Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently paid an official visit to China and the Malaysian contingent held business talks with Chinese companies wanting to invest in the ASEAN country. Wuhu-based automaker Chery was part of the talks.
In a statement, Chery said it was invited to discuss its investment plan and development direction during the premier’s visit to China. Chery executives held an in-depth discussion with Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Industry and International Trade. He highly appreciated Chery’s international corporate strength and showed great interest in the investment plan, the automaker said.
Later, Chery, China’s top passenger car exporter, also participated in a round table between Anwar and the Malaysian contingent with the industry captains in China. The forum was held in Beijing on April 1.
Discussions with regulators and future plans are good, but we hear some asking what is the status of Chery’s return to Malaysia. We have been hearing about this for some time (from december 2021), and while we still can’t walk into a Chery showroom to buy one of their SUVs, it looks like we’re now in the final stretch before the brand’s relaunch is official.
In October 2022, Chery held a local media preview of its SUV range, comprising the Tiggo Pro family and the Omoda 5 (click these links for more information on the Tiggo 4 Pro, Tiggo 7 Pro, Tiggo 8 Pro and omoda 5), and there have been recent reports that Chery is now in the final steps of contract assembly negotiations with Inokom for the latter to assemble his models in Kulim, Kedah.
The first two models from CKD Chery will be the flagship Tiggo 8 Pro and the modern Omoda 5. The expected timeline is for local production to start at the end of June, with market launch expected to occur a month later. Furthermore, Chery is said to have set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Malaysia, scheduled to open in Q2 2023. After a long gestation period, Chery’s comeback is truly just around the corner – stay tuned .
