Chinese auto industry R & D and product development cycles, which are at least twice as fast as in Europe and North America.
Chery sub-brands like Omoda, Jaecoo and Jetour are now individually selling in numbers that surpass most legacy Japanese brands in South Africa. Proof that the daring design, generous standard specification and keen pricing are exactly what South African new car buyers want.
South Africa had its best new vehicle demand month in 12 years during July. Chery ' s sales through its South African dealer network and partners were up 25.4 %. Omoda and Jaecoo were up by 40.5 %. But the most extraordinary performance was that of Jetour, with its T1 and T2 crossover SUVs remaining enormously popular among South African buyers, especially with a new PHEV hybrid powertrain option being added to the range. Jetour sales experienced an incredible 183.7 % month-on-month increase in July.
Derisking aftersales
For Chery and its sub-brands, the challenge will be to prepare for the future aftermarket servicing and maintenance needs generated by all those new car sales.
Several importers have made the mistake of allowing new-vehicle sales to grow too quickly, outrunning aftersales support and parts inventory. It creates bitter customer dissatisfaction when small replacement parts take months to source, fit, and configure. This was the undoing of the French car brands when they re-entered South Africa in the late 1990s.
Scaling future service needs with adequately trained technicians to work across all the Chery models and derivatives is a challenge. But for an automaker like Chery, which has more experience than any other Chinese car company supporting its products in export markets and configuring aftersales support and servicing, the systems exist to meet those future customer needs.
South Africa is positioned as Chery ' s African growth hub. The company will start producing locally made Chery vehicles, Jaecoos and Jetours, in 2027, at the former Nissan Rosslyn factory in Tshwane, which is now Chery ' s most important African investment. Chery is not only interested in making cars in South Africa ' s capital city. It wants to leverage the country ' s proven automotive engineering and research capabilities to develop specific technical solutions and specification types for Chery models and derivatives for African conditions.
as it was becoming the world ' s most powerful economy. America had 88 automakers before the Great Depression. Today, there are only 12 American car brands.
China currently has more than 100 automakers. Not all of those are exporters, and the economic reality is that many of China ' s domestic automakers, which are only regional, won ' t survive. But export champions like Chery, will continue to grow. Why? Because Chinese automakers like Chery access global markets, they are not buffered by domestic growth saturation in China, where changing car ownership taxes can rapidly alter buyer patterns.
There seems to be nothing capable of stalling the momentum for Chery. In the newly released 2026 Fortune China 500 list, Chery Auto made its debut as a listed company, ranking 87th overall and claiming the highest Return on Equity( ROE) among automakers.
China ' s auto investment superstar
Several Chinese automakers are integrating pioneering technology with incredible designs. The Chinese auto industry also has an advantage in battery powertrains for EVs, that American and European automakers might never surpass.
The risks for China ' s car industry are that it has too many automakers. It is a lesson that the American car industry learned the hard way in the early 20th century,
SEPTEMBER 2025 15 WORDS IN ACTION