Chery at 30: Between "Aging" and "Explosion" | Renqi

The four tensions are not yet closed; the speed of execution determines the next thirty years.

Author: Song Jiating

"30 years old can be the beginning of aging, or the eve of an innovation explosion."

Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd., said this at the opening of the 2026 Chery Global Innovation Conference. He also said that today Chery is much like the horse keepers and carriage workshop owners of the past facing the first Mercedes-Benz car—many companies fall before 30, while some deliver works that change the world around the age of 30.

A chairman who sells over 2 million units annually and has been the export leader among Chinese brands for 23 consecutive years, calls himself a "horse keeper." What is frightening is not a specific rival, but that the capabilities relied upon for the past thirty years may no longer be valuable in the next thirty years. This is also the fundamental reason why Chery chose "change".

From the current perspective, the transformation at Chery is four sets of tensions pulling simultaneously from inside to outside. Each layer relies on the one above as a premise, and each layer is not yet closed—where all tensions finally intersect stands ordinary families. This is the ultimate mission of an automotive manufacturer, or rather, a technology company.

Technology: 126 Days vs. 3 Days for a Simulation Engineer

Chery simulation engineers previously used to optimize the aerodynamics of one car with six rounds of solutions, 100 per round. The traditional process took 126 days.

After integrating CheryMind, the same work was completed in 3 days, efficiency improved 42 times, drag coefficient compressed from 0.32 to 0.26, and range directly increased by 40 kilometers. The 123 days saved allowed engineers to think about "more creative things".

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Chery did not take the general large model route, but self-developed the vertical model CheryMind with a much narrower goal: only doing inference and decision-making for vehicle-side and physical scenarios.

For this narrow goal, it simultaneously self-developed three things—the model itself, the automotive-grade chip Ziwei C100, and the World Engine CHERYAWE, forming a vehicle-side closed loop of "Model — Computing Power — Decision".

Behind CheryMind are 700 TB levels of enterprise knowledge and PB levels of engineering data. Ziwei C100 is customized for the deployment of 10 billion parameter models on vehicles and will be mass-produced in 2027.

Hard constraints of Physical AI determine the necessity of the closed loop: latency compressed to millisecond level, data cannot leave the vehicle arbitrarily, and automotive-grade reliability does not allow any link to be outsourced or fail. The cost is heavy assets, slow returns, and limited generality; the return is certainty in industrial scenarios.

Whether the closed loop holds is not looked at in launch events, but in the performance after C100 is installed on vehicles in 2027. This layer is the premise of the latter three layers—without a reusable foundation, boundary expansion is impossible to discuss, organizational adjustments lose direction, and identity manifestos degenerate into slogans.

Boundaries: A Rainforest Starting from a Field

In Northeast farmland, a pure electric intelligent agricultural machine is operating unmanned. Previously one person one machine daily handled 150 mu, now one person multiple machines daily handles 800 mu; in a potato farm test, energy cost reduced by 74%, maintenance reduced by 59%, carbon emissions reduced by 56%. On the same land, corn yield per mu increased from 1600 jin to 2000 jin.

No one would have thought the team doing this comes from an automotive company. Nineteen years ago, it also entered the shipbuilding industry.

Chery's cross-bordering is not starting from zero, but reusing outward from the three capability lines of automobiles. Electrification foundation reused to agri-machinery, energy storage, eVTOL power; intelligent brain reused to smart cockpit, smart driving, robots, agri-machinery OS; manufacturing and supply chain reused to robot mass production and global spare parts ecosystem.

The three lines have different radii: electrification migration cost is lowest, intelligence needs scenario data feedback, manufacturing and supply chain rely on economies of scale. The longer the radius, the more it relies on blood transfusion from the core auto business.

Chery's core business is not easy. In the first three quarters of this year, 1.551 million units were exported, with exports accounting for over 70% of total sales. High overseas margins support R&D confidence, but domestic pressure means the blood transfusion pipeline is not infinitely thick. Yin Tongyue drew a red line: output capabilities externally, but do not take involution.

From passenger cars to agri-machinery, energy storage is reuse, to complete robots and eVTOL complete machines is a further leap. Which are extensions, which are overdrafts, Chery has not given a clear answer—this is exactly where it is not yet closed. Yin Tongyue said Chery hopes to turn from one tree into a rainforest, but undoubtedly, growth needs thick roots and requires a long time.

