Today 25 years ago, Chery will never forget it!
On December 18, 1999, Chery’s first vehicle rolled off the assembly line; On October 19, 2024, Chery’s 15 millionth vehicle rolled off the assembly line. In 25 years, with a flick of a finger.
On December 18th, 1999, Chery rolled off the production line for the first time.
On October 19th, 2024, the 15th millionth Chery rolled off the assembly line.
Perhaps coincidentally or intentionally, Chery launched three new cars, namely Star Era ET Extended Range Four-wheel Drive, iCAR V23 and Chery Fengyun A8L, for three consecutive days, and ushered in a brand-new December 18th-the first December 18th after crossing the 15 million milestone.
One day later, on December 19th, the extended version of Chery and Huawei’s cooperative brand Zhijie R7 will also be officially launched. On the same day, Xingjiyuan ET will also challenge the snow slope of Shougang ski platform with a height of 60m and a slope of 37.82.
Four new cars listed in five days in a row
Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery Group, said at the 2024 Chery Global Innovation Conference that Chery is 27 years old, and we are still young in front of many century-old automobile stores. Compared with some big enterprises, we are still a small enterprise, and we are ready in a series of aspects such as new energy, intelligence, globalization, ecology and innovation system. Chery’s career has just begun.
Yes, from the first car off the assembly line, by 2024, it will have crossed the steps of selling 2 million cars a year and going out to sea 1 million cars a year, with a total of 15 million cars. Chery’s career has just begun.
01
In today’s order of magnitude, the hardships after Chery’s first car rolled off the assembly line are almost unimaginable. At that time, Chery, which had started a business in the "Xiaocaofang", had not yet obtained a license to produce cars, that is, it had not been listed in the catalogue and had no "hukou", which meant that the cars it produced could not be sold nationwide.
In 2000, Chery produced more than 2,000 cars. In order to make this enterprise without a car license survive, Chery people have shown amazing perseverance.
In the absence of a catalogue for making cars and the closure of enterprises, the company put forward four qualities of Chery people: "iron will, sea mind, iceberg calmness and first love passion", which evolved into Chery’s unique "small cottage spirit": backbone, courage to take responsibility; Don’t be afraid of difficulties and never give up; Create unlimited dreams with limited resources; Always keep a sense of urgency.
In 2000, 200 Chery cars celebrated the opening of Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge.
In 2001, Chery car was officially listed. At the test run meeting in Beijing in 2001, Chery put eight cars at the gate of the Asian Games Village in the way of "rubbing against the venue", which aroused the interest of reporters passing by and shocked the domestic market after being reported by the media. In 2001, Chery sold 28,000 cars and became the biggest "dark horse" in the industry.
In October of that year, a Syrian car dealer happened to see Chery on the street in Beijing, and chased it from Beijing to Wuhu and then to Shanghai, demanding to import Chery cars. After Chery declined fruitlessly, it finally agreed to wholesale 10 cars and export them to Syria, which started Chery’s journey to the sea.
In 2001, the first batch of Chery cars were exported to Syria.
As a result, Chery established the strategy of "no internal instability, no external weakness" at the beginning of its establishment, insisted on the domestic and international markets going hand in hand, and was determined to pursue the goal of building a world-class brand.
02
In 2003, Chery launched three new cars, namely Qiyun, Son of the Orient and QQ. Later, classic models such as A1, A3 and Tiggo were introduced to the market one after another. Among them, Chery QQ quickly became the best-selling model of Chery in that year with its lovely shape and high cost performance. Chery QQ has sold millions of models in ten years.
In 2006, the 300,000 th QQ rolled off the assembly line.
On August 22nd, 2007, Chery’s millionth car, Chery A3, was officially rolled off the assembly line in the Third Assembly Plant, and China’s independent brand enterprises welcomed the first millionth car.
In 2007, the millionth car rolled off the assembly line.
On March 26th, 2010, the 2 millionth car of Chery Automobile was rolled off the production line in Wuhu and the new products of Weilin were listed. China’s own brand was the first to exceed 2 million cars.
Under the peak, Chery started a firm strategic transformation, from the pursuit of speed to the pursuit of quality and technological transformation, and made every effort to establish a positive development process system. At one time, it did not issue a new car for three years.
On July 26, 2013, Chery Arrizo 7 was officially listed, which was the first answer sheet handed in by Chery in three years of strategic transformation.
In 2013, Chery Arrizo 7 went public.
On December 18, 2015, a brand-new Arrizo 5 car slowly rolled off the production line at the scene of the car off-line celebration with the theme of "Next 5 million, Chery makes you more exciting", and Chery automobile reached a new milestone-the 5 millionth car rolled off the assembly line.
In 2015, Chery’s 5 millionth car rolled off the assembly line.
The exploration of transformation continues.
September 20, 2016, Beijing, China International Exhibition Center. Chery’s brand-new flagship SUV, the Tiggo 7, which is based on the TX concept car that won the design award of the Geneva International Auto Show, has been officially launched after four years of positive development and verification. This is the first SUV of the second generation product series after Chery’s strategic transformation.
In 2016, Tiggo 7 went public.
On March 25th, 2017, the first pure electric car Ant (eQ) launched in the era of strategic transformation 2.0 of the company made its debut in Beijing’s fashion landmark "Jingyuan Art Center".
In 2017, the first small ant went on the market.
On September 12, 2017, at the 67th Frankfurt Motor Show, Chery officially released a new high-end product series EXEED and EXEED TX, marking the official birth of Chery’s high-end brand EXEED.
In 2017, Xingtu brand was officially released.
On April 25th, 2018, at the 15th beijing international automotive exhibition Media Day Chery Conference, Chery’s brand-new SUV Tiggo 8 was officially announced. Tiggo 8 series has become the main product to help Chery take off again.
