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Having multiple brands covering the same product segments will appeal to a broader range of customers, according to Chery Australia.
Chery will field no fewer than four car brands in Australia by the end of the year, most of which will sell small and mid-size SUVs, but the Chinese marque believes offering customers some overlapping choices is the key to its success.
Whereas some companies, such as the Volkswagen Group, will use individual brands for broader market reach across various price points – including Skoda, Cupra, VW, and Audi – Chery Australia Chief Executive Officer Lucas Harris told Drive the Chinese marque wants to offer something for everyone.
“The old way of thinking about brands, and certainly if you look at traditional brands, their way of things is vertical,” Harris said.
“This is entry level, this is mainstream, this is premium, this is luxury, and they are set out like this.
“Our brands are different in that it’s much more horizontal.
“It’s about trying to find a niche group of customers that the brand resonates with, and provid[ing] a product for them.
“Chery is obviously your more traditional, more mainstream [brand] – this is a vehicle that will be with you to do all the things in life that you need to do.
“Jaecoo has that modern, off-road-feeling, urban-explorer type.
“Omoda is that sort of fashion-forward, futuristic design.
“Lepas is much more going to be around individualism, the elegance of being individual and unique and different.
“We would talk about it like it’s the SUV for non-SUV people.”
Lepas will be the latest brand under the Chery Australia umbrella, and is set to launch later this year with the L8 mid-size SUV – itself derived from the same T1X platform as the Chery Tiggo 7, Tiggo 8, and Tiggo 9; Jaecoo J7 and Jaecoo J8; and Omoda 9.
Harris confirmed to Drive that Lepas will “have two more quickly after that [L8]”, likely to be additional SUV models to cater towards Australia’s high-rider-hungry market.
In terms of overlap and product dilution, Harris didn’t believe that was happening with Chery and its sub-brands, despite the overlapping models across various brands.
“There’s some crossover, [but] people don’t just fit into four or five categories,” Harris said.
“A lot of the time, [the] crossovers are only small – maybe 15 or 20 per cent – so how do we talk to those people?
“The reality is Chery’s product is not going to talk to everyone, so that’s why we need Jaecoo.
“And Jaecoo’s product is not going to talk to everyone, that’s why we need Lepas.
“If we get stuck worrying about this small cross-section of crossover, we’re going to miss the big picture, which is finding those unique customers.”
For reference, the extended Chery mid-size range kicks off at $29,990 drive-away for the base Tiggo 7 and tops out at $47,990 for the Jaecoo J7 Summit, but extends across nine variants over the two model lines.
Meanwhile, the current large SUV strategy encompasses four models – Chery Tiggo 8, Chery Tiggo 9, Jaecoo J8, and Omoda 9 – with the Lepas L8 to become another option for customers.
The current Chery product price band for large SUVs stretches from $41,990 to $61,990.
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
