Chery to tune its cars locally through Australian R&D centre

Chery is setting up a research and development centre in Australia, staffed by local engineers, to adapt its models to Australian conditions before they go on sale.

Zhang Guibing, executive vice president of Chery Auto and president of Chery International, outlined the plan at a media round table in Wuhu, China, during the Chery Group User Summit.

Chery’s New Zealand models are largely specified alongside Australia’s, so local tuning and product decisions made for the Australian market are expected to carry across to New Zealand.

“We are creating an R&D centre in Australia, and we will use more local people to teach Chery, because we are a long way from Australia,” Zhang said. “The driving habits and the road conditions are very different there, so we need local people to really understand them.”

Asked whether the centre would be used to adapt the group’s more premium brands for the market, Zhang said its work would not be limited to one badge. “The local R&D will cover any brand that we are willing to launch in Australia. But before we launch, we will do a lot of different analysis.”

Chery Group now has nine brands, and not all of them are headed for Australia. Alongside Chery and Omoda & Jaecoo, the group includes iCAUR, Lepas, Luxeed and Exlantix, with some brands aimed at much smaller customer groups than the two volume names.

Chen Chunqing, vice president of Chery International, said the remaining brands would be introduced one at a time. “Yes, we have nine brands, but it doesn’t mean we need all of them in Australia. We will go one by one, step by step. If a brand or a product is suitable, maybe we can introduce it to Australia. For the luxury brands, we still need some time to make adjustments for Australian customers.”

Chen confirmed Chery plans further investment in Australia, and pointed to the Stockman ute as an example of the weight the company puts on the market. “We make Australian people the first priority. Australia is the first launch country for this product, even earlier than China. That shows how important the Australian market is to us.”

The Stockman has yet to go on sale. Its Australian launch has already been pushed back to 1 February, with New Zealand likely to follow later, and the project’s chief engineer has acknowledged there is still work to be done on the vehicle. Australian and New Zealand media in China for the summit have not been allowed to drive the Stockman, while South African media have.

Zhang said the Stockman name came from the Australian team, which rejected every alternative put to it. He said Brazilian journalists at the summit had since asked when the Stockman would reach their market too.