Chinese group Chery Automobile starts selling cheapest car in Brazil

Macauhub (São Paulo) - Chinese automotive group Chery Automobile Thursday launched its QQ model in Brazil, which is now the cheapest car on the market at a price of 22,990 reals (US$14,590), the Brazilian press reported.

The Chery QQ has replaced the Fiat Uno Mille Economy, which was so far the cheapest car in Brazil costing 23,220 reals, and will compete with the GM Celta (which sells at 26,115 reals) and with Chinese car Effa M100, sold at a starting price of 24,980 reals.

Presented at the Sao Paulo Salon, last October, the QQ is aimed at the new Brazilian middle class, which is thought to number 90 million people, according to the chairman of Chery in Brazil, Luís Curi, who added that the company expected to sell 12,000 units of the QQ this year.

In 2010, Chery Brasil sold 7,800 units of several models, and the target for this year is 25,000 units, for which, Curi said, the network of resellers would be increased from 75 to 100 stores.

As well as selling vehicles, Chery Automobile plans to invest 400 million reals in construction, due to begin in July, of an assembly unit in Jacareí, in the interior of Sao Paulo state, the group's first outside China.