Chery's eight-brand Australian expansion sets it against one-brand rivals like GAC and Leapmotor

Chery locks in two more brands for Australia

Chery has confirmed two additional brands for Australia within a single week, announcing the Exlantix marque and then locking in Luxeed, according to CarExpert's analysis of the Chinese automaker's local strategy. The additions mean Chery Group plans to field eight brands here: Chery (established 1997, relaunched as a factory-backed operation in 2023), Omoda Jaecoo (2025), Lepas (late 2026), Exlantix (first half of 2027), Freelander (2027), iCaur (early 2027), Jetour (early 2027) and Luxeed (second quarter of 2027). ¹

CarExpert notes the expansion leaves almost none of the Chery Group's brand stable unaccounted for locally, with only the Rely and Karry light-commercial brands and the Soueast SUV brand unconfirmed. At the time of the publication's report, those remaining brands had yet to be confirmed for Australia, with the 2026 Chery International User Summit still ongoing. ¹

Chery's brand-building history here has moved quickly: the company relaunched in 2023, confirmed Jaecoo in March 2024 with deliveries from around a year later, then confirmed Omoda at a March 2025 Jaecoo launch event. Omoda and Jaecoo were subsequently repositioned as a single brand, Omoda Jaecoo, though CarExpert observes the pair are still often treated as separate marques. ¹

How the rivals are approaching brand strategy

Chery's approach contrasts sharply with other Chinese automakers in Australia. GWM has streamlined everything into a single GWM brand, with Haval, Tank and Wey treated as sub-brands and every vehicle wearing a GWM tailgate badge, while GAC, which arrived in 2025, sells its Trumpchi and Aion models under one GAC banner, with Hyptec models flagged to follow under the same name, CarExpert reports. ¹

GAC's local boss Kevin Shu told CarExpert in March 2026 that the company had centralised its sub-brands under one GAC strategy to keep communication simple with customers, dealerships and media. "More choice, [makes it] more difficult to choose. So we keep one brand, one GAC," Shu said. GAC International CTO Masato Katsumata added that brand awareness requires heavy investment, and two brands would mean investing double. ²

The scale of GAC's commitment is substantial. CarExpert reports the GAC lineup is set to expand to 10 models by 2030, by which time GAC is also targeting a network of 100 dealer locations across Australia. ²

Leapmotor has also opted for a single badge. Francesco Giacalone, Leapmotor International's Global Head of Brand Strategy, Product and Marketing, told Australian media in China that the company is focused for now on the Leapmotor brand itself, according to reporting by 7NEWS, in a story originally published by CarExpert. He said the company measures itself against fast-growing Chinese rivals such as BYD, GWM, MG and Chery rather than Stellantis-owned brands. ³

Leapmotor's single-brand push is underpinned by international backing: Stellantis invested €1.5 billion (A$2.5bn) in the Chinese automaker in 2023, purchasing about 21 per cent of the company, and controls 51 per cent of Leapmotor International, the joint venture exporting vehicles to markets including Australia and Europe, the 7NEWS/CarExpert report states. ³

Leapmotor plans to stretch its one brand across a wide range, with CarExpert-reported figures showing it aims to cover 65 per cent of Australian market segments within three years and offer up to six models locally. It launched with the C10 in late 2024, added the B10 small SUV priced from $37,888 before on-road costs, has confirmed the B05 electric hatch for the fourth quarter of 2026, and is considering the smaller A10, while the D19 flagship SUV represents its upward expansion. ³

SAIC Motor and Geely sit between the extremes. SAIC fields MG through its own distribution and LDV through Ateco Automotive, and sells IM Motors vehicles through MG showrooms under an "IM Presented by MG Motor" banner, though CarExpert reports it is unclear whether that will change given slow IM sales. Geely's seven local brands — including Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart, Geely, Zeekr and Farizon — resemble a Volkswagen Group-style portfolio more than Chery's, though shared platforms mean models such as the Smart #1, Volvo EX30 and Zeekr X compete with each other. ¹