Organization: 14 Days, Two Rounds of Moves

From September to October, two adjustments in 14 days. Zhang Guibing promoted from Head of International Business to Executive Vice President of the Joint Stock Company. Subsequently, the Chery main brand was included in the global market system under his direct management, simultaneously coordinating global styling, HR, legal, spare parts, and robot business; Jetour managed by Li Xueyong, focusing on the global off-road brand.

The sudden adjustment is full of deep meaning. Exports are Chery's trump card; in the new round of competition, Chery must fully play this card, build high barriers, and not give any rivals any chance to surpass.

True global integrated operations require overseas regional teams to have corresponding decision-making power on product configuration, pricing, channels, and services. Chery centralized all power to Wuhu HQ; efficiency might improve, but localization depth might be limited, "Be somewhere" is just a slogan.

From another angle, the result-orientation, monthly assessment, and flattening of the international system are accelerating a transfer to the domestic side. This logic works in high-margin overseas markets, but under the reality of domestic sales pressure and a large team scale, whether the same incentive intensity can cover all staff is an unknown in cost structure. Staff allocation adopts planting genes first then covering all; middle management has moved, frontline perception lags.

Organizational changes do not decide who sits in which office, but whether anyone can handle the capability and ambition of the first two layers.

Identity: A Welding Point and an Apology

Yin Tongyue said Chery is a "high-tech company wearing an auto company's vest", saying he was happy to hear others say Chery is less and less like an auto company. These words can be said in one big meeting, communication efficiency is high, but identity is not declared.

In the same month, he publicly apologized in Beijing for Malaysia product quality issues—Omoda 5 rear axle detachment, recalling over 8,000 vehicles. This event with the "High Tech Company" manifesto in the same time window points to a simple fact: no matter how advanced the technology foundation, how vast the cross-industry map, if one welding point has an issue, the global narrative must step back.

The identity layer can only close by the accumulation of the first three layers of facts: closed loop delivery not there, reusability sustainability not there, organization holding not there. 20.73 million global users is a scale fact, six overseas families standing on the Brand Night stage is an emotional fact, but neither can replace quality fact. Manifesto runs faster than delivery; this is the biggest risk for a company's 30th transition.

Family: Technology Circles Back, Landing on People

On October 21, Wuhu Grand Theater, Chery Brand Night announced its theme: "Together, For Family". Six real families from Ecuador, Poland, UK, Romania, South Africa, Brazil walked on stage, a four-act family theater, from "Fireworks · Urban Guardian Daily" to "Party · Family Portrait".

Dutch football legend Van der Sar appeared as a super user, interpreting safety with "Guard the last bottom line"—a goalkeeper's duty, and a car guarding family, met in the same scene.

Same day, ALL-NEW TIGGO7 and TIGGO X7 completed their global premiere. Tiggo 7 series global users over 2 million, sold in over 100 countries, 4 consecutive years Champion of Class A Fuel SUV Export among Chinese brands, gathered China, Europe, Australia, ASEAN four regions Five-Star Safety Certifications—the meaning of these numbers is not in the numbers themselves, but that they are evidence of "Global Same Model, Global Same Standard, Global Same Source Verification"—domestic users don't need to leave the country, can possess global car quality verified by worldwide markets.

Technology went around a big circle, landing point is still people. Chery global users have broken 20 million scale, overseas users over 7.39 million, on average one Chery vehicle delivered every 17 seconds to global users. But Yin Tongyue still emphasized: "AI can replace skills, impossible to replace humanity, insight on future, and strategic layout on future. AI can improve efficiency, but cannot replace human responsibility, human judgment, and human warmth."

This layer answers not "Who Chery wants to become", but "What Chery is considered to be in users' minds". Identity is external recognition after accumulation of Tech, Boundary, Org three layers of facts, and family is the simplest and harshest scale of this recognition—before a family hands the car to family members, they first confirm it can protect them. Family users from different countries and regions globally are a public accounting between "Manifesto Speed" and "Delivery Speed".

Renqi Conclusion:

Tech layer decides confidence, boundary layer decides radius, org layer decides execution, identity layer decides whether outside world recognizes. Any layer broken, whole chain loses stability. And all this finally answers is whether the family standing on the stage is willing to hand keys to the next generation.

Apple 30th published iPhone, Toyota 29th launched Corolla, none suddenly became strong on the birthday. Before 30, core competence already grown; at 30 just delivered accumulated works. Chery's situation is: core competence being rewritten, delivery clock already running, hands not yet on scale.

30 years old can be start of aging, or eve of innovation explosion. Chery chose the latter, but choice doesn't constitute answer. The speed of delivery is it.