Chery of China starting expansion to Europe
Chinese carmaker Chery has begun making its way into Europe. The first foothold is a design and development centre Chery is to open in the German town of Raunheim, near Frankfurt. The newly founded Chery Europe GmbH will take up their work there next year and Chery said that importing an all-electric model by 2020 is “very likely”.
If such an electric car is to arrive, it will bear the Exceed name, Chery’s premium label. In a press release, the carmaker stressed that any plug-in models to arrive in Europe would need to be “competitive with the leading European manufacturers in terms of quality, design and technology.”
The first electrified car to make it to these shores is most likely the Exceed TX SUV. Chery had showcased a version of it at the IAA in Frankfurt last year and Tongyue Yin, the Chery chairman referred to the launch when saying: “At last year’s Frankfurt motor show, we presented ourselves as a brand. Now we’re going to execute our plans in and for Europe.”
In concrete terms these plans include hiring 30 – 50 employees to wo/man the new centre near Frankfurt Airport for a start. Chery is actively looking for local staff and says the Raunheim site will focus on design and development, as well as sales and marketing of plug-in hybrid and electric cars.
Chery has not made any plans public for a production site in Europe so any of their electrified vehicles would be made in China. There, the Exeed TX has been on sale since June, both as a combustion and plug-in hybrid version. In the PHEV, a 110 kW combustion motor and a 85 kW electric motor bring the system performance to a total of 160 kW. Technical details to the planned all-electric vehicle for the European market have not been released.
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