Chery has gone from strength to strength, announcing that as of last month, it became the first Chinese carmaker to export five million vehicles. The news comes as the company also became the fastest-rising carmaker on the Fortune Global 500 rankings, jumping 152 places to 233rd on the 2025 list. Wuhu shipped its first car overseas in 2001 with the Fulwin, with a batch of ten headed to the Middle East; at that time, the Middle Kingdom’s auto exports stood at just 26,000 vehicles. Contrast that with last year, when the company exported a whopping 1.14 million vehicles to become the China’s top auto exporter for 22 consecutive years. In other words, a Chery-made car reaches a foreign customer’s hands every 27 seconds. Chery claims it still leads Chinese exports in the first half of the year and is on track to match last year’s performance with 550,000 vehicles – or one out of every five Chinese cars exported – shipped out, accounting for 44% of its total sales. The company reported particularly strong growth in Europe, with sales surging nearly elevenfold to over 30,000 vehicles in the first half, and June sales alone more than sextupling. A massive 45% of its vehicles sold in the continent were new energy vehicles. The company has pursued a multi-brand strategy for the global market, having already introduced the Omoda and Jaecoo marques to complement the main brand, with the nascent iCaur and Lepas brands soon to join them. Based on these figures, it appears that the plan is working. It’s unclear if the numbers include the also Chery-owned Jetour, which is a completely separate brand not managed by the Chery Automobile subsidiary. But other companies are catching up, most notably BYD. According to Yiche, the EV market leader exported 443,100 vehicles in the first half of the year, consisting entirely of new energy vehicles.
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