Omoda and Jaecoo, two of the sub-brands from the Chery Group have been quite successful in the markets they have been launched in, with the UK especially doing well with the Jaecoo 7.

However, this wasn’t at all by accident. In the past, many Chinese car companies have simply taken an existing domestic model and tried to sell it in the UK with some minor tweaks, which hasn’t always gone down well.

This is a stark difference to what Omoda and Jaecoo do. Initially, with the Omoda 5, this was a Chery product that was rebranded and tweaked to be exported. The same principle applies to the Omoda 9 and Jaecoo 7. This approach was used to get the brand started and now, going forward the two brands will develop its own models, tailored for the markets they sell in.

Also, Chery don’t use the Omoda and Jaecoo brands in China itself and the same will apply to its latest brand Lepas. These three brands are a good example of Chery working hard to make models tailored for the markets they sell in, rather than making one model that gets sold everywhere.

This is clearly evident with Lepas, with all the models featuring an extremely European design language - but again, this brand won’t be sold directly in China.

Chery also structure the company around this mentality. All the sub-brands have their own identity and dedicated buildings at the company’s head quarters in Wuhu, China. This lets individual cultures develop and allows them to form their own ideas, both in terms of product design, but also for marketing too.

As we get more and more brands entering Europe from China, the market is only going to become more saturated, so standing out is going to be extremely important. It does seem that Chery has the right ideas in this area, with local teams, R&D, marketing and design.