Chery’s globalization strategy is approaching a major turning point. The Chinese automaker says more than half of the vehicles counted in its export business will be manufactured outside China by the end of 2026, marking a significant departure from the traditional model of building cars at home and shipping them around the world.
The transition is already well underway. Chery says overseas-built vehicles account for about 48% of its export volume this year, with that share expected to climb to 60% in 2027 and 70% by 2030. For one of China’s most experienced automotive exporters, the targets suggest the next stage of international expansion will increasingly depend on local factories, workers and suppliers rather than Chinese production alone.
Chery Is Crossing the 50% Localization Threshold
The biggest number in Chery’s new overseas strategy is not a sales target but a manufacturing ratio. Executive Vice-President Zhang Guibing said in October that vehicles manufactured overseas currently represent roughly 48% of the company’s export volume. Chery expects the figure to exceed 50% before the end of 2026, rise to 60% next year and reach 70% by 2030. Moving from 48% to just over half may appear like a modest numerical change, but crossing that threshold is symbolically important. It would mean overseas production accounts for the majority of Chery’s international vehicle volume rather than serving as a supplement to Chinese factories.
Chery is also presenting localization as more than a method for avoiding shipping costs. Zhang said the company wants overseas manufacturing to create jobs and allow Chery to work more closely with local technologies. That approach could make the company look increasingly similar to long-established multinational automakers, which commonly manufacture vehicles in several regions rather than supplying every market from their home country. Chery’s headquarters and major engineering operations remain rooted in China, but its production footprint is becoming much less concentrated there.
Chery’s Export Scale Makes the Shift Significant
Chery is not a small exporter experimenting with a few assembly plants. Chery Group reported selling 2,806,393 vehicles worldwide in 2025, including 1,344,020 vehicles exported overseas. The company says that performance extended its run as China’s leading exporter of Chinese-brand passenger vehicles to 23 consecutive years. By the end of 2025, cumulative exports had reached about 5.85 million vehicles. Numbers of that size mean even relatively small changes in where Chery builds its international vehicles can shift substantial amounts of production, investment and employment between countries.
Its financial results underline how important international customers have become. Chery Automobile reported approximately 300.3 billion yuan in consolidated revenue for 2025. About 157.4 billion yuan came from customers in countries and regions outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, compared with roughly 142.9 billion yuan from those Chinese markets. In other words, slightly more than half of reported revenue came from the international side of the business. Once overseas markets become that important financially, locating factories closer to those customers becomes less of an optional experiment and more of a long-term industrial strategy.
Local Production Is Becoming the Business Model
Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue provided an unusually straightforward explanation for the strategy earlier in 2026. He argued that moving large volumes of vehicles from one country to another was not sustainable indefinitely and said Chery wanted to manufacture more vehicles in the markets where it operates. The company has also explored partnerships with established European manufacturers that could involve sharing production facilities, models and profits. That approach would allow Chery to expand without necessarily constructing an entirely new factory every time it enters a major region.
There are practical reasons for doing so. Chery has said overseas production can improve regional fulfilment, help operations comply with local regulations and make supply chains more resilient. Local factories can also shorten the distance between a vehicle manufacturer and the dealers, suppliers and customers it serves. Most importantly, localization changes the nature of Chery’s relationship with foreign markets. A company shipping cars from China is primarily an importer. A company employing factory workers, sourcing components, conducting engineering work and producing cars locally becomes part of the host country’s industrial economy. Chery appears increasingly interested in making that second model the norm.
Barcelona Shows What Chery’s New Strategy Looks Like
Barcelona has become one of the clearest examples of Chery trying to transform from an exporter into a local manufacturer. The company partnered with Spanish automaker Ebro to revive automotive manufacturing at the former Nissan plant in Barcelona’s Zona Franca. Nissan closed the facility in 2021, leaving a highly experienced automotive workforce and a politically sensitive industrial site behind. Ebro has already been producing vehicles there using technology and production platforms shared with Chery, while Chery has been preparing to manufacture vehicles carrying its own international brands.
The timetable has moved more slowly than initially planned. Chery originally expected its own production to begin earlier, while Ebro Chairman Rafael Ruiz said in May that Chery manufacturing was expected around the end of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027. Plans have included the Omoda 5 and later a Jaecoo model, while the venture has previously targeted production of as many as 150,000 vehicles annually by 2029. Chery has also discussed using Barcelona as an export base for markets including Latin America. Just as importantly for the surrounding community, the original industrial plan contemplated restoring as many as 1,250 jobs connected with Nissan’s former operation.
