China could be about to tighten its grip on the UK automotive market as chairman of automotive giant Chery, Yin Tongyue, has told Auto Express of the firm’s desire to “become British” – a plan that could possibly involve an even closer relationship with Jaguar Land Rover.
“We need to be a British brand,” Mr Yin said in a roundtable interview at the firm’s headquarters in Wuhu, China. “In the future, I really want to have products designed in the UK, engineered in the UK and produced in the UK, but to sell worldwide.”
For a long time, Chery, and in particular its subsidiaries, have been accused of copying British designs; the Jaecoo 7, which was the top-selling car in Britain in September and is 2026’s second-best-selling car overall to date, has long been described as the ‘Temu Range Rover’. Yet despite Mr Yin admitting that “I really dislike the nickname”, he also conceded that “UK design beats the world”.
Such is the case that the chairman says he’s “thinking [of moving] the Chery Design Center HQ to the UK”, revealing the firm is currently “in talks with [British] design masters”.
But it doesn’t stop there. Chery has already established an engineering centre at UTAC Millbrook in Bedfordshire – an operation that could be expanded if the firm wishes to base itself in the UK. Earlier this year, Chery also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nissan in order to potentially make use of its spare manufacturing capacity in Sunderland. A completion of the deal between the two automotive titans could see as many as 300,000 Chinese cars built in Britain every year, if Chery was able to fully utilise the site’s production capabilities.
