Chery CEO Yin Tongyue said in April last year that “two premium marques” in Europe wanted to use Chery platforms and the f rm was in talks with two others. One of those premium brands was Chery joint-venture partner JLR, which has since announced that it will revive the Freelander brand in China using Chery’s T1X platform, shared with Chery brands Omoda and Jaecoo.
The other premium marque looks set to be Ineos.
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo also visited Chery’s hometown of Wuhu earlier this year and showed interest in the iCaur V23.
The iCar brand – which was forced to rename itself iCaur for exports to avoid a legal clash with Apple – has been a hit in China after the launch of the V23. The brand plans to repeat that success overseas and has set a goal of opening 2000 showrooms in 100 countries within three years.
Chery is very open to deals with European car makers. In Spain it has signed up with local brand EV Motors to sell its Tiggo range of SUVs under revived Spanish marque Ebro. Meanwhile, the same cars in Italy are badged under the local DR brand.
Both tie-ups involve an element of local assembly, with Ebro’s cars sent over as partially built kits and finished in Nissan’s former Barcelona plant.
Ineos could be expected to repurpose its former Smart car facility in Hambach, France, to build the Fusilier model from iCaur kits sent over from China. Extended-range EVs are included in the EU’s increased tariffs for China-built EVs, but assembling the cars in Europe could enable Ineos to circumvent them, provided that it can show it adds enough local value.
