The Chinese automaker is aiming to expand beyond its home market, with plans to produce vehicles from several of its brands in Europe

Now it appears that Chery, China’s fourth-largest carmaker, which sold 2,603,916 vehicles in 2024 through its nine brands and joint ventures including with Jaguar Land Rover, is close to finalizing a deal to take over the two plants as it prepares to expand into European markets.

If it comes to an agreement to purchase the two German plants, it intends to manufacture models for its brand-new Lepas brand that was launched only a few weeks ago, on April 2, and sells modified versions of Chery‘s Tiggo range that will be available in global markets. European-made models will include two compact and one midsize SUVs with combustion, plug-in hybrid or all-electric powertrains.

Chery is no stranger to building cars in Europe in an effort to avoid the hefty taxes imposed on Chinese EVs by the EU as, since 2024, it has been assembling cars at a former Nissan factory in Barcelona, Spain in partnership with local firm Ebro.

  • TheodorAlforno@feddit.orgEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    So far Chinese cars have been adopted really slowly in Germany. People don’t really trust the manufacturers.

    • ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      5·
      9 hours ago

      And I don’t think that’s an issue with Chinese cars specifically but more about new manufacturers in general. Germans want to be sure the brand still exists at least until they plan to sell it, so they can get service and it doesn’t lose too much value.

      • TheodorAlforno@feddit.orgEnglish
        3·
        8 hours ago

        Exactly. So many of the new manufacturers have already dropped out, including companies like Fisker that had US funding and production in the EU. That scares people. I wouldn’t want to buy a car that does not boot up because the servers went offline.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.orgEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      I’ve been seeing quite a lot of chinese cars, actually (all of them EVs). I think they might be more common than Tesla in my area.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      I guess they hope that a new Brand plus the “Made in Germany” label might change that. Customers might not even be aware they’re buying a chinese brand.