{"id":797,"date":"2025-11-09T23:03:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=797"},"modified":"2025-11-09T23:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:05:22","slug":"chery-a-brief-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"CHERY: WHAT MZANSI NEVER KNEW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Whilst most South Africans<\/strong> have had only a recent encounter with Chinese<\/strong> automotive company Chery<\/strong>, the company has been around since January 1997<\/strong> when it was formally established<\/strong> in Wuhu<\/strong>, Anhui Province, China<\/strong>. Their first production line<\/strong> was an engine assembly line in the United Kingdom, which had previously belonged to a reputable<\/strong> legacy brand. Talented engineers<\/strong> were recruited for this new entity whose task<\/strong> was to take on the big wide world. This was the beginning of Chery as we know it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chery Eastar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chery Fengyun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first Chery car was called the Fengyun<\/strong> – also known as the Fulwin<\/strong> – and was heavily influenced<\/strong> by European design and tastes. That was because a number of high-level Chery engineers had worked in Europe previously. Simultaneously, China had no clear automotive signature<\/strong> of its own at the time, and Chery was one of the pioneers<\/strong> of such a language. The Fengyun first rolled off<\/strong> the assembly line in December 1999<\/strong>, with a huge responsibility<\/strong> on its rather brand new shoulders; to attract<\/strong> new customers. Even more than that, to help establish the mother brand<\/strong> in a burgeoning<\/strong> domestic market that was also still used to purchasing European, Japanese<\/strong> and American car brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chery J3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chery J1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the next decade<\/strong>, Chery produced and sold different models<\/strong>. Probably key amongst them all included the Eastar<\/strong>. It was the company\u2019s first attempt at a large, premium sedan<\/strong> and was produced between 2003<\/strong> and 2016<\/strong> when sedans were still ruling the planet<\/strong>. The Eastar possibly gave Chery the confidence<\/strong> it needed to prove to itself that it could play in that segment<\/strong>, perhaps if not immediately<\/strong> then in future<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The QQ<\/strong> was probably Chery\u2019s most iconic<\/strong> car. Because it was entry-level, highly accessible<\/strong> and very reasonably priced, buyers really gravitated<\/strong> towards it. Hence its popularity. QQ went global<\/strong> in 2003.<\/strong> Fact is, there are still a good number of the little city dasher<\/strong> running around Mzansi<\/strong> today. With the J1<\/strong> hatch, Chery took on the establishment<\/strong> in the sub compact<\/strong> hatch segment, while the J3<\/strong> represented them in the bigger family<\/strong> hatch market. One could already see Chery\u2019s future intentions<\/strong> with these cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chery Tiggo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the first Tiggo<\/strong> range broke cover internationally in 2005<\/strong>, consumers from all walks of life truly began to take notice. The Tiggo entered a market segment that at the time, was largely quite bare<\/strong>; the entry-level SUV<\/strong>. Most brands had not even developed<\/strong> their own models for this segment, which has become one of the most important<\/strong> in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whilst most South Africans have had only a recent encounter with Chinese automotive company Chery, the company has been around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[343],"tags":[63,356,354,355,358,359,357,342],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chery","tag-chery","tag-chery-eastar","tag-chery-fengyun","tag-chery-fulwin","tag-chery-j1","tag-chery-j3","tag-chery-qq","tag-chery-tiggo"],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-1200x800.jpg",1200,800,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-1200x1440.jpg",1200,1440,true],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-1200x1200.jpg",1200,1200,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-600x900.jpg",600,900,true],"post_slider_layout_square":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ-600x600.jpg",600,600,true],"full":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Chery-QQ.jpg",1920,1440,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}