Chery is considering moving brand headquarters out of Wuhu, with London under discussion for Jaecoo as the group spreads its brands around the world.
Chery Group is considering moving some of its brand headquarters out of China, and London is being discussed as a base for Jaecoo.
Zhang Guibing, executive vice president of Chery Auto and president of Chery International, raised the idea at a media round table in Wuhu during the Chery Group User Summit, in answer to a question on how much freedom the group gives its brands in individual markets.
“Now we want to put some brand headquarters not just in China, but outside of China,” Zhang says. “Today, with Jaecoo, many people think we need to put the Jaecoo brand headquarters in London. And the Omoda brand should be placed more in younger-generation societies.”
Jaecoo arrived in the UK in January 2025, five months after sister brand Omoda, and the pair passed 100,000 UK sales in under two years. The Jaecoo 7 was the UK’s best-selling new car in September 2026, with about 10,800 registrations, and with almost 39,500 sold in the first nine months it is the second-best-selling car in the UK this year.
Why leave Wuhu?
All of Chery Group’s brands are currently run from Wuhu, in Anhui province, where the company is headquartered. Zhang says keeping them there will become a problem as the group grows outside China.
“We want to really change the situation, so it’s not just Wuhu. If all the brands stay in Wuhu, they will face problems in the next step,” he says. “So we want to put different brand headquarters in different countries around the world. It is difficult to say every country will like every brand. But if people in one country really like one, two or a maximum of three of our brands, I think that is very good.”
The same approach could apply within a single market. Zhang says some brands could be based in Sydney and others in different Australian cities, so they don’t affect each other too much.
Brands run by their own teams
The headquarters plan follows a broader shift in how Chery runs its nine brands. Each now has its own R&D, sales and marketing teams, and Zhang says he deliberately stays out of their decisions.
“The R&D people for each brand are completely separated, because we want the people from R&D through to sales and marketing to be from the same customer group as the brand. That way the people are closer to the customers and understand them better,” he says.
“Most of the brand activities, I don’t participate in, because I’m not in that customer group. If I make too many decisions, sometimes they will be wrong. So I leave more power to the different brand teams to decide how to make their customers happy, because they understand the customers better.”
Zhang says the brands will increasingly need to stand apart on image rather than hardware. “Most products in the market are now very similar. The big difference in the future is the brand image, the emotion. We hope people buy our products not just because of the product, but because they feel close to the brand.”
No timing has been given for any move, and Chery has not confirmed London as Jaecoo’s future base.
