China's Chery plans to build cars in Britain: could Jaguar Land Rover merger follow?
In a roundtable interview, Chery’s chairman has told Auto Express of his desire to design, engineer and build cars in Britain
Chery is about to take its assault on the UK car market to the next level as the Chinese automotive giant’s chairman, Yin Tongyue, has told Auto Express that the firm wishes to “become British” – a plan that could possibly involve an even closer relationship with Jaguar Land Rover.
“We need to be a British brand,” Mr Yin said in a roundtable interview at the firm’s headquarters in Wuhu, China. “In the future, I really want to have products designed in the UK, engineered in the UK and produced in the UK, but to sell worldwide.”
For a long time, Chery, and in particular its subsidiaries, have been accused of copying British designs, with the top-selling Jaecoo 7 having been described as the ‘Temu Range Rover’. Yet despite Mr Yin admitting that “I really dislike the nickname”, he also conceded that “UK design beats the world”.
Such is the case that the chairman says he’s “thinking [of moving] the Chery Design Center HQ to the UK”, revealing the firm is currently “in talks with [British] design masters”.
But it doesn’t stop there. Chery has already established an engineering centre at UTAC Millbrook in Bedfordshire – an operation that could be expanded if the firm wishes to base itself out of the UK. Earlier this year, Chery also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nissan in order to potentially make use of its spare manufacturing capacity in Sunderland.
Building cars in the UK might seem counterintuitive given the much higher production costs than China, but it could be a wise move given that the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is rumoured to be weighing up implementing tariffs on Chinese-car imports. While Mr Yin said Chery would “adjust the price and margin to suit the competition”, making cars here could help Chery’s profits and keep British jobs alive.
All of this is a big undertaking for an automotive firm that – despite already accounting for 16 per cent of all car purchase enquiries on Auto Express’ parent site, Carwow, and second only to the VW Group’s 18 per cent – only came into being in the late nineties, with Mr Yin at the helm since the very beginning.
Building closer relations with JLR
With this in mind, Chery has hinted it would be keen to build an even closer relationship with Jaguar Land Rover. The two titans already partnered to form Chery Jaguar Land Rover in 2012 as a means to build SUVs for the Chinese market. This was followed by the introduction of the Freelander brand earlier this year, which involves Chery licensing JLR’s expertise and intellectual property.
“We want to have a discussion: how can we help JLR to resume volume scale as it used to?” Mr Yin said. “Our collaboration with JLR is deep in many perspectives. I wouldn’t be able to share too much with you because I think if we want to share, we should share together with JLR.”
What the deepening of this relationship could involve is another matter; Mr Yin highlighted how Chery wants “to find more UK capability in terms of engineering to handle the dynamics”, but a potential investment (or even buyout) cannot be ruled out.
Adding to this idea is the fact that Mr Yin said: “I have a personal, deep emotion with the UK as a country. I kind of want to revitalise a UK brand – for example, could we find a sports car company that we could help?” Jaguar could potentially be a prime target, with the 63-year-old even hinting at his ambition to go motor racing.
Whatever happens between JLR and Chery, any investment in the UK motor industry would come as a relief to many; car production fell to a 73-year low in 2025 following the implementation of import tariffs by US President, Donald Trump, as well as the pause in manufacturing caused by the cyber attack on JLR.
“If we want to become a great company, it's more than just market share,” Mr Yin explained. “It's more like a social responsibility: the value we can provide to the customers, and also contribute to the economy for a country.”
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