Chery speeds up its European expansion and turns a sales plan into an industrial strategy

Chery wants production, not ceremony

Chery executives said the group is seeking additional manufacturing capacity in Europe and would prefer to work with factories that already exist. The logic is straightforward enough. It cuts capital spending, shortens the road to market and helps create a local footprint that looks far more acceptable politically. France is among the possible target countries, although Chery is not naming partners yet.

Scale matters, and Barcelona will not be enough

Chery’s European sales rose from 17,035 cars to 120,147 in 2025, and by the company’s own reckoning the Barcelona plant alone will not cover future demand. The regulatory angle matters just as much. Local production makes it easier to adapt to European Union tariffs on electric cars built in China and to meet local requirements that are becoming more important for both pricing and supply chains.

Barcelona is becoming more than a factory

The group already confirmed in February that it would start building its models in Barcelona in 2026 through its joint venture with Ebro at the former Nissan plant. Omoda 5 will be first onto the line, with Jaecoo 7 to follow. In April, Chery also added a European operations centre and a local research and development unit in Barcelona, bringing together market operations, compliance, supply chain management and public relations.

That means Barcelona is moving beyond the role of an assembly plant. It is becoming a regional command centre.

Paris gives Chery a second strategic base

The second major pillar sits in Paris. A new development centre opened there in March and focuses on B segment models. Chery says it will help tie European customer expectations, homologation requirements and country specific needs into the process at a much earlier stage of development. Together with the existing engineering and design centre in Raunheim, it gives Chery a structure that many Chinese newcomers are still only talking about.

Chery is no longer bringing cars to Europe and hoping for the best. It is bringing product development authority as well.

A multi brand push, with more to come

Chery will launch Omoda and Jaecoo in France, then add a Chery branded model in the fourth quarter. By the end of the year, a small electric crossover could follow. The group also recently announced plans to bring the Lepas brand to Europe.

This multi brand approach gives Chery room to cover volume buyers, design led customers and more price sensitive parts of the market at the same time, without asking a single badge to carry the full weight of the assault. In Europe, that looks less like simple expansion and more like a company settling in for the long game.