Early years Chery was founded on 8 January 1997 as a
state-owned enterprise by a group of officials from
Wuhu city in
Anhui province. The city officials appointed Yin Tongyue (), the current Chery chairman, as the company's technical director in 1996. Yin is from Anhui, and at that time was a manager in
FAW, holding a position as a workshop director for the
FAW-Volkswagen joint venture. The car project was formally incorporated on 18 March 1997 as Anhui Auto Parts Co., Ltd., with substantial funding from the Anhui provincial government, amounting to millions of yuan. The plan was to set up an engine production line and creating a components industry, before initiating car manufacturing operations. Chery began automobile production in 1999 using a unlicensed copy
SEAT Toledo chassis and the
Ford CVH engine manufactured using equipment bought from
Ford Dagenham . Called the
Fengyun, Chery's first car sold nearly 30,000 units. By 2002, Chery's production and sales exceeded 50,000 units, ranking among the "top eight" in the domestic passenger car industry. Ownership was soon sold due to rising tensions between Chery and SAIC partner
General Motors, and political pressure from the SAIC management towards Anhui authorities.
Expansion period In May 2003, Chery launched its smallest car, the
QQ, which became popular due to its design and affordability. Despite its successful sales, it also received quality and durability complaints from owners. In late 2005, the lawsuit was
settled out of court. GM was not the only manufacturer to have been exasperated with Chery;
Volkswagen planned to file a lawsuit against Chery regarding the secret side deals it engaged with VW parts suppliers to produce the Chery Fengyun that was based on the
Volkswagen Jetta II. Volkswagen agreed to abstain from a planned lawsuit after Chery offered financial settlement out of court. This entrepreneurial risk-taking led
The Wall Street Journal in 2007 to describe Chery's
corporate culture as "an odd hybrid of Communist
state enterprise and entrepreneurial
start-up". Visionary Vehicles was owned by
Malcolm Bricklin, widely known as the entrepreneur who brought
Yugo cars to the US. Both companies hoped to sell 150,000 vehicles in the US by 2007. Investments were made to ensure compliance with safety regulations, and a dealership network was established across North America. Allegations of breach of contract by Chery and the legal disputes that followed in 2006 disrupted the collaboration between both companies, and Visionary Vehicles ended up winning a lawsuit it brought against Chery in 2013 to recoup losses from the failed deal. Chery started improving its engineering capabilities, In 2003, Chery started buying 1.4-litre
Tritec petrol engines produced in Brazil and jointly developed by
BMW and
Chrysler. In 2005, the company used a
Mitsubishi Motors engine for the Tiggo, which was widely used in the Chinese car industry at that time. Starting 2008, Chery supplied ACTECO engines to Fiat, which used the 1.6- and 1.8-liter engines for the
Fiat Linea. The
A3, introduced in August 2007, became a turning point of the brand. The sedan was styled by
Pininfarina, and became the first Chinese-developed car to receive a 5-star rating in the China
NCAP safety test. In 2009, Chery produced 508,500 units, and at that time, it had an annual production capacity around 650,000 units. More than 400,000 of its 2009 sales were
sedans. In that year, Yin Tongyue announced changes to the company's strategy to become a multi-brand carmaker by introducing three new brands:
Karry, Rely, and
Riich. Chery also renamed all its cars to
Cowin followed by a number, except for the E5, QQ, and Tiggo. It also introduced the
Fengyun 2 to replace the SEAT-based sedan. These changes are aimed to eliminate the low-budget image of Chery cars. Later its sprawling production policy and lineup became a problem for Chery. With over 100 new models in the works, Chery decided to cancel the Rely and Riich brands in the fall of 2012. Since then, Chery has entered an adjustment period of "returning to one Chery", and reduced its planned models to around 30.
Chery Holding establishment In 2010, Chery entered a new phase with the establishment of Chery Holding Co., Ltd., which became a
conglomerate holding company that also operated other businesses such as
financial services,
real estate, and service sector. By 2024, the holding company consists of over 300 member companies. Chery became the seventh-most productive Chinese vehicle manufacturer in 2010 by selling nearly 700,000 units. Slipping sales marked 2011 and 2012; in these years, the company produced more than 640,000 and near 590,000 units, respectively, and it moved from a seventh to a tenth-place ranking. The company in 2011 exported around 25% of its total production. In 2011, Chery built its first fully owned manufacturing plant outside of China, located in
Jacareí, Brazil. It went operational in 2014. Since the late 2000s period, Chery also began to actively seek a partnership with foreign carmakers. Several possible tie-ups with both
Chrysler and
Fiat were explored, but fell through. In mid-2011, the company signed an agreement with Fuji Heavy Industries (currently
Subaru Corporation) to establish a manufacturing joint venture in China, with a production site planned in
Dalian, Liaoning. The planned joint venture failed to receive an approval from the Chinese government despite multiple attempts. Chery started partnering with
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in March 2012, which was looking to produce cars in China through a mandatory 50-50 joint venturer with a local company. The joint venture was formalised as
Chery Jaguar Land Rover in November 2012. Its first product, a
Range Rover Evoque, rolled off the production line in October 2014 from the newly built plant in
Changshu, Jiangsu. Chery also began manufacturing
a revived version of the Moke under an agreement with JLR since 2013. Its design evokes the classic
Mini Moke built from 1964 until 1993. Chery was also involved with the establishment of
Qoros, a joint venture formed in 2007 with
Kenon Holdings based in Singapore and owned by Israeli investors, and started selling the Qoros 3 sedan in 2013. Qoros was sold off in 2018, and faced bankruptcy in 2022. In 2014, Chery revived its multi-brand strategy by establishing
Cowin as a separate brand, which is positioned as a low-budget offering. The brand was partially sold in 2018. The first production model from Exeed was the
Exeed TX/TXL mid-size SUV in March 2019. In January 2018, Chery introduced another brand called
Jetour at an event in
Beijing, which focuses on "value for money" mid-size SUVs and targets Chinese families living in
tier-three and tier-four cities who travel often. , the best-selling EV from Chery since its inception Chery started early in producing
electric vehicles (EVs) by introducing its first EV in 2009, which is an
electrified version of the original
Chery QQ. The company established an EV division called
Chery New Energy in 2010. In June 2021, Chery produced its 200,000th eQ1.
