Chery confirmed on 11 September that it will expand its UK presence, launching four new or updated models over the next year, including an electric SUV and a new flagship family branded Tiggo X. Farrell Hsu, Manager of Chery UK, told Bloomberg that the brand has already exceeded its 2026 sales target and now wants to challenge Volkswagen directly, selling what he called “people’s cars” to the British mass market.

Chery launched its eponymous brand in the UK in mid-2025, and it has since gone on to capture 2.5% of total market share. This trails sister brand Jaecoo, which launched the year before and now accounts for around 4.3%. The Omoda and Lepas brands bring the total share to around 8%, substantially higher than Chery’s 3% goal just a year ago. In total, Chinese brands now account for more than a fifth of the UK market. 

Jaecoo’s own flagship, the Jaecoo 7, has been nicknamed the ‘Temu Range Rover’ for its superficial resemblance to the JLR brand while substantially undercutting it on price. The model has sold nearly 53,000 units since its late 2024 launch and became the UK’s best-selling car in March. “Before, people [would] think about Chinese products and think we are cheap,” Hsu said. “But now we are different because we provide better products with a little cheaper price.”

He attributed the UK’s particular openness to Chinese brands to the absence of a homegrown mass-market automaker—unlike Germany or France, which have Volkswagen and Renault as the de-facto national options. The closest, MG, is ironically now owned by the Chinese state-owned SAIC. Instead the UK’s defining brands are all in the luxury segment: Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce and Bentley. 

Chery’s Jaecoo has emerged as the UK’s best-selling car outright, sometimes referred to as the ‘Temu Range Rover’

This effectively means that local buyers carry no comparable loyalty to a domestic badge, making it easier for Chinese brands to stage a market entry. Of course, the UK’s lack of tariffs on China-made vehicles also makes it easier for these brands to price their vehicles competitively, unlike in neighbouring markets like the EU. 

The new Tiggo X, unveiled at this year’s Beijing motor show and positioned as Chery’s new flagship, is a five-metre, seven-seat SUV with a boxy ‘lifestyle’ design and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain. The model reportedly offers 124 miles of electric-only range on China’s generous CLTC test cycle, but this figure would likely shrink under Europe’s stricter WLTP standard.

PHEVs, not battery-electric vehicles, remain the backbone of Chery’s UK business for now: Hsu said the brand’s Super Hybrid powertrain accounts for three-quarters of sales to date. Demand is currently outpacing the automaker’s ability to ship models over from China, although plans to produce models using spare capacity at Nissan’s Sunderland plant are “still under discussion”. One of the complicating factors is whether the UK will be eligible to participate in the EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ content rules.

Describing his long-term vision, Hsu said he would like to allow buyers to choose their own battery size and electric range, in much the same way they might choose storage capacity on a new smartphone. The existing Tiggo 4 runs a smaller 1.8 kWh hybrid battery, while the larger Tiggo 7, 8 and 9 offer plug-in options up to 34.4 kWh.

Having officially withdrawn from the Russian market, Chery continues to treat the UK as a major growth opportunity. To this end it has taken many steps in recent months, including plans to launch a research and development centre at the UTAC Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire. The site will open in late autumn and initially function as what Hsu called a “translation centre”, converting local customer and media feedback into terms Chinese engineers can act on directly. “We will test everything and then tell HQ what they need to do,” Hsu said.

He was also decidedly candid about the benchmark Chery is still chasing. “So many people like the German feeling; cars that drive like a German car […] This is something we need to learn. Maybe in the future we can educate other markets, but currently we need to learn from them.”