Chery Eliminates Cars to Europe

Ukraine has a unique geographical location and its bridgehead plays a prominent role, looking westward and eastwards. After the Russia-Uzbek conflict, Russia closed its tariff-free gates, but the EU opened the door. The preferential tariff-free policy made Ukraine look westward and became attractive to some industries. From May 28 to 29, the Zaporozhye, Ukraine's largest car company, received much attention at the Kiev Auto Show. The plant launched a new concept version of the Slavuta Nova. The launch of the model marks another car involved in the Chinese brand. The big event is happening.

The Zaporozhye plant (ZAZ) has long had a deep cooperation with Chery. The Chery Fengyun model was ZAZ Forza, which was previously sold by ZAZ to Russia for sale before the Russian-Ukrainian misfortune.

The ZAZ Slavuta Nova new car is also a branded car, derived from the Chery Rui G2. Chery's this model has long been in the domestic offline, the new car plans to officially go public one year later. The localization rate will reach 50%, and the Chery Acteco 1.6-liter 125-hp engine will also be produced at a Ukrainian local factory, the Euro 6 standard. When the new car is put on the market, the estimated price will not exceed 10,000 U.S. dollars.

The Zaporozhye plant belongs to the Ukrainian Automobile Group. The chairman of the company, Tariel Erwasa, said: “We are ready to launch modern cars and we are ready to export. At the national level, we need to take steps in exports. To achieve this, the Zaporozhye plant cannot be completed independently, and it is not possible to apply to the country for a loan with an annual interest rate of 25% to 30% for production, because the EU has the same loan interest rate as Ukraine, and thus it does not have a competitive advantage. It takes 13-14 months to mass-produce the model. At present, we hope to attract Chinese partners who can enter the EU market through us. This is good for us, the country and Chinese partners.”

The Zaporozhye plant is currently preparing a plan to produce 50,000 vehicles a year. The new Slavuta Nova plant has predicted an annual demand of 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles. First of all, the market for this model is the EU market. Ukraine has signed free trade agreements with other countries, and Ukraine's domestic market and other CIS countries.

Chery G2, a former high-end platform product of Chery, was the A0-class fine car that was developed five years ago. The vehicle model was created by famous Italian design company Pininfarina. The result was that Chery's high-end plan failed and Chery’s detours did not go away in those years.

Developing a model from design to modelling, and then launching a finished product, is costly and costly. Can not play in the country, but in Ukraine saw hope, and planning is to enter the Western European auto market, for Chery, the temptation is not small, but the risk is also accompanied.

Chery also has OEM models in Italy, but its sales volume is not worth mentioning. It is also a big suspense that the U.S. auto market can be successfully opened by Ukrainians.