The J7 will be the first model South Africa receives under Chery's Jaecoo brand. Picture: Charl Bosch
Described as the reshaping of its brand philosophy while putting an emphasis on the future, Chery opened its New Journey, New Life International User Summit in Wuhu at the weekend with a mass exhibition of current and new products bound for key markets, including South Africa.
Attended by a number of high-ranking officials from the China government, as well as Chery executives and international attendees, the event focuses on green technology and ecology.
The summit covers the Chery and Omoda brands, plus the incoming Jaecoo marque and the flagship Exeed division. The sub-title of the strategy is “With Chery with Love” or WCWL.
It aims to “express Chery’s ideas with confidence” in addition to gaining a “more interesting understanding of a greener lifestyle”.
Central to this is the ongoing development of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles while making improvements to its current range of combustion engines.
Showing products from all four of its brands, Chery South Africa Executive Deputy General Manager Tony Liu gave The Citizen Motoring the line-up of models South Africa will be privy to in 2024.
The off-road flavoured Jaecoo J7 will be one of the earliest debutants of 2024. Making its local debut at the Kyalami Festival of Motoring in August locked in a partially revealing box, the J7 is expected in the first half of 2024. Pricing and final specifications are expected in due course.
Up front, power should come from the 1.6 T-GDi engine used in the new Tiggo 7 Pro Max and Tiggo 8 Pro. It will come in a choice of front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive.
Arriving towards the latter stages of 2024 or in early 2025, the J7 will be supplemented by the flagship J8. The J8 will come to South Africa exclusively with six seats. It is expected to be powered by the same 2.0 T-GDi engine that serves on the facelift Tiggo 8 Pro Max.
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The C9 will join the futuristic-looking C5 as the second model of the marque in 2024.
The Omoda C9 sports a coupe-styled design with a lowered roofline and plenty of features. These range from dual 12.25-inch infotainment screens to a massaging “river’s seat” and “ottoman-style” adjusting for the passenger’s chair.
Similar to the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max, initial motivation will come from the 2.0 T-GDi engine. It features revised outputs of 192kW/400Nm and will be offered with a torque converter eight-speed automatic gearbox.
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The C9 will come with a significant price hike over the C5, which itself will become the recipient of a more powerful GT model in 2024. The GT is an all-wheel-drive version and eschew the CVT in favour of the seven-speed dual-clutch box.
The first half of next year will see the introduction of all-electric C5 renamed as the Omoda E5. A first for Chery in South Africa, the E5, as its names indicates, drops the combination engine for a 61-kWh lithium-ion battery pack driving an electric motor mounted on the front axle.
Combined, the E5 develops 150kW/340Nm. Omoda, claims that it will travel 450 km before requiring a visit to the plug.
The Chery brand will roll out plug-in hybrids of the Tiggo 7 and 8 Pro in 2025. Known as the Pro e+ with the latter model simply wearing the Hybrid moniker, both combine the 1.5 T-GDi engine with a 19.27-kWh battery for a total system output of 180kW/510Nm. The claimed all-electric range is 110 km.
The all-wheel-drive Tiggo 8 Pro Max will arrive later this year. As its name indicates, the already mentioned 2.0 T-GDi engine prevails. But with its 187 kW/390 Nm going to all corners through the seven-speed dual-clutch box as opposed to the fronts.
It could become the first Chery to breach the R700 000 mark. The facelift front-wheel-drive Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max currently carries a sticker of R669 900.
