Chery at a glance: China's fifth-largest automaker and its export champion

Founded in January 1997 by officials in Wuhu, Anhui, Chery Automobile has grown into China's fifth-largest carmaking group, selling 2,806,393 vehicles in 2025 with roughly 48,000 employees and 480 billion yuan in 2024 revenue. Yin Tongyue, hired as the company's first technical director, still leads it as chairman and CEO.

The early years leaned on other makers' know-how: the 1999 debut model Fengyun borrowed heavily from the SEAT Toledo, with engines built on a line acquired from Ford's Dagenham plant. General Motors sued over alleged design copying in 2003, but Chery has since developed its own technology — its ACTECO engines, in production since 2006, are even sold to other manufacturers.

Exports are Chery's hallmark. It began shipping cars abroad in 2001 and has topped Chinese-brand passenger-vehicle exports since 2003, sending 937,148 units overseas in 2023, or 52% of total sales. After entering the Fortune Global 500 in 2024 at No. 385, it raised about US$1.2 billion in a September 2025 Hong Kong IPO priced at HK$30.75 per share, valuing it near US$23 billion and ending its status as a Chery Holding subsidiary — though the "Chery Group" label it now uses is more marketing concept than legal entity. Shareholders include the Anhui and Wuhu governments (36.34%), employees (18.25%), Luxshare (16.83%), CATL (3.15%) and Gotion High Tech (1.66%).

The group's multi-brand lineup spans the mainline Chery marque with its Fulwin plug-in-hybrid and New Energy electric sub-brands, premium Exeed, SUV-focused Jetour, the iCar/iCaur electric marque, Huawei-linked Luxeed, commercial arm Karry, and export brands such as Omoda, Jaecoo and Lepas. Since 2012 it has also co-owned the Chery Jaguar Land Rover venture that builds JLR models in China.