Chery is desperate to impress as it rolls out nine car brands in Australia.
In a town square beneath the facade of a Gothic church and surrounded by Tudor houses, media from around the world gather for a car launch. It looks like an English hamlet. Or a French village. Or perhaps both, somehow blended together and then reconstituted into a generic European shape.
As it happens, we’re in Wuhu, China at a place called Roland Town. It’s a replica of Europe. A passing approximation of the original, but devoid of its history or charm.
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On many levels, this is the perfect place to launch a concept car made by Lepas, one of the Chery group’s brands in Australia.
After a show involving models and ballerinas, the Aura concept is revealed to the audience. It’s a fairly nondescript EV hatch with an LCD screen as a grille, displaying a little galaxy of stars. I politely applaud. Perhaps the Aura would have made more of an impact, were this not the seventh launch in five days that I have attended in a week-long Chery conference.
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During the day, the Australian press pack drives unreleased cars and interviews executives. At night, we jump in buses and attend launch events, sometimes two in an evening. It’s hard to separate all the cars and all the brands in my head.
In 2027, Chery will bring Jetour, iCaur, Exlantix, Freelander and Luxeed to Australia. They’ll be in addition to Chery, Jaecoo, Omoda, and Lepas.
All these brands will compete with each other, the litany of other Chinese car makers already in the country, and the rest of the motoring world. To outsiders, it seems baffling.
Chery’s international president, Zhang Guibing, isn’t concerned.
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The world has changed, he tells us. People don’t necessarily want to drive the same car brand as everyone else. They want options. Chery is happy to provide them.
“It is a little similar to ladies’ clothes,” Guibing says. “Even when they find the clothes very beautiful, if too many [people wear] it, she won’t buy it.”
As a woman who must buy clothing occasionally, I’m not sure if I agree with this assessment – of fashion or cars.
Certainly, styles change over time. But to most Australians, vehicles are typically seen to be large, long-term purchases. We look to the past to inform our decisions. Are they reliable? Can I trust the brand? Will I regret spending the money? Naturally, there is a suspicion of newcomers. But things are different in China. Of course they are. For the increasingly wealthy Chinese middle class, the past is less exciting than the promise of the future.
Perhaps it’s a matter of perspective.
We’re all looking at colours in the sky; it’s just that one group sees a sunset and the other a sunrise.
Chery isn’t naive to this tension. Like any company, it wants to grow, and that means winning over the West. They’re working on it.
One of the brands Chery is launching next year – Freelander – is a joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover. The proposition here is clearly defined: these cars have European styling and Chinese technology. The best of both worlds.
The first of these cars coming to Australia, the Freelander 8, shows real promise. On an absurdly crowded schedule, this car managed to stand out with sophisticated design and a ride that felt comfortable and refined on a short test drive.
Not all launches were made equal, though. After the Lepas presentation was finished in the fake European town, the audience was invited to celebrate. Part of the festivities involved the influencers in attendance being invited onto the stage and given trophies inscribed with the words “together we bring elegance to life”.
I ask one of the recipients what they’re going to do with their award.
“I dunno,” they reply, “shove it up me bum?”
There is the appearance of style and then there is the substance that informs style. Chery may soon learn that one is easier to emulate than the other.
But does it matter? With technology shaping the future of our cars, heritage is a rapidly declining asset. Perhaps we should be flattered that they’re indulging our tastes at all.