In 2018, Tiggo 8 went public.
On August 18, 2018, Jetway X70 was officially listed in China. As soon as Jetway was born, it was accompanied by "Jetway Speed": 40,000 vehicles were sold in the first four months.
In 2018, Jetway launched its first car.
March 18th, 2021, the 24th anniversary of Chery Automobile. On this special day, seven concierge-class SUVs were officially listed through live online broadcast, and the ceiling of 200,000 yuan was smashed for the first time.
In 2021, Xingtu went public on the moon.
On April 26th, 2022, the Tiggo 8 Series entered the "500,000 Clubs" with great strength.
03
On April 7, 2023, Chery New Energy Night, the group released the new energy electric brand iCAR, the new series of high-end pure electricity of Xingtu brand, Star Era STERRA and Kunpeng Super Hybrid C-DM.
In 2023, Chery New Energy Night.
On November 9, 2023, the brand new energy sequence of Chery brand was officially released; On November 14th, Jietu Shanhai new energy sequence was officially released; On November 28th, the first cooperation model between Chery and Huawei, Zhijie S7, was officially launched.
At this point, Chery Group has formally formed a full-track product group represented by Chery, Xingtu, Jietu, iCAR and Zhijie, which is coordinated by oil and electricity.
Chery Fengyun T9
At the same time, Chery is accelerating its transformation into a global technology company. From the "Eta Ursae Majoris Science and Technology DAY 2025" in 2022 to the global innovation conference upgraded in 2024, the water level of Chery’s technology reservoir has been rising year by year, and the five major areas of Mars architecture, Kunpeng Power, Lion Intelligent Cabin, Great Wisdom Driving and Galaxy Ecology have been comprehensively advanced.
Jie tu shan hai T1
At present, Chery is still developing an engine with 48% thermal efficiency, which will break through some theoretical cycle limits; Solid-state batteries will also achieve the ultimate technical solution and strive to achieve loading in 2026; The intelligent cabin realizes complete content through a large model, and intelligently drives an end-to-end corner to overtake, thus improving the level of urban unmanned driving. From "new energy is welcome" to "intelligence is welcome", Chery’s technical self-confidence has become more and more firm, and heavy products have been accelerated to market.
Xingjiyuan ET extended range four-wheel drive
Fengyun A8, A8L, Fengyun T9, T10, Xingyue ES, ET, Eta Ursae Majoris C-DM, iCAR03, V23, Jietu Shanhai L series, T series, Zhijie R7, new S7 and other models have been released successively.
Wisdom new S7, wisdom R7
Chery’s determination to pursue the brand upward has always been firm. It is not easy to build the brand overnight. Ruiqi and Guanzhi have accumulated a lot of experience. Today, Starway has crossed the survival threshold of selling 100,000 vehicles a year. At the product level, it has established technical self-confidence and needs the precipitation of the brand.
iCAR V23
Whether it is the intellectual community that cooperates with Huawei or the freelancer that will soon cooperate with Jaguar Land Rover, it is also based on Chery’s technical accumulation.
Chery’s internationalization has become more and more solid. On November 1st, 2024, the 1 millionth export vehicle of Tiggo 7 set sail in Wuhu Port, and Chery reached the first time in history that its export exceeded 1 million vehicles during the year, which also set a new record for China automobile enterprises to achieve the fastest export of 1 million vehicles during the year.
Chery’s 1 millionth car went to sea during the year.
On November 23rd, 2024, local time in Barcelona, Spain, the ——EBRO brand S700, the first product of Chery’s joint venture with Spain’s EV MOTORS, went offline. Up to now, Chery’s business has covered more than 110 countries and regions around the world, with a total of more than 15.4 million automobile users, including 4.4 million overseas users, making it the first China brand whose cumulative export sales exceeded 4 million.
The first product of Chery’s Spanish joint venture factory went offline.
One year after issuing the declaration of "You’re welcome for new energy", today’s Chery, new energy has caught up with the big collection. Fengyun T9 has sold more than 10,000 vehicles in a row, Shanhai Series is expected to exceed 90,000 vehicles in the whole year, Zhijie R7 will sell more than 10,000 vehicles in the second month of listing, and iCAR V23 will order more than 30,000 vehicles on the day of pre-sale. The sales volume of Xingtu’s high-end new energy "Three Musketeers" has accounted for more than 70%.
In November, Chery’s new energy sales reached 77,830 vehicles, a new monthly high. From January to November, the cumulative new energy sales exceeded 480,000 vehicles, up 214% year-on-year, and the growth rate of new energy ranked first among mainstream car companies.
Chery’s new energy sales in the first 11 months
Intelligentization also started the "first shot" after the "You’re welcome declaration". Starway brand’s world-first "Falcon Smart Driving" technology, the first to be mounted on the new Star Era ET extended-range four-wheel drive, has super computing power and advanced algorithms, which can quickly identify the environment and objects and realize the end-to-end smart driving at the first echelon level in the industry.
Since then, Chery smart cars have fully entered the first year of high-level intelligent driving NOA. In 2025, high-end intelligent driving will be equipped with more than a dozen models of the Group for mass production, from NOA in the city without a map to NOA in its own flagship high speed, relying on end-to-end technology to quickly realize NOA mass production; In 2027, a VLA model will be formed, allowing cars to truly enter the era of intelligent driving.
Chery’s Dazhuo Intelligent
In the future, Chery will continue to take "innovation", "openness" and "globalization" as the key words, constantly pursue the limit, innovation and change, speed up the layout of new energy tracks, take the TOP 10 of the global automobile industry as the strategic goal, open a new chapter of high-quality development in an all-round way, and inject unlimited power into China’s automobile development.
▍ Source: Chery people
▍ Editor: Annie Guo