Chery ready for acquisitions in Europe and Maserati still in the crosshairs

Omoda 3, Photo By Mario Cianflone

The Chinese company, in fact, produced (and produces) models of Jaguar and Land Rover (Indian Tata group), but a few years ago proposed a scandalous clone of the Evoque (a common practice in China years ago as Byd of the first hour cloned the Bmw X5). The incident involving the two governments, British and Chinese, was later absorbed and relations are now normalised. In recent days, however, we have directly observed a strange fact: at a Chery summit in Wuhu, models from all the group's brands were lined up in the forecourt of a mega reveal event for the new Omoda 3. And there were not only Omoda, Jaecoo, iCar (more on this in a moment) and Lapas (brand for South America) but also a Jaguar XE and a Range Rover Evoque.

And the doubt that immediately arose is that Chery is ready to acquire the English luxury group from Tata Motors, which could perhaps, together with Maserati, create aluxury pole, giving oxygen and support to the British and Italian factories of the three brands in crisis. Not only that: in June 2024 Jlr and Chery signed a letter of intent to license the Freelander brand to the new joint venture (christened CJR) for the production of electric vehicles in China. According to the proposed new licensing agreement, which is rumoured to be quick to implement, the joint venture will focus on producing an advanced portfolio of electric vehicles based on Chery's EV architecture, exclusively under the Freelander brand.

Zhang, however, to a direct question from the Sole 24 Ore excludes an integration by acquisition, but rather assumes a strengthening of industrial and technological synergies within the partnership between Chery and JLR/Tata. "We maintain a strong partnership with Jaguar Land Rover and Tata,' he says. 'Land Rover and Jaguar are brands with a great history and a very strong reputation, particularly in terms of off-road vehicle performance. I believe there will be even closer cooperation between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover in the future. Our plan is to develop models for the global market and not only for China.

'I push on collaborations and open sharing,' says the Chinese top manager, 'to create synergies and improve the health of the automotive industry. And this strikes us as an open source, almost socialist and perhaps ideologically natural approach for a Chinese state-owned group. And then there is another aspect: the ongoing consolidation of the Chinese automotive industry. It is inevitable, as Dario Duse of AlixPartners explained, that a natural selection is underway where perhaps only three mega groups will remain.

But Zhang goes even further: 'I believe that collaboration between all the Chinese groups is necessary to pool resources and improve profitability and quality (at Chery, and we have seen this, they are obsessed with quality in the factory, ed. In short, what Chery and Zhang are launching is a kind of all-Chinese automotive Airbus. And this hypothesis, which increases the already impressive firepower of the Chinese car, cannot but cause some further concern among the top management of the big European groups. After all, and we noticed this when we closely observed the new models at the Shanghai Motor Show, and when we took a marathon test drive of 1,400 km to test the fuel consumption of an Omoda 5 Super Hybrid, what exists between the Chinese brands and groups is a sharing of elements and components such as handles, furnishing elements, small parts, displays, and wireless charging bases. Pieces that, of undoubtedly very high quality, are common to many models. A strategy that cuts costs at an industrial system level and generates a specialisation of the finishers: one piece for all, but only what the normal user does not notice.

This organisational element together with high-end products, with extended-range hybrid or electric powertrains make Chery and the whole Chinese car sector a real war machine, and to curb it, tariffs are of little use, indeed they create more problems. Zhang is, of course, highly critical of tariff barriers and aims for a dialogue on removing European tariffs for electric cars as well. 'Trade wars,' he says, 'hurt everyone.

Instead, the landing in the US and the possibility of a factory in America, along the lines of what the Japanese, Koreans and Europeans did decades ago, seems to be on hold. 'The current situation of uncertainty over tariffs and policy in the US prompts us to be cautious and maintain a wait-and-see approach'. In short, Zhang does not rule out entering the US market, but we need a stabilisation of trade and political relations between the two countries'.

iCar, Photo by Mario Cianflone

Finally, the next moves: Zhang confirms that the iCar brand of small electric off-roaders will arrive in Italy and Europe in 2027. The brand, which takes up the hypothesis (which never materialised of Apple's car, as opposed to Xiaomi's) already has intrinsic strength and the models, with a retro style that cites and blends the best of off-road vehicles (from Mercedes G-Class to Land Rover, from Jeep Wrangler to Suzuki Jimny) have the potential to make inroads in Italy and Europe. It has to be said, that compared to the cars seen in China, the name for Europe has been changed to a bizarre 'iCaur' (the pronunciation remains the same) so as not to run into who knows what copyright issues. In short, Jeep in primis is warned: it is in Chery's sights. .