“I can proudly say that we are the fastest expanding car brand in the world,” said Omoda & Jaecoo global CEO, Shawn Xu at Auto China 2024 in Beijing. More than just hot air or self-praise, The Chery International sub-division laid that bold claim based on both market expansion results and actual sales data.
Officially launched just a year ago, Omoda & Jaecoo (cutely referred to as O&J) has aggressively expanded globally, successfully entering more than 40 high-potential markets, Malaysia included. The number of dealer networks in those markets currently stand at 873. That’s one hell of a debut year.
Worth a shout is the recent opening of an assembly plant in Spain, as part of the brand’s “European campaign” – significantly it’s the very first car production facility in Europe run by a Chinese car manufacturer. Local production is important to O&J, following its “In somewhere, For somewhere” philosophy to promote globalisation while supporting localisation.
Omoda & Jaecoo is the fastest-growing auto brand in terms of hard sales numbers too. It took them just five months to reach the 50,000 unit milestone and another three months to hit 100,000 units. In its first full year of sales operations, O&J’s global sales volume has exceeded 160,000 units – the fastest ever recorded for a fledgling car brand.
Mind you, the numbers only count vehicles sold with either Omoda or Jaecoo badges, and don’t include, for instance, the Chery Tansuo 6 models sold in China (essentially the Jaecoo J7 with a different name).
Now if you’re reading this in Malaysia, you may be wondering why at all both Omoda and Jaecoo are considered one single “brand.” After all, the Omoda 5 is sold as a Chery here, while Jaecoo will stand on its own two feet very soon. Well, brand perhaps isn’t the right term to use at all – sub-division is a little more accurate.
You see, Chery International recently decided to split its many brands into three sub-divisions – Chery, Exeed and Omoda & Jaecoo, with the last two combined as one – each with its own CEO and top management teams. Certain new markets however, needed a more tailored approach.
Malaysia is a very good example, where Chery International needed to make a big splash from the get go. The Omoda 5 was chosen for its high market suitability, so Chery went ahead to launch with it first – and what an inspired choice that has proven to be! Soon, Jaecoo will attempt to penetrate the market as a separate entity, and should eventually absorb the Omoda brand back into its fold in the long run.
Confused? So are we, but that’s Chinese car brands for you. In the past years we have familiarised ourselves with the Geely group, and they now have Geometry, Galaxy, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, Radar, and Jiyue under them, just to name a few. Even BYD has expanded to have Yang Wang and Fang Cheng Bao sub-brands.
That aside, what do you think of Omoda & Jaecoo’s meteoric rise in markets across the globe so far? Can Jaecoo make as big an impact as Chery has done in Malaysia? Discuss below.
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