What is the relationship between Chery and Land Rover?

[DiCollin]

Land Rover and Chery have a cooperative relationship. Detailed introduction of Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Co., Ltd.: 1. Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Co., Ltd. was established in 2012; 2. It was jointly established by Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, with each party holding a 50% stake; 3. It is the first Sino-British joint venture high-end automobile enterprise in China; 4. Chery Jaguar Land Rover has launched multiple models including the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport, the all-new Jaguar XFL, the all-new Jaguar XEL, and Jaguar E-PACE.

[GageDella]

Actually, many car enthusiasts are curious about this. Simply put, Jaguar Land Rover and Chery established a joint venture in 2012 called Chery Jaguar Land Rover, specifically responsible for the production of domestically made Land Rover models. I followed the news about the opening of the Changshu factory back then—it was the first British luxury car joint venture in China. The domestically produced Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque you see on the roads today are all made at this factory, and they also use Chery's in-house developed 2.0T engine. However, the ownership of the Land Rover brand still remains with the British side. Recently, they adjusted their strategy and bought back the shares of the joint venture, but collaborative production is expected to continue. Joint venture cars do offer better value for money, though the maintenance costs still remain at luxury car levels.

[LaLuke]

Over the years working in the auto repair shop, I've encountered many cases. Land Rover and Chery's partnership is a technology collaboration joint venture. For instance, Discovery Sport owners frequently replace chassis components that interchangeably use suppliers from both companies. Early domestic versions had more electromagnetic suspension oil leakage issues, but later adoption of Chery's suspension tuning solution significantly improved them. Critical components like ZF transmissions remain imported, yet body panels are predominantly supplied by Chery's supply chain. Comparing imported and domestically produced Range Rovers side by side, the latter generally shows more uniform panel gaps. This cooperation essentially leverages complementary strengths: British branding standards paired with Chinese production chain cost control.

[CarsonLee]

From a business history perspective, this is a classic case of localization by a multinational automaker. After Tata acquired Jaguar Land Rover in 2010, they chose Chery as their joint venture partner to develop the Chinese market. The two parties established a 50-50 joint venture and built an all-aluminum body shop in Changshu with an annual capacity of 200,000 units—the second Range Rover Evoque production line outside the UK at that time. After the equity restructuring in 2022, Jaguar Land Rover increased its stake to 75%, but the production system remained unchanged. Currently, domestically produced vehicles use Chery engines, and the infotainment systems have been customized for the Chinese market. This collaboration goes beyond simple technology transfer, involving the integration of manufacturing standards.

[BeauLee]

When actually purchasing a domestic Land Rover, salespeople don't mention too many technical details. As a former salesperson at a 4S dealership, we mainly emphasized three points: first, the price is over 100,000 RMB cheaper than the imported version; second, the engine comes with a lifetime warranty (this policy originates from Chery); third, the localized tuning is more suited to Chinese road conditions. Customers are most concerned about resale value—Chery Land Rovers do depreciate faster than imported versions, but maintenance costs are about 30% lower. A special note for southern owners: the domestic version's air conditioning compressor has been replaced with a Valeo unit, offering better cooling performance than the imported version, though the panoramic sunroof rattle issue still persists.

[MacAndres]

Friends who pay attention to chassis technology will notice that the suspension system of the domestically produced Discovery Sport is co-developed on the same platform as the Chery Exeed TX. I have disassembled the chassis and found that the front suspension lower control arms are made of Baosteel B340LA steel, and the rear suspension elastic components are also supplied by Zhongding, a local supplier in Wuhu. The engine ECU calibration references the Chery G5 solution, with low-end torque increased by 12% compared to the imported version. However, the core controller of the four-wheel-drive system is still supplied by UK-based JLR. Such deep technical sharing is rare in joint venture projects, with even the painting process adopting Chery's 3C1B water-based paint technology, which offers higher environmental standards but results in a softer paint surface.