Brightly coloured SUVs for people who don’t like SUVs.
That’s the sales pitch for the fourth (but by no means final) new brand from Chery Motors - Lepas.
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But why is Chery adding yet another brand? And how will Lepas, which will begin with the L6 electric SUV, fit in?
We spoke with Chery Australia Chief Operating Officer Lucas Harris during a ride-along in the L6 to understand why another brand is necessary.
What does Lepas fit in Chery's range?
“ So Jaecoo is that urban, off-road, stylish urban off-road vehicle, Omoda is a much more futuristic/technology/fashion orientated customer, ”Harris explained.
"Lepas is going to be much more bold and distinctive and so the way that we've tried to summarise that is that we want to create a brand that has SUVs for non-SUV people, and so it's bold and distinctive and individualistic. That's the idea rather than off-road or futuristic if that makes sense?”
According to Harris, bolder colours, such as the purple our pre-production L6 was finished in, will actually play a major role in defining Lepas.
“Colour is going to play a big part in that and making it stand out,” he said.
“I think the other thing that's really important and very different about Lepas specifically is that it's a new energy only brand. So we'll only have battery electric and plug-in hybrid.”
The L6 EV will be the first model to arrive in Australia, followed shortly after by the smaller L4 and then the larger L8 and L9 SUVs by early 2027, with a smaller, yet-to-revealed L2 the final confirmed model for the local range.
Both the L6 and L4 will be available with fully-electric and plug-in hybrid powertrains, which is also under consideration for the other models.
Why having so many brands works
Pricing hasn’t been revealed, but Harris indicated the L6, which is similar in size to the Jaecoo J5, will start at below $50,000. That is another key difference between Chery’s multi-brand approach and the legacy brands, with Omoda, Jaecoo and Lepas likely to overlap on price across the range.
Harris explained why this strategy works for Chery as a group.
“ So I think one of the differences in our approach to the brands is that established brands' way of thinking, because there are established brands that have multi-brand arrangements, they typically stack them on top of each other,” he said.
“This one's volume, this one's kind of premium mainstream, this one's luxury, this one's a supercar. And they segment them and separate them really just by price. And in some of those examples, you could find the first three segments or first three layers of their brands, and they segment them by price, but a normal consumer can't tell the difference between the $80,000 or $90,000 one and the $40,000 one. The fit and finish and the standard is very similar on those.
“So our approach is less about pricing and much more about trying to create a unique brand image and a unique brand feeling. And, product is a big part of that and you can see quite a big difference in the design of our products across the brands. The idea is to try and have different brands that speak to different sub-sets of consumers.”
Will Lepas steal Jaecoo or Chery customers?
Naturally that leads to the obvious question about the potential for Lepas to take costumes away from Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo. But Harris is ready to rebut that concern.
“ So my short answer to that is no, I don't think there will be any,” he said.
“And the reason why I say that is that we're very intentionally trying to target different customers, and those different customers consume their media and respond to different marketing messages than others do.
"That's not to say that all customers are going to fit squarely into the four boxes that we've created. There might be a little bit of overlap between the boxes, but the end goal is we reach a broader audience and reach more people.”
Lepas' German roots
One major difference between Lepas and the other three brands, beyond colours, is what’s underneath.
The L6 rides on a different vehicle underpinnings than the others, which was developed at the company’s German design and engineering hub.
Harris believes this will provide a meaningful difference between the Lepas range and what Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo can offer, with a more European-centric ride and handling program resulting in a different driving experience.
But we’ll have to wait until we can jump from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat before we can pass judgement on that.
