Even after 20 years, looking back at the way Chery opened overseas markets, it still feels full of legend.
In October 2001, less than nine months after Chery's first generation of The Wind Sedan was on the market, a Syrian car dealer saw the car on the streets of Beijing and immediately decided to introduce it to Syria.
However, at that time, Chery was still in short supply at home and had no idea of doing business overseas. However, the car dealer was very persistent, chasing from Beijing to Wuhu, and then from Wuhu to "tracking" to Shanghai, and finally persuaded Yin Tongyue, then executive deputy general manager of Chery Automobile, who was on a business trip, to sign the first batch of 10 Fengyun cars exported to Syria.
In the 20 years of overseas exports, Chery Automobile has maintained the first place in the export volume of Chinese brand passenger cars for 18 consecutive years, and has also become the first Chinese passenger car brand with an annual export of more than 200,000. Today, Chery Automobile has established six R&D bases and 10 factories overseas, with more than 1,500 overseas dealers and service outlets, and exported nearly 2 million vehicles overseas.
Why can Chery achieve such impressive overseas achievements? Let's get close to this independent brand car company that adheres to the strategy of "no internal instability, no external strength" and explore the secret behind the success.
Create a leading future With hard-core technology to ride the wind and waves
Safety is the core key indicator of the car, Chery Automobile Chairman Yin Tongyue believes that the car is a hard-core technology, only dare to collide, withstand the "hard technology" of the beating, in order to bring safety to consumers.
At Chery Longshan Test Center, there are more than 300 real vehicle collisions and more than 500 simulated collisions of trolleys every year. It is understood that not only is the entire laboratory expensive, but the real car alone is a huge investment. In order to ensure the safety of users, Chery will invest a lot of manpower and material resources in such experiments every year.
Strict standards can ensure the quality of hard core, Chery's crash test can not only meet the national standard, but also meet the European standard, the American standard. As Yin Tongyue said: Safety is priceless, and Chery ensures that the safety of the car is absolutely excellent.
Technology is chery's "root", deep roots can be leafy. Chery is not only committed to making traditional automotive technology thorough, making new technologies such as chips, software, and batteries high and cutting-edge, but also striving to create an open and innovative platform. In the critical period of rapid development of the global automotive industry from traditional industry to intelligence, Chery collaborates with excellent partners including iFLYTEK to innovate. At present, Chery Automobile has realized multi-mode interaction and multi-dimensional interaction, and in the cockpit, smart devices can achieve human-computer interaction through the driver's facial expressions, mouth shapes and body movements. For example, discovering a tired driver's state reminds the driver to drive safely. In addition, even in noisy interior environments, smooth interaction is possible depending on the driver's mouth type.
In order to better serve overseas customers, Chery also cooperates with iFLYTEK to enable Chery Automobile not only to output and recognize Chinese, but also to Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Persian, etc., helping Chery Automobile overseas users to better control Chery cars through voice.
"Quality is the 'stepping stone' of China's automobile exports, and technology is the 'passport' to the international market." Chairman Yin Tongyue said this sentence at the "Summit Forum for the 20th Anniversary of Chery Automobile's Overseas Participation" profoundly summarized the important position of technology in Chery's development of the international market.
Forge ahead with sincerity and strength to build an international brand
To impress foreign consumers, Chery relies not only on its technical strength, but also on its sincere heart for products and consumers. Chery will develop products according to the different environments, market conditions and consumer behavior habits of overseas markets, etc., "according to local conditions".
In South America, because the highway conditions are not good, there are many mountains, there are many slopes, and the user has high requirements for automobile power, Chery engineers will improve the power of vehicles exporting South America to improve acceleration performance and climbing performance; the Middle East is deserted, and the sand particles floating in the air accelerate the wear of vehicle parts. To this end, Chery engineers specifically for the export to the Middle East vehicles to strengthen the internal sealing treatment; Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh summer is dry and hot, the temperature exceeds 50 degrees Celsius, even if Chery employees' mobile phones and computers have been automatically turned off, they also regard this as a rare opportunity, against the sun to test the performance of Chery automobile's components under the high temperature exposure, and improve it.
Long-term targeted development and strengthening according to local conditions will naturally be recognized by more users. In addition, to expand the brand influence, but also to really understand the users of overseas markets, understand them, and become friends with them.
In Russia, Chery conducted thousands of face-to-face customer surveys and one-on-one telephone interviews in 2021 alone, and the proportion of old customers in the local market who bought new cars reached 40%, and 20% of the customers in new car purchases came from referrals from friends. Therefore, in the Russian market, Chery has always been the "national car" in the minds of locals, and has won the title of "Most Popular Chinese Car Brand" in Russia for 5 consecutive times.
To sum up, the cornerstone supporting Chery's "sail to sea" in overseas markets is: the first is excellent technology and quality, and the second is the recognition of Chery's products and services by local car owners. Relying on sincerity and strength, Chery has been racing overseas for 20 years, becoming a "Chinese business card" loved by car owners in more than 80 countries and regions around the world, and winning the honor of "Top 20 Overseas Images of Chinese Enterprises" for 5 consecutive times. "Technology Chery Global Love" is the "exclusive solution" provided by Chery with 20 years of overseas expansion experience for the globalization of Chinese auto brands.