Chery UK CEO Gary Lan said the Chery brand saw a big opportunity for a value player in the UK. “If you look at the percentage of cars available below £40,000 in the UK, that has shrunk dramatically in the past few years. But the desire for those cars hasn’t.”
Lan added that the UK launch had been the result of 20 years of preparation in ensuring the company could build cars to the “higher standards of regulation, quality, durability, reliability” and have strong residual values.
Repeating a pledge made earlier this year, Lan said Chery group was open to domestic production in the UK longer term but it would be a “long journey” that would first require the brand to make more vehicles to a UK specification and then build up a UK engineering and homologation base before any production facility followed.
No date was put on when such a manufacturing base might appear, Lan confirmed, but Hsu confirmed that planning for the R&D centre in the UK was already in the works.
Hsu said a further focus on the UK from Chery was because it was an “open market” and “UK customers have a very high acceptance to new brands”. Lan added that it was “a dream” to get recognition from UK customers and media for any brand.
