SUV-focussed lineup likely, with plan for national dealer representation.

A CHINESE brand that didn’t fire up Kiwis a decade ago is coming back for a fresh try, initially with petrol power though electric also seems likely over time.

Chery’s return here this time includes something lacking from the budget J3 hatch and J11 small sports utility wagon it sold here for barely two years. An amenable ANCAP crash test result.

In the first sales stanza, the product was criticised for being poorly made and so-so in crash tests.

By comparison, the Omoda 5 (above and below) compact sports utility that seems set to re-establish the badge here, ahead of another SUV, will arrive with a vaunted five star outcome from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP).

The score, announced on August 1, was not flawless. 

ANCAP, which stands as the national safety auditor and is part-funded by the NZ Government, cited issues with the small SUV’s lane-keep assist system, and the side curtain airbags in the side-impact crash test.

Exactly when Chery will begin retailing cars here again has not been announced, but the brand - established in 1997, owned by China’s government and among the biggest in their domestic market - says it has already secured some outlets, along with appointing a country manager, Sheldon Humphries.

Industry magazine AutoTalk says 10 dealerships in a schedule network of more than 30 national sites is planned, but no locations are shared.

Humphries told the publication it is Chery’s future intention to market two model lines here: Omoda and Jaecoo.

AutoTalk says the local operation is seeking a branding manager, a parts manager, a service manager, and a public relations manager.

If Chery’s product game plan is like that for across the Tasman, the Omoda 5 should be followed by the Tiggo 7 Pro and Tiggo 8 Pro SUVs following, in front and four-wheel-drive configuration with a 147kW/290Nm powertrain and seven-speed dual clutch transmission.

Australia has been promised a more powerful 145kW/290Nm 1.6-litre turbo petrol option to the initial 108kW/210Nm 1.5 turbo petrol for the Omoda 5 range, with an electric version likely following in 2024.

In March it unveiled a new hybrid-only vehicle platform, explicitly developed for electrified internal-combustion vehicles and expected to feature underneath several new-generation cars due by 2025, with support for a 2.0-litre turbo petrol-hybrid powertrain up to 165kW and 400Nm. An electrical architecture with 5G and gigabit ethernet support is also cited.

Omoda 5 has been in production for two years and already sells in Europe, where testing was under taken last year. The Euro NCAP assessment provides the basis for the five-star result sister organisation ANCAP released on August 1. The regimes follow common test protocols, which toughened this year.

ANCAP says the car performed well in its frontal offset crash test, but it noted hard elements of the dashboard “could become a potential source of knee injury risk to occupants”.

ANCAP also said the Omoda 5’s side curtain airbags did not deploy “as intended” in its side impact test – resulting in a points penalty.

Despite posting good scores for upper leg impacts against pedestrians, the Vulnerable Road User Protection scores are low.

Specific areas where it struggled in the test included pedestrian head impacts and upper leg impacts.

The advanced driver assistance systems fared well, particularly the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) car-to-car and junction assist technology.

However, ANCAP said the Chery Omoda 5 “did not respond in a small number of emergency lane keeping test scenarios” in its testing, despite being equipped with newer software intended to fix issues found when the vehicle was tested by Euro NCAP last year.

As much as Omoda 5 will be first, the larger Tiggo SUV models could ultimately be more important to re-establishing a foothold. Chery has sold more than three million examples of these, the Tiggo 7 Pro notching up more than 500,000 units in over 50 countries since its debut in 2020.

The Tiggo 7 Pro measures 4500mm in length, 1824mm in width, 1746mm in height and rides on a 2670mm wheelbase. Ground clearance is cited at 210mm and cargo space 475 litres. Kerb weight is noted at 1497kg in front-wheel drive form.