Thailand Is Becoming a Regional Production Hub
Chery’s localization push is also advancing quickly in Southeast Asia. In April 2026, Chery and its Omoda and Jaecoo operations inaugurated a new-energy vehicle manufacturing facility in Rayong province, one of the centres of Thailand’s established automotive industry. The Thai Automotive Industry Association said the project had received investment promotion covering approximately 5 billion baht and would have production capacity of at least 80,000 vehicles per year. The factory is intended to supply customers in Thailand while also functioning as an export base for other markets, giving Chery another production centre outside China with a regional rather than purely domestic role.
The plant moved from investment project to meaningful production surprisingly quickly. By September, Chery Group said 20,000 electric vehicles had been assembled at the Rayong operation during its first five months. Vehicles associated with Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo are being produced there, and the company has described Thailand as an important location for future new-energy manufacturing. For the 50%, 60% and eventually 70% localization targets to be achieved, plants such as Rayong will be essential. Barcelona may attract more attention because of Europe’s trade disputes with China, but high-volume Asian manufacturing centres could ultimately contribute just as much to Chery’s overseas-production numbers.
Trade Barriers Are Making “Build Where You Sell” More Valuable
Chery’s manufacturing strategy is unfolding while governments are becoming more willing to use trade policy to influence where vehicles are produced. The European Union imposed definitive countervailing duties on battery-electric vehicles manufactured in China beginning in October 2024 after concluding that subsidies in China’s BEV value chain threatened economic injury to European manufacturers. Depending on the producer, the additional duties established under the measures range from 7.8% to 35.3%. European regulators have continued discussing alternatives such as minimum import prices, volume commitments and investment in Europe.
Chery has already felt the commercial consequences. Reuters reported that the timetable for its own production in Barcelona was delayed in part because of conditions that included the EU tariffs on China-made EVs. Local manufacturing does not automatically solve every trade problem—rules of origin, imported components and regulatory requirements still matter—but producing complete vehicles inside major markets can reduce dependence on cross-border shipments vulnerable to sudden tariff changes. That is one reason Chery’s localization strategy could prove durable even if individual trade disputes eventually ease. Factories represent a way to compete inside a market rather than continually negotiating access to it from outside.
Omoda and Jaecoo Are Driving the International Expansion
Chery’s globalization strategy is also changing what consumers see in showrooms. The company launched Omoda and Jaecoo as international brands in 2023, and the pair sold roughly 380,000 vehicles combined in 2025. Chery has set a goal of reaching one million combined Omoda and Jaecoo sales in 2027. The Jaecoo 7 has already demonstrated that a relatively unfamiliar Chinese automotive name can gain traction quickly in an established market, becoming Britain’s best-selling individual vehicle model in March 2026 according to Reuters.
Product localization may become just as important as manufacturing localization. Approximately 2.3 million of the 2.8 million vehicles Chery sold worldwide in 2025 were SUVs, reflecting the company’s strength in one of the world’s most popular vehicle categories. Yet Chairman Yin has acknowledged that preferences vary by region, noting that European customers traditionally favour smaller vehicles more than Chinese buyers do. Chery has consequently been working on smaller products for international markets. Manufacturing those vehicles closer to where they are designed to compete could allow the company to adjust specifications, production volumes and model mixes more rapidly than a strategy centred almost entirely on exports from China.
Chery’s Global Plan Is Expanding Beyond Vehicle Assembly
Factories are only one part of what Chery now wants to build overseas. Alongside its October manufacturing targets, the company said it intends to begin developing fast-charging and energy-storage stations in markets including the United Kingdom, Spain and Thailand from 2027. Chery also plans to begin its robotaxi rollout in the United Arab Emirates in 2027. Those initiatives suggest the company increasingly views overseas expansion as an ecosystem strategy involving energy infrastructure and mobility technology as well as the sale and manufacture of conventional passenger vehicles.
The 70% overseas-production target for 2030 therefore carries implications beyond where individual cars roll off an assembly line. If Chery reaches it, the company will look less like a Chinese manufacturer with a large export department and more like a multinational automaker whose engineering heritage and corporate centre happen to be Chinese. Achieving that transformation will require its overseas factories to maintain quality, secure suppliers, operate at sufficient volumes and navigate changing political and regulatory environments. Targets can change, as the delays in Barcelona have already demonstrated. Still, with overseas manufacturing already approaching half of international volume, Chery’s transition from exporting globally to producing globally is no longer theoretical.
