At Chery’s sprawling HQ in the city of Wuhu, two hours west of Shanghai, dozens of prototypes circle the streets linking the company’s various R&D facilities.
In one prototype jam, we spot a camouflaged Lepas with Audi’s four rings crudely drawn on tape covering the badge.
The marking was clearly a joke, but it was also a sign of Chery’s sky-high confidence that it can conjure up a new export brand, launch it globally, including in the UK, within a year and quickly establish it as a serious contender.
Lepas was launched at an event in Wuhu in April, where we learned that the SUV line-up would use the same T1X platform as its Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery brands offering electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants.
Given Chery already has bold plans to expand sales of SUVs from those brands in the UK and mainland Europe, the crowd of dealers, media and influencers were left to wonder what niche was left for Lepas to fill.
Chinese car companies are famous for their willingness to conjure up new brands in reaction to shifting trends and counter stalling growth from older brands.
Lepas (portmanteau of leopard and passion) was born partly for that reason, according to Zhang Guibing, president of Chery International.
But in a sign of China’s increased sophistication when it comes to automotive marketing, Zhang made a credible case for the separation using a slide titled 'Too many brands?'.
Lepas essentially takes the smaller SUVs from the Chery Tiggo range, tightens the curved look, adds a new cat-eye driving-light signature and aims the brand at ‘modern families’.
Future Tiggos will be given a chunkier look targeted at more traditional family buyers, with Omoda steered in a more edgy, modern direction, as revealed by the new Omoda 3 coming next year. Jaecoo sits more upmarket with a style Chery calls ‘British Gentleman’.
“By offering different brands on the same platform, the volume is very big and that gives us a good price,” Zhang said.
They didn’t say it, but in a brand head to head with the Volkswagen Group, Tiggo could be equated to Skoda, Lepas to VW and Omoda to Cupra, with Jaecoo tackling the lower reaches of Audi using a styling wardrobe borrowed from Range Rover.
Chery has plenty of exposure to the style and appeal of Land Rover products thanks to its joint venture with JLR in China.
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