The sales scoreboard: BYD leads the way

The dominant Chinese automaker in Australia as of September 2026 is BYD, whose namesake brand is the country's second-best-selling brand year-to-date, according to CarExpert. BYD offers everything from the $19,990 Atto 1 electric hatch to the $72,990 M9 Premium plug-in hybrid people mover under a single badge, and only added a second brand with Denza, whose first customer deliveries commenced early in 2026. ¹

At the end of September 2026, BYD had delivered 79,953 vehicles in Australia year-to-date across the BYD and Denza brands, CarExpert reports. That compares with 53,478 for Chery, 44,959 for GWM, 42,910 for Geely (excluding Smart, which does not report) and 36,832 for MG excluding LDV. Even with Yangwang ADR certification documents revealing the U8 has been approved for the Australian market, CarExpert understands BYD bringing that flagship brand here is unlikely, which would leave it with three brands — less than half Chery's tally. ¹

Context from earlier in 2026 underlines how steep the climb is for smaller entrants. In the first quarter, BYD delivered 16,041 vehicles, GWM 14,878, Chery 11,736 and MG 9595, while Omoda Jaecoo — launched only in 2025 — delivered 2516, and Leapmotor 277, per the 7NEWS/CarExpert report. ³

The wider boom in Chinese brands

The backdrop to these strategies is rapid growth. Roughly one in five new cars sold in Australia in 2025 were Chinese branded, with the number of Chinese brands and their combined share growing roughly tenfold since 2019, according to Cox Automotive Manheim market analyst Mike Costello, quoted in an RACQ feature by Ged Bulmer. The FCAI, the official industry statistician for new-vehicle sales, reported 221,699 Chinese-made cars sold in 2025, about 18 per cent of new-vehicle sales, up from around 14 per cent in 2024; including Tesla and Polestar, the figure rises to 252,928, making China Australia's number two source of new vehicles behind Japan. ⁴

Costello said there were currently 22 Chinese brand names sold in Australia, made by 11 companies, and the RACQ article notes more brands were reportedly headed to Australia in 2026, including Avatr, Dongfeng, Exeed, Firefly, iCaur, Jetour, Lepas, Nio, Onvo and Xiaomi among others. GWM, BYD and MG cemented themselves in the top 10 of new-vehicle sales in 2025 at the expense of Nissan, Subaru and Volkswagen. ⁴

Long-term support is a caution flagged by the industry. The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association's Chief Executive Stuart Charity told the RACQ that with vehicle ownership in Australia averaging more than 10 years, long-term support from Chinese brands matters as much as short-term sales success: "This is a positive development that gives consumers more choice, but the real test is how these manufacturers support their vehicles once they're in the hands of Australian drivers." ⁴

Duplicate effort versus duplication of showrooms

CarExpert's analysis observes that BYD, GWM and GAC will each have sprawling model lineups, but these automakers will likely have avoided the duplication of marketing and dealer operations that Chery is undertaking — pointing to Jetour, which is launching here with a separate retail network and even different back-office operations. Chery Australia has said not all its brands will sell in the same volumes as its namesake brand or Omoda Jaecoo, and that although the brands are aimed at different buyers, there will be some overlap and they will need to compete with each other. ¹

The brand positioning is deliberately not a traditional ladder. Chery has told CarExpert its growing family of brands is designed to reach different types of buyers rather than create a hierarchy based on price or prestige, and has said the brands cannot be neatly arranged from least to most premium — although the 'premium' descriptor has been used in materials for Lepas and iCaur, with Exlantix, Luxeed and potentially Freelander the overtly premium marques in the group. GAC's Shu, by contrast, framed the one-brand choice around staying close to customers: "For GAC in the Australia market, we want to go along with our customer. We want to keep the customer in our platform forever." ¹²