A Jaguar-based Chery for China on the way
We’ve reported on speculation about Jaguar Land Rover’s efforts to form a joint venture in China to gain access to the most important car market in the world quite a bit this year. And now it looks as though that joint venture is getting closer, with reports that Jaguar and Chery Automobile are to develop a new luxury brand for China based on Jaguar’s cars.
Of course, there is still no confirmation that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reached any sort of agreement with any Chinese car maker over a joint venture. We know it’s happening, but we also know Jaguar won’t talk about it. Last time we asked (quite recently) we were told JLR found all the speculation about a JV ‘amusing’.
Amusing or not, we reported a few months ago that Jaguar were about to get in to bed with Chery (in fact we first suggested Chery was the likely partner for JLR back in February), and that they were seeking approval from China’s NRDC for their venture.
Reuters is now reporting that the new joint brand of Jaguar and Chery we reported on in October needs to demonstrate more than just a manufacturing deal. ‘…in order to get approval for the project to go ahead, the two sides must have substantial cooperation, not just adding new capacity’, it’s reported.
That appears to mean that Jaguar and Chery need to get their new brand and its underpinnings sorted before the NDRC will rubber stamp their joint venture. Which will mean a new Jaguar model with Chery badges before Jaguar and Chery can get cracking on getting Jaguars (and Land Rovers) flying out of showrooms in China.
All of which should make for some interesting marketing by Chery. They already have their own ‘Riich’ luxury brand and they’ve recently announced the ‘Qoros’ luxury brand moniker too.
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