How China's Omoda and Jaecoo smashed a UK sales milestone

The base Omoda 5 and Jaecoo 7 are straight petrol offerings, while the Omoda E5 is electric and the Jaecoo 7 SHS is a plug-in hybrid. A full hybrid is also on the cards.

“It meant they could walk consumers up and down the range and in or out of EVs, thereby broadening their appeal very quickly,” Plummer said. 

The Jaecoo 7 SHS especially has been a big hit, becoming Britain’s third-best-selling PHEV after the BYD Seal U and Volkswagen Tiguan to the end of July, with 6498 sales, according to figures from the SMMT.

Interestingly, retail sales of the PHEV are slightly outpacing fleet sales, suggesting that private buyers are being lured over to a fuel-saving technology that traditionally has a been a company car tax wheeze.

This leads us to perhaps the biggest draw of Omoda and Jaecoo cars, one that has been used by all challenger brands from the east over the years: you get more car with more kit for less money.

The Omoda 5 starts at £23,990, which brings Nissan Qashqai size for Nissan Juke money. Similarly the EVs outpace the competition, with the new Jaecoo E5 costing from £27,505 where a Kia EV3 with a similar battery size and power starts at £33,005. 

As befits China’s status as the global gadget hub, you get a range of freebies, like a ‘540-deg' panoramic camera and app-based remote control.

Tech is an area of particular focus for Jaecoo and Omoda to set themselves apart from the competition. “We don’t want to just be equal to the Japanese, the Koreas or the Europeans; we want to be better. That’s our mark,” Lan said.

In areas where the brands and their cars miss the mark, Chery’s home market training has taught them to reload quickly and be hyper-sensitive to customer feedback. “

"In the Chinese market in general, the evolution is scary fast,” Oliver Lowe, UK product manager for Omoda and Jaecoo, told Autocar. “We learn the lessons from the previous models and apply them where possible.”

In less than 12 months from launch, the Omoda 5 has already been updated to address customer concerns and incorporate the latest tech. For example, the Omoda E5 has faster charging and more range, while the “poor ride and handling balance” noted by Autocar's road testers has been theoretically addressed by upgraded front suspension and a revised steering geometry. Furthermore, the small boot has been expanded by removing the full-size spare tyre, bringing it in line with most rivals.

There’s a steep learning curve. For example, customers have strongly criticised the poor DAB radio performance, a feature that’s not required in China, where everyone streams audio from the internet.

One problem Chery has to grapple with is fast updates of models amid a system more used to three-year cycles. “The framework we have to operate in, from residual values to insurance codes, is not set up for a continuously evolving car,” Lowe said.

Grabbing a lot of market share early on is a crucial goal of Chery in the UK as it looks to grow awareness. “We want to be seen,” Lan said.

He didn’t directly answer our question whether Chery was sacrificing profit in return for market share, but the company – China’s largest exporter of cars - was at least globally profitable in the three months to the end of March this year.

The company claims the buzz around the cars and the competitive prices means it can avoid giving away margin in the form of deposit contributions (industry speak for manufacturer-offered discounts) – at least for the ICE cars and hybrids.

That’s not the case for the electric cars. “EV is a different space,” Lowe said. “EV is hard for everyone and just hyper-competitive”.

On the Omoda E5, for example, the company is currently offering to match the UK government's larger Electric Car Grant of £3750, dropping the price below £30,000. 

After the buzz of the initial sale, Jaecoo and Omoda now have to retain customers by maintaining used car prices, quickly rectifying problems and establishing a reliable parts supply.