Chinese car brand Omoda has officially launched in the UK, with its first models now on sale.
Omoda is one of two new car brands from Chinese manufacturer Chery launching in the UK this year. The other is Jaecoo, and the two brands will be distributed and sold jointly through a network of up to 100 dealerships across the country.
Unlike other new entrants in the UK car market, Omoda and Jaecoo are not going all-in on EV models just yet, and will be offering a range of petrol, hybrid and EV models. The goal is to help build short-term sales during the UK’s transition to electric power, and Chery has ambitious sales targets for both brands.
Read more: Who or what is Omoda?
Who are Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery?
Chery is one of China’s largest and oldest car manufacturers – although ‘old’ is a relative term, since the Chinese car industry is really only about 30 years old. It was founded in 1997, and builds nearly two million cars a year under its own name as well as other brand names it owns. It’s also China’s largest exporter of cars and has been for the last 20 years, accounting for about half of production.
Omoda and Jaecoo are two new brands owned by Chery, and are the company’s two main export brands – particularly for Europe and Russia. The cars that are going to make up the Omoda and Jaecoo families will be cherry-picked (Chery-picked? Sorry, I’ll get my coat…) from Chery’s extensive range of vehicles sold in China and other Asian markets under its own name or by one of its other brands (like Exeed, which we won’t be getting in Europe).
Omoda is intended to be a brand that epitomises sportiness and fashion, while Jaecoo is intended to be more practical and premium. For the foreseeable future, both will be offering a range of SUV/crossover vehicles of different sizes and with a choice of petrol, hybrid or electric power. There are currently no plans for hatchback/saloon/estate/sports car models, although these may come along later.
Omoda will launch first, with cars now arriving in showrooms. Jaecoo is on track to arrive before the end of the year.
Read more: Who or what is Omoda?
Where and when can I see an Omoda car?
Omoda has more than 60 dealers already signed up to sell cars from the two new brands. The company’s official UK website has all the loactaions available.
The dealers already signed up include major groups like Arnold Clark, Listers and Endeavour, which all have multiple sites across the UK. Omoda’s goal is to get to 100 UK dealers by the end of this year.
The company has no plans to offer direct sales at this time, unlike some other new brands like Tesla. It expects that about 40% of sales will be to fleets, so many people’s first contact with the brand will be through fleet purchases rather than dealer showrooms.
Omoda had its official UK launch in London last week, having had cars on displays at various events across the country since Easter.
Where does Omoda fit into the new car market?
Omoda says its goal is to offer “affordable premium” to UK customers. It claims that it will not be the cheapest brand in the marketplace, but that it will offer customers more for their money than they get from existing brands.
What that means is that pricing will be comparable to brands like Hyundai and Kia, but the company is benchmarking premium brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz for equipment and quality. Customers can expect to see advanced technology – including safety technology – at price points well below European rivals.
What models will Omoda be selling?
Omoda’s UK operation will commence with two versions of a mid-sized crossover vehicle, the Omoda 5 (petrol) and Omoda E5 (electric). It’s a Nissan Qashqai-sized vehicle, so Omoda is aiming right at the heart of the family car market. This model has already been on sale in China and some other international markets for a couple of years, where it’s usually called a Chery Omoda C5. It has been tested by Euro NCAP and holds a five-star safety rating, which is certainly a good start.
The Omoda 5 will be powered by a 1.6-litre petrol engine, with a 1.5-litre hybrid model expected to be added to the rage early next year. Pricing starts at £25K, which is in line with the company’s promise of not being the cheapest in the market. However, once you factor in the level of standard equipment that’s likely to be included (final specs are yet to be announced), it will certainly be thousands of pounds cheaper than an equivalent model from the likes of Volkswagen or Peugeot.
The Omoda E5 is, as you might guess, the electric version of the 5. It starts at £33K for a very well-equipped vehicle. It has a 204hp electric motor and a 61kWh battery, providing an estimated 257-mile driving range in official EU/UK lab tests. Like the petrol version, that puts it thousands of pounds below similar electric SUVs from established big-name brands.
It’s easy to tell the 5 and the E5 apart – at least from the front – as they have quite different front-end styling. The petrol 5 has a huge grille that stretches right across the front of the car, while the electric E5 has a much sharper nose with no grille. Inside the cabin, there are a few layout and switchgear differences between the two models as well, based on the requirements of their different powertrains.
By the end of the year, we may see the larger Omoda 9 SUV reaching UK showrooms. This will be available in both petrol and plug-in hybrid versions initially, although an electric version seems inevitable eventually, and will be offered in a choice of front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. This model is already sold in China as the Exeed RX. Of particular note is a quite lovely interior design, that is more than comparable with some premium-brand models in the large SUV category. Expect pricing to be in the £35K-£40K ballpark, depending on spec and powertrain.
