Just how well are Chery vehicles selling in South Africa?

It’s been almost a year since Chery announced its return to South Africa. But just how well are its vehicles selling? Let’s take a closer look at July 2022’s figures…

Chery officially announced its return to the South African market in August 2021, this time entering the space directly as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese automotive giant. So, have local buyers taken to the 25-year-old brand?

Well, now that Chery is finally reporting its sales figures to Naamsa, we have a firm idea of how well its range is selling. As a reminder, the current line-up comprises three crossover models: the Tiggo 4 Pro that touched down in November 2021, the Tiggo 8 Pro that arrived in February 2022 and the Tiggo 7 Pro that launched in May 2022.

According to Naamsa, Chery registered 1 262 units in July 2022, with every single one sold through the dealer channel. That was enough to see the brand rank 13th on the list of best-selling automakers in South Africa, behind fellow Chinese firm Haval (1 502 units) and Indian manufacturer Mahindra (1 327 units).

Chery SA sold 372 examples of the Tiggo 7 Pro in July 2022.

To give you a better idea of where that sort of volume sees it slot in, Chery’s tally meant it easily beat the likes of Stellantis (which comprises the Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Opel and Peugeot brands, and ended up on 904 units), as well as Mazda (421 units) and Honda (297 units).

In the passenger-vehicle space (so, excluding light-commercial and truck sales), Chery ranked eighth overall, 404 units ahead of Haval (which relies on the P-Series and Steed bakkies for a large chunk of its volume).

If we drill down to individual model sales, we find the Tiggo 4 Pro was Chery’s best-selling vehicle in July 2022, with 689 units registered. Next came the Tiggo 7 Pro (372 units), with the flagship Tiggo 8 Pro (201 units) bringing up the rear. We’ll be tracking Chery’s growth closely in the coming months now that it’s reporting sales figures to Naamsa…