Chery targets UK expansion with four new SUVs and Bedfordshire R&D base
Chery is marking a year of UK sales with plans to launch four new or updated SUVs next year, including an electric model, and to open a research and development centre at Millbrook in Bedfordshire to tailor its cars to British roads.
Chery is preparing a major expansion of its UK line-up, with four new or updated SUVs due next year and a new research and development centre in Bedfordshire designed to make its cars better suited to British roads. The Chinese brand, which has just completed its first full year of UK sales, is positioning itself as a mass-market challenger to established European marques such as Volkswagen.
Chery has sold around 29,000 cars in the UK during that first year. That figure trails its sibling brands Jaecoo and Omoda, with the Jaecoo 7 SUV alone recording nearly 53,000 sales since its launch in late 2024. Despite this, Chery's UK managing director, Farrell Hsu, said the company has already exceeded its sales target for 2026. His stated ambition is to sell «people's cars» to the mass market and to compete directly with brands such as Volkswagen.
Central to that goal is a rapid expansion of the model range. Chery currently offers the Tiggo 4, Tiggo 7, Tiggo 8 and Tiggo 9 SUVs in the UK, competing with vehicles such as the Ford Puma, Volkswagen Tiguan and Skoda Kodiaq. Next year it will bring four new or updated SUVs to market, one of which will be electric. The new Tiggo X family is expected to include the Tiggo X SUV unveiled at this year's Beijing motor show. Positioned as Chery's new flagship, the Tiggo X is a five-metre-long, seven-seat SUV with a boxy design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Chinese media reports suggest it produces a combined 476bhp and 465lb ft of torque, with an electric-only range of around 124 miles on the CLTC test cycle.
Further details of other Tiggo X-branded models have yet to be disclosed, but Hsu said they will bring a «different feeling» compared with the existing Tiggo 4, 7, 8 and 9. They will have a «lifestyle» focus, hinting at boxier styling and light off-roading capabilities.
Chery has also committed to ensuring its cars better suit the British market through a new R&D centre at the UTAC Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. Hsu said the facility will initially operate as a «translation centre», converting feedback from local customers and media into terms Chinese engineers can act upon. It will also modify steering, chassis set-ups and advanced driver assistance systems to cope with British roads, which are tighter, bendier and generally in worse condition than those in China. «We will test everything and then tell HQ what they need to do,» Hsu explained. The centre will allow Chery to test retrofitted modifications such as new dampers, bushings or software calibrations more quickly, and therefore introduce changes at a faster pace.
Hsu suggested his ambition is for Chery models to drive more like their German competitors. «So many people like the German feeling; cars that drive like a German car. It really gives them a very good impression. This is something we need to learn,» he said. «Maybe in the future we can educate other markets and their manufacturers, but currently we need to learn from them.» In the longer term, feedback from the Millbrook base could play a greater role in shaping Chery's global product range, tapping UK expertise in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. The same tweaks will apply to models from Chery's sibling brands Omoda, Jaecoo and Lepas.
Hsu also pointed to Chery's «Super Hybrid» plug-in hybrid electric vehicles as crucial to the brand's appeal. He said they account for three quarters of its UK business to date and implied that sales have so far been constrained by supply rather than demand. His vision is for every Chery model eventually to be available with the PHEV powertrain as standard, with buyers choosing only the battery size and therefore the electric range they require, comparing this to choosing the storage capacity of a new iPhone.
