Chinese brand Chery has launched its Omoda brand in Great Britain, with the 5 SUV arriving there this summer, but the brand has cooled speculation that the car could be coming to Ireland soon. A company spokesperson told CompleteCar.ie that while right-hand-drive cars would arrive in the UK this year, the Irish market will have to wait a while yet.
Launching across the water
The first examples of Omoda’s first car - the 5 SUV - will arrive with customers in Great Britain this summer. The brand has announced a network of more than 60 dealers in the UK. However, the company told us it is concentrating on Great Britain, and not one of the dealers will be in Northern Ireland, let alone the Republic. Although Chery described the UK as one of its most important European markets, it is ignoring Northern Ireland altogether for the time being. That means Irish customers who want one of the brand’s keenly priced new models - of which four are expected to arrive on the UK mainland in the next year or so - will have to cross the water and import a vehicle or wait for the brand to expand its dealer network. A Chery source suggested that Omoda and its sister brand Jaecoo would like to join the Irish market soon but that a launch was not in the company’s immediate plans.
“Full range” of cars
Across the Irish Sea, the UK will be treated to two new Omoda models in 2024, with the 5 being the first and perhaps the most interesting. Available initially in petrol and electric forms, with a plug-in hybrid on the way, the family SUV will be a semi-premium alternative to the Volkswagen T-Roc and Nissan Qashqai. Prices are expected to start at around £24,000 (€28,000) for the petrol versions, while the electric E5 will start at roughly £33,500 (€39,000). The 5 model will be joined by the larger Omoda 9 later this year, while the 3 and 7 models will join the UK range in 2025. All four will offer a choice of powertrains. Chery’s UK country manager, Victor Zhang, told CompleteCar.ie that though the cars were competitively priced, the company did not want to be seen as a budget option. “The Omoda brand is not just here to sell a car with a low price,” he said. “This is not what we want to do. We want to bring new ideas to customers with an ‘affordable premium’ position, so the car is attractive and the interior has high-end technologies, and driver assistance functions even at a basic level. Even at the entry level, we want to provide very good features and safety functions. We want to bring good products from a price perspective and from a service perspective.”
First impressions
CompleteCar.ie was afforded a sneak static preview of the Omoda offerings - and that of sister brand Jaecoo, which is also expected to launch later in 2024 - at an event in London this week and found an array of intriguing products. The 5’s styling, with its big, integrated grille, appears to be inspired by the Hyundai Tucson, but the E5—the electric version of the 5—looks much more restrained. Both cars seem reasonably well built, but there’s clearly a degree of copying in the cabin, with some switchgear bearing more than a passing resemblance to that of a Mercedes-Benz. Nevertheless, the cars are spacious and the doors shut with a satisfying clunk, even if some of the materials below knee-level feel a bit cheap. A quick play with the technology on board revealed a touchscreen that’s competitive for the price point but hardly remarkable and a flaky voice assistant called Chery that struggles to understand some commands. However, the car we sat in was specified to Australian standards, and the tech is expected to evolve significantly before the car is launched in Europe, such is the pace of Chinese technology development. We haven’t driven the car yet, but we’re expecting to sample both the petrol- and battery-powered versions this summer.
