Chery's expansion plans detailed: It's 'yes' to premium Jaecoo but 'no' to off-road Jetour as it forgoes GWM Tank 300 and Tank 500 rivals

Speaking to CarsGuide at the launch of the new Tiggo 8 Pro Max, Chery detailed its expansion plans, including what models and sub-brands from its Chinese catalogue it was looking at, and what it could rule out for now.

Chery earmarked an expansion on the Tiggo range of combustion SUVs as it moves to provide an SUV for “every life stage from university to starting a family”. It confirmed the Tiggo 4 small SUV will arrive before the end of 2025, adding to the existing Tiggo 7 mid-size and Tiggo 8 seven-seat SUVs as an entry-point to the brand.

It also said it would study the Tiggo 2 city SUV, although the current international version was quite old, and would also consider the Tiggo 9 large SUV just revealed at the Beijing motor show just a few weeks prior.

Chery Australia has also set in motion plans to launch its luxury Jaecoo sub-brand in Australia.

Primarily targeted at export markets, Jaecoo will consist of a range of SUVs which will sit above the Tiggo and Omoda sub-brands in Chery’s line-up. 

When asked who the customer profile might be for Jaecoo, Chery Australia’s managing director, Lucas Harris said: “Jaecoo is a bit more fashionable with a go-anywhere adventure feel, but at the same time the practicality of the cars aren’t going to alienate every-day users.”

“There’s still a bit of work to do on Jaecoo” he said, confirming that the brand’s price point would be above the rest of the Chery range, but not in the same league as luxury players such as Lexus, Mercedes or Genesis. The brand will launch with the J7 mid-size SUV, which will be followed by the J8 some time later.

Harris is conscious of the desire for hybrids in Australia, something he says is very much in the works, but the EV-only Omoda E5 would arrive first.

“It’s hard for us to give you specifics right now because things can change” he said of the hybrid models in the works. “We’re on our third-gen plug-in powertrain, when we do make the decision to bring that here, we want to make sure it’s the latest and greatest.” he continued.

Don’t expect to see Chery’s Arizzo range of sedans, and don’t expect it to be bringing in its GWM Tank-rivalling Jetour sub-brand. At least not yet.

“Jetour is not in the plans at this stage. They’re cool looking cars, but they’re not an international export at this point.”

“There’s gotta be a business case.” he says of Chery’s expansive range of overseas offerings. “It’s not a cheap exercise to redevelop from left-hand drive to right-hand drive. We have to ask if it’s worthwhile. Look at the Arizzo 8. Awesome car, drives great, there’s a PHEV variant just announced. It’s available in left-hand drive but given the market size for vehicles like that in Australia - it would be a hard ask to say ‘please make that in right hand drive’ to the factory.”

“Expansion is important and offering consumers options is important. We’ll be led by consumers” he said concerning the brand’s initial primarily combustion focus, “Let’s put it this way: There’s plenty of vehicles on the market currently which consumers don’t seem to be choosing.”