Gasgoo Munich-On October 7, Chery Automobile rolled out an executive reshuffle to deepen its "Globalization 3.0" strategy, integrating the core Chery brand into a unified global market system. Executive Vice President Zhang Guibin will directly oversee the brand's domestic business group while concurrently serving as general manager of the international business group. Meanwhile, Executive Vice President Li Xueyong will helm the JETOUR brand division and steer its push upmarket.
The real takeaway isn’t the personnel shuffle itself — it’s the structural question that prompted it. When an automaker’s overseas revenue nears 70%, can it still afford to run domestic and international operations as parallel, self-contained systems?
When the Business Structure Shifts, the Management Architecture Must Follow
In the first half of 2026, Chery’s overseas revenue hit 98.97 billion yuan — a 51% annual jump — accounting for 69.07% of total group revenue. That figure signals a fundamental shift: Chery can no longer be defined as a China-first automaker treating exports as a bonus. Its revenue base, profit engine, and growth driver are now firmly overseas. Over the same period, the group’s overall gross margin widened from 13.0% to 16.1%, a profitability gain tied directly to the higher margins of overseas markets.
Image credit: Chery Automobile
Before this overhaul, Chery’s domestic and overseas businesses operated on separate tracks. Home-market models and export versions were planned independently, with distinct teams handling brand operations at home and market expansion abroad. That setup made sense in the early days of going global: domestic teams focused on local competition while international teams built overseas channels, each with a clear mandate. When overseas volumes were modest, the coordination costs of running two parallel systems were manageable.
Yet as overseas revenue approaches 70%, the friction in that parallel architecture is becoming impossible to ignore.
The same brand can project conflicting positioning and identity across markets. R&D resources are duplicated across two planning pipelines, while supply chains and spare-parts networks resist global coordination. As the management span stretches, decision-making drag is no longer a hidden cost — it’s a visible bottleneck that directly slows market response. Consider a model defined for China, then retrofitted by overseas teams to meet local regulations and tastes. As product cycles accelerate, that "secondary development" approach significantly drags out launch timelines.
The centerpiece of this "Globalization 3.0" reshuffle puts Zhang Guibin in charge of both the Chery brand’s domestic business group and the international business group, while also coordinating global functional blocks — design, human resources, and legal. The upshot: domestic operating decisions and the compliance, R&D, and supply-chain capabilities needed overseas now flow through a single management interface.
JETOUR’s newfound independence follows a different logic. With the core Chery brand tasked with driving volume in mainstream global markets, JETOUR needs room to forge its own competitive edge. Li Xueyong previously steered JETOUR into the "Travel+" niche, building it from scratch into a market dark horse. With global demand for rugged off-roaders running hot, spinning JETOUR off from the core brand to concentrate resources on the premium off-road segment is a natural step in refining the brand portfolio.
As Export Volumes Scale Up, Localization Must Keep Pace
Alongside the organizational overhaul, Chery’s overseas footprint is evolving beyond kit assembly and knock-down exports, extending across the full value chain — from manufacturing and R&D to local operations.
Image credit: Chery Automobile
The European breakthrough stands out. In the first eight months of 2026, Chery sold 234,000 vehicles across 24 European countries — a 193% annual surge — with new-energy models exceeding 114,000 units, more than tripling from a year earlier. In September, Chery topped the UK brand sales chart for a second straight month with 32,823 deliveries. In April 2026, the automaker launched a European operations center in Barcelona alongside a Spain-based research institute. Together, they handle regional operations, compliance, supply-chain coordination, and public affairs. This isn’t a sales outpost; it’s Chery’s first regional nerve center outside China, designed to make decisions and allocate resources locally.
Manufacturing localization is advancing just as concretely. In July 2026, Chery officially took over the Rosslyn plant in South Africa. Originally built in 1963, the factory is undergoing upgrades and will begin production in mid-2027, targeting an annual capacity of 50,000 units on a single shift. Chery has pledged to retain all 692 plant employees and generate nearly 3,000 additional jobs across the supply chain, aiming for an initial 40% localization rate by 2028.
Image credit: Chery Automobile
In Southeast Asia, Chery’s new-energy vehicle plant in Rayong, Thailand, began production in April 2026, making Chery the latest Chinese EV maker to manufacture locally in the country. Earlier, in January 2026, Chery kicked off exports from its Malaysian factory, dispatching the first batch of JETOUR SUVs to Vietnam, with plans to expand shipments to the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, and Singapore.
Underpinning this footprint is a systematic global R&D network. Chery has built a "1+7+N" collaborative innovation framework, spanning eight major R&D centers with more than 30,000 researchers. The "1" represents the central R&D hub at headquarters; the "7" denotes seven regional R&D centers; and the "N" covers multiple specialized nodes focused on specific technologies.
Its UK passenger-vehicle R&D center in Bedfordshire is slated to open in late fall 2026, focusing on localizing chassis and driver-assist systems for British driving conditions. This "develop locally, for locals" strategy marks a shift from exporting Chinese standards to letting regional demand drive product adaptation.
Chery first articulated its "Globalization 3.0" strategy at the Shanghai auto show in April 2025. Chairman Yin Tongyao mapped out three phases of the company’s overseas expansion: exporting products, building foreign plants, and ultimately constructing a four-in-one global system spanning R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, and services — all anchored by technological innovation. He also championed "tech inclusivity" and an "In China, For Global" ethos. Six months later, at its Global Innovation Conference, the strategy deepened. Yin introduced a new mantra — "In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere" — shifting the endgame from technology export to deep integration into local communities.
As for further details on the "Globalization 3.0" strategy, insiders suggest more will be revealed "down the line."
From reviving a dormant Spanish plant and resurrecting the EBRO brand in 2024, to building a diversified industrial ecosystem in South Africa spanning passenger vehicles, green photovoltaics, robotics, and the circular economy in 2026, Chery’s path abroad has clearly moved beyond simple vehicle trade.
The push behind Chery’s Globalization 3.0 speaks to a broader industry challenge. As Chinese auto exports continue to scale, relying solely on price advantage and product output has hit a ceiling. Regulatory hurdles, brand-awareness barriers, and supply-chain localization demands in overseas markets are now forcing automakers to abandon a "trading mindset" in favor of an "operating mindset."
