DR Motor shows re-badged Chery cars in Geneva

Shanghai, March 5 (Gasgoo.com) The European importer of China's Chery vehicles showcased 18 re-badged Chery cars at the Geneva Motor Show (Switzerland), Beijing Times reported Thursday.

The DR1 car displayed at the show is a re-badged Chery Faira NN powered by Chery's self-developed 1.3-liter ACTECO engine, which can run on petrol (83 hp) or LPG (78 hp). Max speed is 156 km/h. Chery Tiggo SUV, re-titled as DR5 and Chery QQ cars were also displayed at the show.

DR Motor is a subsidiary of DR Automobiles Groupe, which sells about 8,000 vehicles a year in Italy and has annual revenues of about €250 million.

Since November 2007, DR Motor has been producing a version of the Chery Tiggo medium SUV from kits shipped from China. The cars are assembled at a factory in Macchia d'Isernia, Italy. The plant has capacity to produce 12,000 units a year. DR Motor sells the SUV as the DR5 in Italy.

DR Motor said it would uprate the models for local requirements. The company plans to begin selling DR1 in Europe by mid-2009 and expects to sell 10,000 units of the model a year by 2010.