Chery unfazed by Geely's climb in Australia as Stockman ute leads new-model wave

Chery has spent 2026 firmly inside Australia's monthly top 10, and its local operation isn't rattled by Geely's rapid rise. After placing 13th overall last year on 34,889 sales, the brand currently sits ninth with 33,817 deliveries, having dropped out of the top 10 just once — in August, when Geely's EV-driven surge, fuelled by 19,159 year-to-date deliveries, carried it from 22nd in January into 10th place. Chery Motor Australia COO Lucas Harris argued a single month proves little, and that a string of imminent launches will reshape the brand's market standing.

Central to that push is the Stockman, Chery's first ute, which begins its local variant rollout later this year with a diesel plug-in hybrid before petrol PHEV versions arrive in 2027. It will tackle the Ranger and HiLux as well as Chinese pickups like the BYD Shark 6 — which found 9,493 homes in the first half of the year — and the MG U9, which managed just 918. An electric hatch called the Chery Q plus a sedan are also due next year, though Geely already fields an EV hatch and PHEV sedan without yet offering a ute.

The expansion runs deeper still: the namesake brand is targeting a top-five finish by 2027, Omoda Jaecoo is chasing the top 10 over the same period, Lepas lands this year and three more group brands follow in 2027. Harris conceded Chinese rivals are "hyper-competitive" but believes sustained aftersales support will set the group apart — every sale today is a conquest customer, and a 30 per cent repeat-buyer rate is the ambition. Newcomers like Lepas will also piggyback on Chery's existing back-end infrastructure despite running separate dealer networks, an edge he says many rival Chinese entrants lack.