Omoda, Jaecoo the latest new Chinese brands to take on BYD, GWM, Deepal, Zeekr, Leapmotor and XPeng

March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 Toby Hagon 3391 Views 0 Comments Chery, Jaecoo, Omoda

Another week, another new Chinese brand. Or so it seems.

Except that this week it’s two new Chinese brands: Jaecoo and Omoda.

Each is part of the Chery family and each is coming to Australia over the next few months as part of a plan to spread the value-focused appeal of the Chery brand.

Chery will remain the mainstream brand aimed at the masses with prices starting from $23,990 drive-away.

Omoda and Jaecoo will be paired as more premium or desirable offerings with marginally higher price tags – and a sales pitch that goes beyond the sheetmetal – but each still playing at the value end of the market.

Over time, both Omoda and Jaecoo will be offering ICE, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles as part of their line-ups.

While all three brands are handled by the same Sydney-based head office, there’s a virtual line between the Chery side and the Omoda/Jaecoo side.

“Internally we have two completely separate teams,” said Lewis Lu, Chery Australia CEO.

That will flow through to their dealer presence, too, although Omoda and Jaecoo go hand-in-hand.

Chery confirmed that Omoda and Jaecoo will share showroom space, while Chery will operate independently.

Despite the different brand positioning and design, the three brands will share plenty under the skin, including engines, suspension systems, technology and other components.

It’s all about maximising the spread across the market and appealing to a broader buyer base.

It’s not dissimilar to other traditional brands, including Volkswagen; while VW is the heavy hitter on the sales front, it spreads much of its hardware with different clothing in brands as diverse as Skoda, Cupra and Audi.

For Chery in Australia, the first of the two newcomers is Jaecoo, a name derived from jaeger and cool.

It’s pitched as a more premium mainstream brand, in a similar way to how Mazda, Honda and Volkswagen have at times provided something of an upmarket flavour in the mainstream arena.

The first Jaecoo will be the J7 mid-sized SUV that arrives in May priced from $34,990 drive-away.

A plug-in hybrid model – the J7 SHS Summit – is $47,990 drive-away.

Omoda will be hot on its heels with a yet to be confirmed line-up.

Jaecoo J7 — The J7 mid-sized SUV is the first car from newcomer Jaecoo.

The Omoda brand is being positioned as more of a youth- and fashion-oriented brand.

And just to confuse things, the Chery Omoda 5 – and the all-electric Omoda E5 – that currently utilises the new branding will not be part of the new Omoda family. Instead, it will be rebranded the Chery C5.

However, an Omoda 7 compact SUV is likely to be an early entrant into the Australian market.

Chery is hoping it will continue to be the fastest growing car brand in the country over the next couple of years, something that may prove challenging with intensifying competition from BYD, GWM, Leapmotor, Geely and others.

Since relaunching in Australia in 2023 Chery has muscled its way past Skoda and Renault on the sales charts and in the early part of 2025 has outsold Suzuki and Honda and is closing in on Volkswagen.

In 2024 it more than doubled its sales and plans to maintain that momentum.