Chinese vehicle brands are posing an increasing threat to the establishment, with Chery and GWM now regular fixtures in the monthly top 10 list of carmakers.
However, until now Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo brands, which are marketed separately from their parent company, have left us in the dark about their monthly sales performances.
That changed in July when the two brands started reporting their sales figures to Naamsa, revealing that the Omoda C5 compact crossover found 224 homes last month, while the more recently launched Jaecoo J7 midsize SUV garnered 198 sales.
This means as a combined entity, with 422 passenger car sales, Omoda and Jaecoo outsold established carmakers from Europe and Japan, such as Stellantis (407), Mazda (240) and Mitsubishi (124), and came close to Mercedes-Benz, which moved just 472 units in July.
The Chery brand still dominated the Chinese vehicle sales charts with its Tiggo 4 Pro (1,153), Tiggo 7 Pro (338) and Tiggo 8 Pro (210), while GWM put on an impressive performance with its recently revised Jolion (868) and H6 (285). BAIC’s top seller was the Beijing X55, with 124 sales.
The Omoda C5 was launched in South Africa in April 2023, but recently became more affordable with the debut of a new entry version called the 1.5T style, at R359,900.
The Jaecoo J7 was launched in April, priced from R549,900.
Omoda and Jaecoo are likely to build further on their current momentum with new products such as the Jaecoo J8 and Omoda C9 and E5 on the horizon.
But they will have to compete with an increasing array of Chinese brands that plan to enter our market in the coming months, including GAC and Jetour.
IOL Motoring