, sales were expected to increase compared to other Chery products; however, it appears that sales did not reach the initially set sales target of 150,000 units.

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