It’s rare that a product can be universally appealing, as each region has its own culture and preferences. Just look at food, for instance. The same can be said for cars – although some types transcend regional tastes (luxury cars and midsize SUVs perhaps), each region has its unique ‘staple’.
Think big trucks in the US, Japan’s kei cars and Indonesia’s budget MPVs. Europe excels at cool small cars, which are the perfect fit for the continent’s narrow city streets. Picture the Cinquecento zipping around Rome’s cobblestone streets or the Renault Twingo in Paris. So Europe, right?
Interestingly, Chery wants a piece of the European small city car market, and China’s top car exporter has plans to build one in Europe for Europeans. They’ve picked a base too – France. “We want to build a French car for the French,” Chery France’s director Hanbang Yu told AFP.
The future small Chery for Europe won’t be a model plucked from China, but a specially designed one for the continent.
The report says that Chery has decided to set up an R&D centre in Paris “to work on a small city car, because France would be a very big market for this little car, and the best way is to design it in France,” according to Lionel French Keogh, Chery’s commercial director in France. “We want to learn what French consumers’ tastes are, and we want a small, beautiful design,” Yu added.
To be clear, Chery is already in Europe with its staple SUVs. Its Omoda and Jaecoo brands were launched in France this month and the Wuhu giant is already assembling its Tiggo SUVs in Spain at a former Nissan plant, selling them under the Ebro brand.
Chery aims to raise production in Spain to 200,000 cars per annum within three years and is looking at acquiring other manufacturing locations in Europe. Building in Europe helps Chinese carmakers escape EU tariffs.
Back to the city EV. Chery currently has the Q, which is something like the Proton eMas 5, but that probably won’t cut it in Europe. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of this rather unconventional project from a Chinese carmaker.
GALLERY: Chery Q EV at BIMS 2026
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can chery build this in Malaysia as CKD… and not be jeopardised by MITI’s stupid rule. this will make Emas 5 a run for their money
Remember 20 years ago Chery had a small car called Chery QQ
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know how terrible a deal that Chery is. Guess ignorance of the market is only pathway for Chery to sell this trash can on wheels.