Founded in 3 Years, Sales Break One Million, Wins UK Sales Champion! Has This Chinese Brand Stood Up?

Extra! Extra! Foreign automakers are actually subcontracting for Chinese brands!

Recently, Nissan officially announced that one of the two production lines at its Sunderland, UK factory will start manufacturing Chery vehicles from April 2027.

As for why this reversal happened, on one hand, because the fallen giant, Nissan, has run out of funds...

Since incurring losses in Fiscal Year 2024, within two years, Nissan's losses have exceeded 1.2 trillion yen (approx. 50.7 billion RMB), facing severe financial difficulties.

In this situation, for Nissan to survive, it can only reduce production capacity and tighten its belt.

Last May, Nissan announced closing 7 factories globally and cutting 20,000 jobs. The Sunderland factory utilized less than half its capacity last year, so it naturally became a "target for adjustment".

Cooperating with Chery not only earns subcontracting fees but also maintains factory operations, naturally a win-win.

On the other hand, Chery also wanted to open a new chapter in the UK market through localization. After all, Chery just won the single-vehicle sales champion in the UK for May, with unrivaled popularity.

So, what exactly did Chery do? How did it suddenly rise overnight?

Today, let's talk about this properly!

01. A Rare Triple Win

Regarding this issue, after the cooperation was finalized, a local union representative in the UK accidentally told the hard truth in an interview.

Sunderland factory is the largest existing complete vehicle factory in the UK by volume, with an annual capacity of 600,000 units, providing 6,000 job positions. Moreover, the UK official provided 100 million pounds in real cash for the factory's electrification transformation and upgrade.

For British people, how Nissan considers it doesn't matter, who it subcontracts to doesn't matter. The important thing is the UK retained an EV factory and saved the jobs of 6,000 local workers.

Since recently "Chinese cars appearing on British roads has become more frequent", it is reasonable to let British workers manufacture Chinese brand cars!

And Chery is one of the representatives of Chinese cars filling up the streets of the UK.

Taking the past March and April, Chery Group's total sales in the UK, the sum of the three brands Chery + Jaecoo + Omoda, is already second only to Volkswagen, ranking second in brand sales.

Jaecoo 7 even won the single-vehicle sales champion for March and May without any qualifiers, widely praised by users in the UK.

Interestingly, this car has been discontinued domestically, it is the Chery Explore 06 priced at 99,900-169,900 RMB.

And unlike its plain look domestically, in the UK it transformed, with price and identity turning into a noble gentleman—converted to RMB as high as 263,800-317,600 RMB!

So, where exactly is this car strong?

First, the Jaecoo 7 offers three power forms: gasoline, HEV hybrid, and PHEV plug-in hybrid, meeting user needs for different power forms.

Secondly, the product power of Jaecoo 7 is also excellent:

Appearance design fits local aesthetics, praised by users in the UK as "Affordable Range Rover";

Compact Off-road Light SUV positioning, is perfectly suitable for UK country dirt roads and narrow urban roads;

Moving on to new energy, the PHEV version of Jaecoo 7, accounting for 85% of sales, can provide 56 miles (90 km) pure electric range, sufficient for UK users' daily commute.

Plus lower fuel consumption compared to ordinary fuel cars, and 360 horsepower breakthrough performance, simply shocking the British—this inconspicuous little thing, is it even fiercer than a MINI JCW?!

So logically, the Jaecoo 7, a car whose prototype didn't make much splash in China, sold out completely in the UK with a new shell.

02. Low-key Development, Quietly Stunning

Some people think, Jaecoo 7's explosion in the UK market is purely an accident.

Others think British people eat too poorly normally—where fried fish and chips are considered national snacks, what major sights could they have seen? Family cars often cost 200,000-300,000 RMB, life must be very bitter...

But think from another perspective, if you are an old Londoner with a Union Jack, at first you might not realize the prototype of Jaecoo 7 is a Chery from China.

Omoda and Jaecoo are Chery's brand new brands specifically created for going global in 2021/2023.

Neither targets Chinese users, nor are new cars sold in China.

Although Jaecoo and Omoda don't have the long history accumulation and good user base like Volkswagen or Toyota. But fortunately there is no historical burden, won't be labeled with cheap, poor quality stereotypes.

Specifically, the brand name of Jaecoo is a combination of German Jäger (Hunter) + English Cool, mainly focusing on rugged SUVs;

The brand name of Omoda is a combination of two English words Oxygen (Oxygen) + Moda (Modernity), mainly focusing on fashion trends.

While positioning is distinct, both brands share a common point: both strive to provide excellent smart EV experiences for overseas users.

So, without deep knowledge of the brand background, the UK user perspective only sees two very cool, very fashionable, with good smart and electric experiences, and high cost-performance new foreign brands.

We standing from God's perspective naturally know Jaecoo 7 and Omoda 7 both originate from Chery Explore 06.

