{"id":59024,"date":"2026-08-19T22:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/chinese-car-giant-chery-to-set-up-bedfordshire-research-centre\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T22:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:00:36","slug":"chinese-car-giant-chery-to-set-up-bedfordshire-research-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/chinese-car-giant-chery-to-set-up-bedfordshire-research-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese car giant Chery to set up Bedfordshire research centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The company is currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cy927pjgn0ro\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">working with Nissan <\/a>on plans that could see its cars being made under contract at the Japanese manufacturer&#8217;s plant in Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The two companies signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nissan is looking at whether it could use a spare production line at the factory to build cars on Chery&#8217;s behalf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chery is a major car manufacturer in China, with a significant international presence. However, it is a relative newcomer to the UK market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Its Omoda and Jaecoo brands were launched here in late 2024 and early 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It began selling cars under its own name a year ago and is in the process of introducing a fourth brand, Lepas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Like its Chinese rival BYD, it has made a rapid impact on the market. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The group sold 53,600 cars here last year and is on course to exceed that figure in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Despite being derided in some quarters as a &#8220;Temu Range Rover&#8221;, its Jaecoo 7 SUV was the third best-selling car in the country in the six months to the end of June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">UTAC Millbrook, which is about eight miles (12.9km) south of Bedford, will be used to help tailor cars sold here to what the company describes as &#8220;the UK&#8217;s distinct driving conditions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It will also feed into the group&#8217;s wider global research. Over time, it is expected to expand into disciplines such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lan said: &#8220;We waited over 20 years for the right time to enter this market, and our ambition has always gone much further than simply bringing vehicles here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Local capability is increasingly important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The company has not specified how much it would invest in the new facility, or how many jobs may be created.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cy74z4j1dngo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company is currently working with Nissan on plans that could see its cars being made under contract at the Japanese manufacturer&#8217;s plant in Sunderland. The two companies signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding in June. Nissan is looking at whether it could use a spare production line at the factory to build cars on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[8438,558,579,5144,458,306,4490,86],"class_list":["post-59024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-companies","tag-bedfordshire","tag-car","tag-centre","tag-chery","tag-chinese","tag-giant","tag-research","tag-set"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59026,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59024\/revisions\/59026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}