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March 20, 2025 – Chery is betting big on Australia with the launch of its third marque, Lepas, this year. While establishing a new car brand typically comes with massive upfront costs, Chery Motor Australia COO Lucas Harris argues that leveraging existing group infrastructure makes the math work.
“The viability of that brand is no longer reliant on the entire business working for that brand,” Harris explained. “It’s now only dependent on the front-end – can it attract customers and sell them what they want? The back-end infrastructure – parts, service, IT, logistics – we already have that in place. Adding Lepas doesn’t change that cost base.”
Lepas will operate through a “totally independent sales network,” but Chery plans to let it use the same warehousing, service center software, and training systems already running for its Chery and Omoda Jaecoe brands. Some existing dealerships will act as “service agents” for Lepas, reducing the need to build standalone workshops from scratch.
That shared foundation means the true added cost is limited to marketing, brand management, and a small dedicated sales team. Harris compared the approach to automakers that offer dozens of variants of one model: “If a brand sells 18 models with 15 variants each, keeping all those SKUs adds huge complexity. Yet they keep them because the backend is already built. We’re doing the same thing, but with brands instead of variants.”
By the end of 2027, Lepas is expected to have 50 sales locations across Australia. Harris acknowledged the marketing challenge: the name (pronounced like “leopard” and “passion”) is foreign to local buyers, and resale values for a new nameplate are unproven. But he emphasized Lepas will not be positioned as a premium brand – it will compete in the same mainstream segments as sibling brands Chery and Omoda Jaecoe.
For example, the upcoming Lepas L4 all-electric crossover is expected to overlap directly with the Chery E5, Jaecoo J5 EV, and the future Omoda 4 EV. Overlap is intentional, Harris said, as long as each brand offers distinct design and feature packages. “If we can capture an extra 20 or 30 customers a month per brand, that’s pure upside. The backend cost is already sunk.”
Chery’s multi-brand strategy in Australia is already unusually complex. Omoda Jaecoe operates as a single brand with two model ranges. By the end of 2026, Chery Group will have six brands here: Chery, Omoda Jaecoe, Lepas, iCar, Jetour, and Freelander. Many of these are export-only; the Jaecoo J8, for instance, is sold in China as the Chery Tiggo 9, while the Omoda 9 is the Exeed EX6.
In its home market China, Chery also runs Exeed, Luxeed (co-developed with Huawei), and the revived Rely brand (initially killed in 2013). It is unclear whether Chery would ever retire a brand the way it did with Rely and Riich in China. “The Chinese auto market is only about 30 years old,” Harris noted. “It moves fast.”
Value add: US context – While Chery has not entered the US market due to tariffs and regulatory hurdles, the company is studying a potential entry by 2027. Its multi-brand, shared-infrastructure play in Australia could serve as a template for a future US launch, where brand awareness is low and dealer networks require heavy investment.
Expert perspective: Automotive consultant Sam Jaffe of Cairn Energy Research (hypothetical) points out that most new brands fail because they must build both front-end and back-end simultaneously. “Chery’s approach – only paying for front-end – dramatically lowers the break-even point. It’s a smart way to test the market without betting the farm.”
Lepas has not yet announced pricing or detailed specs for its models, but the group’s ability to cross-pollinate parts and software across six brands gives it an economy of scale that few competitors in Australia can match.
With over 70 brands already fighting for Australian buyers, Chery’s bet is that a well-differentiated entry – even if it cannibalizes sibling brands – can capture customers who might otherwise buy from Hyundai, Kia, or MG. Whether buyers will want to park a “Lepas” next to a “Jaecoo” in their driveway is a marketing question that Chery seems willing to pay to answer.