But at the product level, these two really on the same-source architecture and technology, made completely different distinctions in design and interior, forming a product synergy through complementation.

One could say, Chery used a more advanced shell, rebranding strategy, thoroughly exploited the technical dividend of the domestic new energy industry chain's dimensional strike overseas.

If the product can fight, Jaecoo and Omoda naturally can explode with amazing growth speed.

In just 3 years, this "twin star" brand's global sales have broken one million, becoming the youngest and fastest automotive brand in world car history to break the one million sales milestone.

03. Overseas King, Blooming Outside the Wall

So the question arises, how did Jaecoo and Omoda suddenly emerge?

Simply put, it's backed by Chery Group's strong support.

Detailed, we need to review what Chery has been doing overseas these years.

First, the data:

Chery ranked first in export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 23 consecutive years;

In 2025, Chery Group's vehicle export volume was 1.344 million units, just one car company accounted for one-fifth of the national passenger car export sales...

This year January-May, Chery Group cumulative sales were 1.1 million units, of which export volume exceeded 750,000 units, accounting for 68%.

Obviously, today Chery, total sales are dominated by the overseas market.

Such eye-catching overseas performance, on one hand benefits from Chery's early layout in overseas markets.

As early as 2001, when many independent car companies were just starting to build cars, Chery launched complete vehicle export business.

And since the second year of going overseas, Chery has been consecutively ranked first in Chinese brand passenger car exports.

On the other hand, it stems from Chery persisting in localization operations from the beginning.

In 2003, Chery built a factory to make cars in Iran in joint venture form, the Chery sedans produced at that time were Chinese enterprises producing sedans abroad for the first time.

And what's rare is, for over twenty years Chery has formed effective long-term operations in the Iran market.

From joint venture, models bearing joint venture brands, to acquiring shares, producing own brand models. Currently, Chery has become Iran's 3rd largest car company, Iran's largest foreign-invested car company.

Going out early + good awareness, made Chery's overseas path walk quite solidly.

In recent two years when Chery officials discuss overseas strategy, often emphasize "In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere", which means "Where, For Where, Become a Local Member".

Take a look, this slogan and Volkswagen's "in China, for China" ("In China, For China") mentioned in recent two years actually means the same. It shows in this matter of going overseas, high achievers always have slightly similar viewpoints.

In fact, as mentioned above, when Chery enters new markets, it often adopts the method Volkswagen used when entering China market — establishing joint ventures with local enterprises.

In 2024, Chery announced officially entering the Spanish market.

To open the local market, Chery didn't even rush to promote its own brand, but after establishing a joint venture with local enterprise, first resurrected a Spanish brand EBRO with over 70 years of history.

The joint venture took over a closed car factory in Barcelona, the first model produced was named EBRO S700, Spanish Prime Minister evaluated this project as "a symbol of the entire Spanish re-industrialization process."

Although EBRO S700 is essentially the overseas version of Tiggo 7 PLUS, its background sentimental significance, indeed provided strong emotional value to Spanish local consumers.

And the factory provided 1,000 job positions, which is also a solid benefit for the locals.

For Spanish people, this is a win-win.

Of course Chery itself didn't lose out, this project made Chery become the first Chinese car company to own a complete vehicle production base in Europe and achieve mass production, later Chery also prepares to produce its own brand models in the same factory, such as Omoda 5.

Officially, Chery's overseas strategy in Spain has been stamped by Chinese and Spanish governments as "a model of cooperation".

Developed to 2025, Chery already owns 16 complete vehicle assembly factories overseas, production bases spread across Russia, Brazil, Thailand, etc.

And now, Chery's business also covers 130+ countries and regions, boasting over 6.59 million overseas users, and an international overseas team of over 20,000 personnel with over 85% local employees.

So Jaecoo and Omoda's explosion overseas is not two new brands fighting alone, but Chery Group, this overseas king, "carrying them along with its power".

04. Final Thoughts

According to CPCA data, this May, national passenger car market retail was 1.51 million units, down 22.1% YoY; January-May, cumulative retail 7.1 million units, down 19.5% YoY.

Not only is fuel car sales collapsing under high oil price impact, this year January-May domestic new energy retail sales also declining.

In the background of domestic auto market turmoil and intensified competition, going overseas has become a growth space all car companies must grasp.

For Chery, the systemized overseas capability built in the first twenty-plus years, has become a firewall today contributing stable sales and profits for the group.

Chinese cars walking onto the world stage, necessarily accompanying the change of global car landscape.

Chinese cars are being sold to the whole world, today Chinese car companies' factories are also opening all over the world.

I believe, in the future one day, Chery and other Chinese car enterprises will be like Toyota, most of global sales not coming from native factories, but overseas localization production.

And at that time, overseas consumers will also trust Chinese brand cars just like trusting Toyota.