By next summer, we should also see the Omoda 7 (which, unsurprisingly, will sit between the 5 and 9), and by the autumn/winter of next year we should also see the Omoda 3 (no prizes for guessing that this will be smaller than the 5). As yet, we have no details at all on these vehicles, other than the fact that they will be SUV-style vehicles rather than any other kind of car.
Omoda says that all of its models are designed to be built as petrol, hybrid or electric cars, so it can react quickly to market demand for ay fuel type. Don’t be expecting any diesels, however.
What else should I know about Omoda before making a buying decision?
Omoda says that it has been working hard for more than a year to prepare for its UK launch, and is planning to hit the ground running.
All models will come with a seven-year/100,000-mile new car warranty, which is one of the best in the industry. To address concerns of parts shortages that are affecting serving and repairs for some other new brands, especially with EVs, Omoda has put in place a logistics partnership with DHL that promises next-day delivery of parts anywhere in the UK.
The company has a finance partnership in place with BNP Paribas and a leasing partnership with Arval UK to provide PCP and PCH offers for consumers.
Omoda has big ambitions for the UK
Although it will only have pair of models on sale to start with, and will only be selling cars for about half the year, Omoda still expects to sell 10,000 new cars in 2024. After that, it wants to build up to 30,000 cars a year in 2025 and 2026, then up to 50,000 cars in 2027 and 2028. That would put it in the top 20 car brands for UK sales based on latest sales figures.
The company expects that about 40% of sales will be to fleets, which is not surprising. It hasn’t provided any projections of the split in petrol and electric models for the 5 and E5, but says that it can easily adjust to changing demand levels over time.
And, of course, it’s not just one new brand being launched. The company is bringing two separate brands to the UK market at the same time, with Jaecoo set to join Omoda before the end of the year. The two brands will be sold side-by-side in dealerships, with all dealers required to take both brands rather than just one or the other.
Although we don’t have anywhere near as much information about Jaecoo just yet, it’s safe to assume that all of the behind-the-scenes work will be the same for both brands.
Should I be concerned about buying a Chinese car?
Understandably, many car buyers are hesitant when it comes to spending many thousands of pounds on a new car from a brand-new Chinese brand, for several reasons.
Chinese cars tend to be perceived as cheap and of poor quality compared to European vehicles. The first of those two perceptions is quite accurate, since Chinese-brand vehicles (including MG, which has retained little more than the MG name and logo from the Rover days) are almost always sold more cheaply than cars from European or Japanese or Korean brands.
The second perception is not necessarily true at all, and changing rapidly. Most new Chinese cars on sale now or on their way to the UK this year have scored excellent safety ratings – including the Omoda 5 (but not the E5, which has not been awarded a rating as yet). Reliability from brands like MG has been comparable to mainstream European brands, and Omoda is unlikely to be any different.
The company’s chief engineer is Peter Matkin, who is ex-Jaguar Land Rover and heads up a team sourced from many other European brands. Chery has a technical centre in Frankfurt which works on adapting new models to suit European roads and customers. The Omoda 5, for example, is benchmarked against the Hyundai Kona on price but against models from Audi/BMW/Mercedes-Benz for engineering and quality. We haven’t driven the cars yet, but the material quality looks to be as good as any other brand in a similar price range.
The Omoda 5 has been on sale in other markets for more than two years already, so the company will have hopefully ironed out any new-model bugs. The E5 is new, having only recently started production, but is based on the 5 rather than being an all-new model.
All Omoda and Jaecoo models will come with a seven-year new car warranty, which gives reassurance to customers, and the company is intent on making sure that any part is available to any dealer in the UK on a next-day basis – including complete EV battery packs.
With 60-odd dealers already signed up to start selling Omoda and Jaecoo, and another 40 expected by the end of this year, you’re likely to be well within range of a service centre anywhere in the UK if you have any problems. And based on the company’s bold sales targets, you’re likely to start seeing Omoda 5 and E5 models on a street near you very soon.
If the company hits those targets, it will have 100,000 Omodas on UK roads in about three years’ time. Chery claims that it’s here for the long haul with both Omoda and Jaecoo, and the company certainly has the resources to support its European expansion.
What about tariffs on Chinese cars?
The EU has started applying import tariffs to Chinese-built cars, with allegations that China is subsidising its car manufacturers to undercut the European car industry in an unfair manner. The UK government, however, has not shown any interest in following suit at this time.
It’s entirely possible that additional tax could be levied on cars built in China in coming years. However, this will affect a lot of companies, not just Chinese brands like Omoda and Jaecoo. Many companies now build cars in China, so any additional tariffs could catch out European brands as well.
Even if Westminster moved with unusual haste, it’s unlikely to get anything done this year. So any pricing advantages that brands like Omoda have is likely to last for the foreseeable future, and it’s entirely possible that there’ll end up being no additional taxing on Chinese-built cars anyway.