Rapid growth period Chery attempted to enter the US for the second time in February 2020, when the company struck a deal with a
California-based dealership group HAAH Automotive to sell Exeed and Chery Tiggo models in the country by 2022. The vehicles were planned be rebranded as Vantas and T-GO respectively, and would be assembled at an American plant using both domestic and imported parts. The plans were cancelled in mid-2021 as HAAH filed for bankruptcy. In 2021, Chery announced the "Double 50" strategic plan that aimed to export 500,000 vehicles and to achieve an export revenue of US $5 billion by 2025. The company ended up surpassing the plan by a large margin by exporting 937,148 vehicles in 2023. In 2022, Chery entered the Mexican market as
Chirey due to trademark reasons, as
Malcolm Bricklin held the rights for the Chery name in North America. Other markets entered in 2022 included Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey. Chery re-entered the Australian market in 2023, after briefly selling cars there in the early 2010s. Its Exeed brand started sales in the Middle East in 2022. In 2023, Chery launched four new brands and several new product lines. In April, it launched a new brand called
iCar which mainly sells electric SUVs that targets young customers, and the Sterra electric product line (Exlantix for export markets) under its
Exeed brand. The company also started a partnership
Huawei under the
Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA), where Chery supplied HIMA with electric vehicles under the new
Luxeed brand. Luxeed's first product is the
Luxeed S7, which is the first car to have the
Harmony OS 4 on board. and
Jaecoo global brand launch in Wuhu, Anhui In April 2023, Chery launched another two new brands in a ceremony held in
Wuhu, Anhui called
Omoda and
Jaecoo. Both brands are only marketed outside China to support Chery's export strategy. The two brands combined (referred to as "O&J" brands) were targeted to reach annual global sales of 1,400,000 units by 2030. Also in 2023, Chery also announced its new high-performance
plug-in hybrid platform marketed as "Chery Dual Mode" (C-DM) to be introduced into most of its models. The plug-in hybrid system became available in Chery vehicles carrying the
Fulwin sub-brand, Jetour vehicles under the Shanhai sub-brand, and Exeed vehicles. In January 2024, Chery has signed strategic cooperation framework agreements with
Nio to establish cooperation in battery standards,
battery swapping technology, the construction of battery swapping service networks, and operation. In March 2024, Chery fully acquired
Soueast, a carmaker based in
Fujian that was a subsidiary of
Fujian Motors Group. The production facility of Soueast is used for producing
Jetour brand vehicles. In June 2024,
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Chery signed a letter of intent in electric vehicle cooperation. JLR will license the
Freelander nameplate to
Chery Jaguar Land Rover to produce EVs based on an Exeed EV platform called the E0X. Freelander as a brand will be separate from JLR's 'House of Brands' portfolio or Chery's brand line-up. Freelander vehicles will be sold in China, with plans for global exports. In November 2024, Chery established the FR Brand Division to lead the development and marketing of Freelander-branded models. In October 2024, South Korean manufacturer
KG Mobility, formerly SsangYong Motor, signed an agreement with Chery to co-develop electrified vehicles for global markets. KG Mobility will receive the T2X platform developed by Chery. In October 2024, Chery Holdings Limited was reported to be considering listing its automobile division in
Hong Kong, with an estimated valuation of approximately US$7.1 billion (around RMB 50 billion). In April 2025, Chery launched its new hybrid system called Kunpeng Super Hybrid CDM/CEM. In the same month, the company announced the revival of the Rely brand as its electric pickup line, offering ICE, BEV, EREV, and PHEV variants. Chery also introduced a new brand,
Lepas, aimed at overseas markets, and introduced iCaur, the export market name of the iCar brand. In July 2025, Chery restructured its brand in the Chinese market by establishing four major divisions: the Exeed Division, the Tiggo & Arrizo Division, the Fulwin Division, and the QQ Division. Jetour, iCar, and Luxeed brands will continue to operate independently due to differences in market positioning and cooperation models.
Stake restructuring and IPO In January 2025, to meet the
IPO requirements for Chery, Chery Holding Group, the majority shareholder of Chery Automobile, completed a "shareholder downchain restructuring", distributing its 42.32% equity stake proportionally to its shareholders. Following this restructuring, the three major shareholders—Wuhu Investment Holding (Wuhu SASAC),
Luxshare Precision, and Ruichuang (an employee stock ownership company)—now hold 21.17%, 16.83%, and 11.51% of Chery's equity, respectively. Among Chery's other shareholders, Anhui Credit Guarantee (9.97%) and Anhui Investment Holding (5.2%) are both state-owned entities under Anhui provincial government, while CATL (3.15%) and
Gotion High-tech (1.66%) are strategic partners from the industry chain. On 25 September 2025, Chery raised about US$1.2 billion in its Hong Kong IPO at HK$30.75 per share, valuing the company at nearly US$23 billion, with the stock rising over 11% on debut and marking it as one of Hong Kong's largest IPOs of the year. Following the IPO of Chery Automobile, Chery Holding no longer holds shares in Chery Automobile. Chery Holding currently only retains the commercial vehicle business and has no capital ties with Chery Automobile, effectively completing a spin-off. ==Operations==