Chery on top: Chinese manufacturer posts record 2023 sales in South Africa

The Jaecoo J7 will be launched locally in 2024. (Photo: Jaecoo SA)

By Melinda Ferguson

28 Dec 2023

Since its local relaunch two years ago, Chery SA has climbed the sales charts and plans to flood the market in 2024 with a host of new products.

I’ve made no secret of my scepticism for Chinese cars. While many of my fellow motoring writers have gleefully embraced brands like Haval and Chery, I’ve droned on about quality, reliability and questionable resale value. I’ve embraced and bet on the good old German classics, the BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, the VWs and Audis. But try as I may to ignore the slew of Chinese cars that have in recent years flooded the market, the sales charts have been telling a different story.

The motoring industry was spiralling downward this past year. In November, it registered its fourth consecutive month of decline. Not so for Chery SA, which will finish off the year showing growth of 25.1%. Globally, between January and November, the Chery brand posted 47.8% growth year on year.

When Chery SA launched its Tiggo 4 Pro back in November 2021, I turned down the invite and chose to attend an event for a German brand that was running simultaneously. When Chery launched its Tiggo 4 Pro LiT, targeting the sub-R300K market with its competitive price of R279,900, I was also a no-show.

I hardly gave the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 a second glance when they were added to the Chery SA portfolio.

Despite my snobbery, these Cherys have been hitting the sweet spot with customers in terms of specs and pricing, enabling the manufacturer to maintain a pretty consistent sixth position in SA’s overall passenger vehicle market.

Despite my efforts to ignore it, I have been unable to refute the numbers showing the brand’s success in its massive offensive to increase SA market share.

The all-new Omoda C5 GT. (Photo: Omoda SA)

I finally sat up and took notice when, earlier this year, the Omoda C5, with its unique futuristic visage, landed in SA. While it’s not, as many of us first assumed, the luxury arm of Chery (like a Lexus is to a Toyota), Omoda is housed under the Chery umbrella as a sub-brand.

(If you’re wondering, the letter “O” in Omoda is derived from the word “oxygen”, while “Moda” means “modern”.)

According to Omoda SA, it’s aimed at a “tech-driven and fashion-conscious market”. It’s a good-looking compact SUV, filled with generous specs.

Chery has been particularly strategic in its design department, poaching as head of design Kevin Rice, who previously worked for BMW, Opel, Saab and Mazda. Chery’s chief designer is Steve Eum, an American Korean wunderkind who cut his design teeth at Ford and Hyundai.

I was recently invited to test-drive the all-new Tiggo 7 Pro Max and speedier Omoda C5 GT as part of Chery’s second birthday celebrations in SA. Feeling somewhat embarrassed that I had yet to accept an invite to one of their launches, I RSVP-ed “yes”.

The Tiggo 7 Pro Max's luxurious hi-tech cabin. (Photo: Chery SA)

Tiggo 7 Pro Max

When I got behind the wheel of the new Tiggo 7 Pro Max, a 5-seater medium-sized SUV, I was not expecting to like it. At all. But, somewhat reluctantly, I did. The new model is offered in 2WD and AWD derivatives and I found the drive, to the west coast and back, well-balanced, which has much to do with its front and rear multilink suspension, allowing for a decent blend of comfort and firmness.

The Pro Max has an entirely new 1.6 turbocharged petrol engine, delivering power to the front wheels, or all four wheels, through a 7-speed DCT gearbox. (The new engine increases performance to 145kW and 290Nm, compared with the straight Tiggo 7 Pro, which offers a more sedate 115kW and 230Nm.)

While the array of safety systems is commendable — this Chery has eight airbags — I experienced the safety tech alerts way too invasive with their loud beeps and overly enthusiastic warnings. Every time I crossed a lane, I felt like I was being policed by the Gestapo. For the life of me, I couldn’t find a way to stop the assault, but was later told that these systems can be turned off, you just have to know how. I didn’t.

The Tiggo 7 Pro Max has a panoramic sunroof. (Photo: Chery SA)

The new Pro Max 7 has increased the levels of already generous specs found in the straight 7 with stuff like an 8-speaker Sony audio system, a 360-degree camera system (in the top-of-the-range Executive derivatives), a new pair of 12.3-inch screens and a panoramic sunroof. To enhance mood, there are 64 shades of ambient lighting, which by anyone’s disco standards is somewhat extreme.

Fuel consumption is claimed at just under 8 litres/100km in the 7 Pro Max — I got closer to 10 litres/100km. However, there are so many merits about the Pro Max 7, especially its pricing, that one may be swayed to turn a blind eye to the tanks.

Next up, I got behind the wheel of the new Omoda C5 GT.

Omoda C5 GT

The Omoda C5 GT is a compact crossover and the speedier version of the straight 1.5-litre (115kW) C5, with its 1.6-litre turbocharged powerplant offering 145kW and 290Nm.

For those who like bling, there’s rose-gold GT badging, 18-inch rose-gold alloys, as well as a rather huge rear tail wing to give it, according to the PR spiel, a “supercar vibe”.

Rose-gold finishes on the Omoda C5 GT. (Photo: Omoda SA)

Inside, it looks the biz with its black leatherish seats and dual 26cm screens that form a single unit and dominate the cabin. There’s a wireless charging pad in the centre, dual-zone climate control, plenty of ambient lighting and electrically adjustable heated seats.

When it came to the drive, I found the C5 GT engaging and nippy. I could feel the increase in power, especially when overtaking on highways, and was impressed with its 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. I’m also a sucker for a heated steering wheel.

Like its Tiggo 7 stablemate, once again I found the safety systems with their incessant beeping a bit full-on, but they were thankfully more subdued than in the Chery. They too can be deactivated, although I have yet to find out how. However, the Omoda must be praised for its recent 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating and comes with stuff like front and side airbags, parking sensors, a rear-view camera, an all-round visibility system as well as active cruise control.

Plans for 2024

The Jaecoo J7 will be launched locally in 2024. (Photo: Jaecoo SA)

It’s going to be a busy 2024 for Chery SA. Along with the introduction of an entirely new brand called Jaecoo, the company also intends to unveil plug-in hybrid variants of its Tiggo 7 Pro and Tiggo 8 Pro. The new Omoda flagship, the C9, will be launched in the first quarter and, somewhere along the line, Chery SA’s first battery-electric vehicle, the Omoda E5, will be unveiled.

I have come somewhat late to the party in being open-minded about Chinese brands. However, one can’t deny the inroads these nameplates are making these days in SA with driveways parked full of Chery Tiggos and Haval Jolions.

China’s global car industry has quadrupled exports in just three years, surpassing Japan in 2023 as the world leader in this terrain. It’s prudent to remember that there was a time when bestselling Toyota was sneered at and South Korean Hyundais and Kias were derided. My prediction is that in the next five years we will see at least one Chinese brand playing in the Top Three bestselling passenger vehicle local charts. My bitcoin is on Chery.

Pricing

Tiggo 7 Pro Max Distinction 2WD: R529,900

Tiggo 7 Pro Max Executive 2WD: R559,900

Tiggo 7 Pro Max Executive AWD: R609,900

Omoda C5 GT: R589,900 DM

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Tiggo 7 Pro Max

Omoda C5 GT

Plans for 2024

Pricing