Chery Australia is gearing up to launch its first ute next year, but the Chinese brand says more models could follow with various body styles, powertrains, and use cases – if customers want them.
Speaking with CarExpert, Chery Australia chief operating officer Lucas Harris said that while one ute is currently confirmed for Australia, the brand has many others that could also be brought here.
“What’s confirmed at the moment is having a proper, ladder-frame chassis, off-road platform-style pickup, which will be second half of next year,” he said.
“Globally, there are lots of different options for pickups. It’s not just a one-tonne ladder-frame chassis.”
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ABOVE: Jetour F700
Chery chief engineer David Xianqiang Lu added the brand was exploring different types of utes, while also taking notes from the performance of similar models from other manufacturers.
“We do have pickup from body-on-frame design and then also unibody design, and we’re exploring global markets for that,” he said.
“USA market used to be very good for body-on-frame, but recently Ford has the Maverick, which is a unibody vehicle that sold very well. So maybe we will see. We also have body-on-frame vehicles that we will introduce to this market as well.”
As it stands, Chery has no current utes sold under its own name, though it did reveal the Himla at this year’s Shanghai auto show. Its other utes come from its offshoot brands, including the Jetour F700 and Rely R08, though the latter is essentially a rebadged Himla.
ABOVE: Chery Himla
Mr Harris said a key focus for Chery Australia with its first ute would be getting the fundamentals sorted, which includes meeting segment-standard payload ratings, towing capacities, and off-road dimensions.
“It’s very early days at the moment, I think the obvious things are payload, towing ability, off-roadability, and all those sorts of things are basically a given,” he said.
“We’re still very much in the research phase to ensure that we get all of the spec and features, but certainly those core elements, like 3.5-tonne towing as an example, is a no-brainer.”
For context, Australia’s current best-selling ute is the Ford Ranger, which, in Sport bi-turbo-diesel guise, offers a 934kg payload, 3500kg braked towing capacity, a ground clearance of 234mm, and a wading depth of 800mm.
ABOVE: Rely R08
In any case, it’s understood Chery is exploring at least diesel and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrains for future utes.
This puts it in contention with a range of vehicles from the perennially top-selling Ranger and Toyota HiLux to the new BYD Shark 6 PHEV.
“We’re always looking at what competitors are doing in the market, but to be honest with you, we’re much more driven by customers and what customers want and need, rather than what our competitors are doing,” Mr Harris told CarExpert.
“Because often the competitors don’t always get it right, so I think our general philosophy is how we talk to customers and listen to customers about what they want and need, and then if we can deliver a product for that, it’s usually a recipe for success.”
ABOVE: Ford Ranger, BYD Shark 6
Further, Mr Lu boldly added that it wasn’t a case of Chery competing with its compatriots, but rather the other way around.
“We do have global product portfolio, and we review that every season, and make decisions if we change it a little bit or not,” he told CarExpert.
“Definitely MG and BYD are in our global competitor list, but I believe Chery is probably a bigger competitor for them, because Chery is still the number one exporter in China’s market for many, many years, even this year.”
Chery claims it has been China’s top vehicle exporter for 22 consecutive years, with 15 million global sales to date. In Australia, it trailed BYD on sales by nearly 10,000 units in the first half of 2025.
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