Chery is now invading the Australian market with 3 new models. The vehicles won't be imported directly by Chery but Ateco, the exclusive importer for Ferrari, Citroen, Peugeot, FIAT, Alfa Romeo and Maserati for Australia. The deal has been three years in the making, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2005.
Sales figures stand at 261,000 in China last year with 120,00 exports. Chery is set to introduce 38 new vehicles within the next 5 years. The QQ (Chevrolet Matiz clone), QQ6 (Chevrolet Matiz sedan) and the Tiggo SUV (2nd generation Toyota RAV4) will arrive this year.
Chery started producing cars back in 1999, in August 2007 they built their millionth car. Chery has a production capacity of 650,000 units and plans to lift that number up to 1 million annually.
“We believe that China represents the future as a source of automotive products which makes this association with Chery a very exciting development for Ateco,” Mr Neville Crichton, Ateco Governing Director had said.
So that got me thinking, will Chery come over into the UK anytime soon despite them testing their cars here? Another thing I forgot to mention, they were right-hand-drive cars.