Auto Express has approached both Chery and JLR for a statement. Chery UK was unable to provide a spokesperson at this time, while JLR declined to comment.
What’s Jaguar Land Rover doing in China?
JLR’s revamped Chinese joint venture with Chery centres on reviving the Land Rover Freelander as a cutting-edge EV initially for the Chinese market. It’ll have a brand new design inspired by Land Rover’s first compact SUV, which posted strong sales from launch in 1997. But the technology will be markedly different, moving from ’90s mechanical 4×4 tech to the 2020s digital technology that Chinese car buyers demand: leading-edge autopilot software to navigate traffic-choked cities and an immersive user experience packed with video games, streaming and even in-car selfies. The reveal of the production version is expected very soon.
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Historically, JLR was earning 50 per cent of its global profits from Range Rover and Range Rover Sport sales in China but, while many European brands have struggled in recent years, the British firm had it worse than most.
Back in 2019, the company was also embroiled in a legal battle with Chinese manufacturer Jiangling Motor Corporation, maker of the Landwind X7 which the courts decided had a copyright-infringing resemblance to the Range Rover Evoque – itself a very close relation to the Land Rover Freelander.
Professor David Bailey explained that JLR was “overly dependent on the Chinese market at that point, and then, things in China turned sour more quickly for JLR than some other firms”.
He continued: “I think that’s partly around quality perceptions. But in general, Western companies are now really struggling in China because of slowdown in the Chinese economy, slowdown in the car market there, but also the emergence of Chinese brands which can compete effectively.”
So Jaguar Land Rover is on the comeback trail in China and the JLR-Chery factory in Changshu is central to strategy. The facility has a giant 20 megawatt solar farm which generates half of the site’s power and that will soon be used to build the Chinese market Freelander at scale. Whether this model or some other Chery products end up also being built at Jaguar Land Rover facilities in the UK is the question.
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