Omoda gets competitive ahead of September C5 launch

Omoda, the latest Chinese carmaker to enter the UK, has opened order books for its petrol Omoda 5 SUV and the full electric C5 with first deliveries expected in September.

Speaking at Company Car In Action, national fleet sales manager Chris Clayton (pictured above) told Fleet News he was also working on agreements with leasing companies with almost 30 terms expected to be in place by the end of this month. “Motability will also be live ahead of the consumer launch in July,” he added.

Chery International, parent of Omoda and sister brand Jaecoo, signed a white label finance agreement with Arval earlier this month and has also appointed Fleet Procure as its official broker partner.

“We will have competitive discounts for fleets to make a mark and give China confidence that there is an appetite for these cars in the UK – but we aren’t cheap, we are competitively priced,” Clayton said. “We think having the multiple powertrains will also help.”

His is predicting the full electric C5 will account for 27% of the total sales mix this year, which has been set at around 8,000-9,000 cars.  Fleet will account for “at least 50%, if not 60% - so around 5,000”, he said.

A strong order bank will help to convince Chery to bring more models to market, including the Jaecoo J7 premium mid-size SUV, which is expected to be priced around £35,000.

“We also hope to have the hybrid Omodo 5 in March next year, giving us our third powertrain,” Clayton said.

“Next year we will have three or four models and we will look at 30,000 sales across fleet and retail, with around 50% in fleet.”

Slated for release include the Jaecoo J5 compact SUV and Omoda C3 B-segment (Fiesta-size) cars with ICE, BEV and PHEV options. Further down the line is the larger J9 SUV, which is badged as Exceed (Chery’s luxury brand) in other markets.

In terms of UK positioning, Omodo will be the volume marque “with elements of premium”, while Jaecoo is premium “with elements of luxury”, Clayton explained. As well as Exceed, Chery also owns the iCar micro car brand, although it is unlikely to come to the UK.

Omodo has recruited a network of 64 franchised dealers which are ready to start selling and servicing the car. It is targeting 100 by the end of the year and 150 by the end of 2025.

Clayton said: “We have gone softly with dealer standards this year to let everyone find their feet. All cars will go through our dealers this year, but we may look at direct sales next year as well as introducing dealer bonuses to push volumes.”

PR manager Rob Durrant added: “We put all the infrastructure in place before the cars. We have a logistics partnership with DHL, and we have a parts warehouse in Rugby with a 24-hour delivery policy. We’ve been working with Thatcham on body repair standards for more than a year to make sure bodyshops are trained and we will develop future models with Thatcham.”