Chery: From a Wuhu Start-Up to China's Largest Car Exporter

Chery key facts

The current logo has been in use since 2022.

Origins: a factory, a borrowed body and a car licence

Wuhu officials wanted a car industry for their city, and in 1996 they hired Yin Tongyue from FAW as technical director. Chery was founded on 8 January 1997 and formally incorporated in March as a parts company, because it had no national licence to build cars. To start quickly, it bought an old Ford engine line from Dagenham in England and developed a saloon on the body of the SEAT Toledo, itself related to the second-generation Volkswagen Jetta. The result, the Fengyun, went into production in 1999 and sold nearly 30,000 cars.

Without a licence, Chery first sold its cars through a deal with SAIC, which held a 20% stake. The national passenger-car licence came in 2003, and SAIC sold its shares soon after amid tension with its partner General Motors. Exports began even earlier: in October 2001 Chery sent its first 10 cars to a dealer in Syria.

Chery decade by decade

2003–2009: QQ, lawsuits and the exporter title

In May 2003 Chery launched the QQ, a small city car. In June GM sued, saying the QQ copied the Daewoo Matiz; the case was settled out of court in late 2005. According to the old 1cars text, Volkswagen also complained that the first Chery saloon resembled the Jetta, and the first Tiggo SUV of the mid-2000s looked close to the second-generation Toyota RAV4.

In 2006 Chery began building its own ACTECO engines, developed with the Austrian engineering firm AVL from 2003, and it sold some to Fiat. In 2007 the A3 became the first Chinese-developed car to earn five stars in China's NCAP test. In the same year the company reached one million cars in total, the first Chinese brand to do so. That year it also formed Qoros, a 50:50 joint venture with Israel Corporation. A Wall Street Journal report of 2007 described the company as "an odd hybrid of Communist state enterprise and entrepreneurial start-up".

Production reached 508,500 in 2009. Kit assembly abroad spread quickly: in Iran from 2004, in Ukraine with ZAZ from 2006, in Egypt and Malaysia from 2008–2009. The Chery A13 was built in Ukraine from 2011 as the ZAZ Forza; ZAZ's own story is in the history of ZAZ.

2010–2016: too many brands, then consolidation

Around 2010 Chery sold almost 700,000 cars a year under several brands, among them Rely and Riich. In 2012 it signed a 50:50 joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover; the plant in Changshu began building Jaguar and Land Rover models in 2014. In the same year Chery dropped Rely and Riich to focus on fewer, better models. A plant in Jacareí, Brazil, opened in August 2014, and the low-cost Cowin brand followed. This period produced the Chery Tiggo 5 and the Chery Tiggo 3.

2017–2022: Exeed, Jetour and the export push

The premium brand Exeed was shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2017. The same year, the Brazilian partner Caoa took a majority of the local business. Jetour, a brand of family SUVs, launched in 2018. In 2021 Chery announced its "Double 50" export plan, and exports jumped from 113,762 cars in 2020 to 269,154 in 2021 and 451,337 in 2022. The Chery Tiggo 8 seven-seater became one of the main export models.

2023–2026: new brands, Europe and the stock market

In 2023 the group launched Omoda and Jaecoo, two brands sold only outside China. It also added iCar for electric off-roaders and Luxeed, an electric brand developed with Huawei. Exports passed 937,000, more than half of all sales. In November 2024 a joint venture with EV Motors began assembling cars in Barcelona under the revived Spanish Ebro name. Chery listed in Hong Kong on 25 September 2025, raising the equivalent of about 1 billion euros. In January 2026 Qoros filed for bankruptcy, and JLR said that the Changshu joint venture would stop production by the end of 2026. In June 2026 Nissan and Chery signed a non-binding agreement on assembly at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, England.

Fengyun, QQ, Tiggo and the export crossovers

ACTECO engines, hybrids and EV brands

The ACTECO family covers the company's small and mid-size petrol engines, including turbocharged versions, and the CAC name is used for the latest units. Plug-in hybrids are sold under the Fulwin name in China and as plug-in versions of Tiggo, Omoda and Jaecoo models abroad. Electric cars come from Chery New Energy, iCar and Luxeed. CATL and Gotion, two battery makers, are among the shareholders.

Shareholders and plants at home and abroad

The company remains mainly state-owned: entities of the Wuhu city and Anhui province governments hold about 36%. The electronics maker Luxshare holds about 17%, employee share schemes about 18%, and CATL and Gotion smaller stakes. Most cars are built in Wuhu and other plants in China. Abroad, the group uses its own plant in Brazil, partner plants and kit assembly in countries such as Egypt, Malaysia, Iran and Pakistan, and the Ebro plant in Spain. The group employs about 150,000 people, more than 20,000 of them outside China.

Export growth in figures

By our calculation, exports in 2024 were about ten times the 2020 figure, and compared with 2014 they grew more than tenfold. In the first half of 2026 Chery sold 943,817 cars abroad, 71.5% more than a year earlier, including about 174,000 in Europe.

Buying a Chery-group car today: what to know

The group's models are sold under several brands, so the same engineering may appear as a Chery, an Omoda, a Jaecoo or an Ebro. Before buying, compare the versions side by side in the 1cars comparison tool and look them up in the specifications section. Check the Euro NCAP result of the exact model, and ask about the warranty and the dealer network in your country, which still varies a lot across Europe. Older models such as the Tiggo 2, 4 and 7 are mostly found outside the EU.