Chery company profile: from Wuhu state project to China's export champion

Chery Automobile traces its roots to January 1997, when officials in Wuhu, Anhui province set up a state-owned carmaker and hired Yin Tongyue as its first technical director. Yin still runs the company today as chairman and CEO. Nearly three decades on, Chery ranks as China's fifth-largest automotive group, with 2,806,393 vehicles sold in 2025 and revenue of CN¥480 billion in 2024.

The early years leaned heavily on outside technology. Chery's first model, the 1999 Fengyun, was based on the SEAT Toledo, and a mix of licensed and reverse-engineered know-how prompted a design-copying lawsuit from General Motors in 2003. Since 2006 the company has built its own ACTECO-branded engines, which it also supplies to other manufacturers.

Exports became the company's calling card. It began shipping cars abroad in 2001 and has led Chinese-brand passenger-vehicle exports since 2003; the 937,148 units sent overseas in 2023 accounted for roughly half of total sales. Chery also assembles vehicles outside China from knock-down kits, and in 2024 Chery Holding Group entered the Fortune Global 500 at No. 385.

The group now operates nine brands: the main Chery marque (with the Fulwin plug-in hybrid and Chery New Energy electric sub-brands), premium arm Exeed, SUV specialist Jetour, EV brand iCar/iCaur, the Huawei-partnered Luxeed, and export-focused nameplates such as Omoda and Jaecoo, plus a Jaguar Land Rover joint venture running since 2012. In September 2025 Chery listed in Hong Kong, raising about US$1.2 billion at HK$30.75 per share for a valuation near US$23 billion; ownership is now split among the Anhui and Wuhu governments, employees, and private investors including Luxshare, CATL and Gotion High Tech.