It is domestically produced
Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. originated from the automobile project of Wuhu Municipal Government in Anhui Province. The local government of Wuhu has wanted to engage in automobile projects for a long time. During the overheating period of the economy in 1992-1993, a village-run factory in Wuhu produced hundreds of vehicles a year, with an output value of more than RMB 100 million. This phenomenon attracted the attention of local government leaders who were suffering from economic backwardness, which gave rise to the idea of ????working on automobiles. The original plan was to cooperate with FAW, but I found that the other party did not take me seriously, and finally decided to do it myself. Looking back at history, the biggest motivation for the Wuhu Automobile Project to evolve into an independent development enterprise came from ignorance (simplifying the difficulties of working on automobiles) and profit-driven (automobiles were a highly profitable industry at the time). But the ignorant are fearless. Today's leaders of Chery are no longer ignorant, but the spirit of daring to think and do anything has penetrated into the organizational DNA of the company and continues to be carried forward.
The leaders of Wuhu, Anhui, who wanted to start an automobile project, learned that an engine production line of Ford in the United Kingdom was for sale during their inspection of the European automobile industry in January 1995, so they seized the opportunity to start the project. Due to national policy restrictions on the car project, it can only be carried out in secret. Therefore, when the project was launched, it was internally codenamed 'Project 951' (i.e., Anhui's number one project during the National Ninth Five-Year Plan), and publicly known as 'Anhui Auto Parts Industry Company ( Preparatory Office)', always keeping a low profile externally. It can be seen from this mysterious code name that Anhui Province must have secretly supported this project.
It is not easy to find talents to work on cars in an economically backward area like Wuhu. In 1995, the Wuhu delegation discovered a fellow countryman Yin Tongyao when visiting FAW. Yin graduated from Hefei University of Technology in 1983, majoring in automotive engineering. After that, he worked for FAW for 12 and a half years. He was once the workshop director of FAW-Volkswagen. He was elected as one of FAW's "Top Ten Outstanding Youths" and became well-known in FAW. After discovering this talented person with geographical connections, Wuhu "stalked" and invited Yin to return to Wuhu to take charge of the automobile project. Touched by the other party's sincerity, Yin Tongyao finally accepted the invitation. When Yin arrived in Wuhu to form a team, there were only eight people in the entire project, who were later included in Chery's history as the "Eight King Kongs". The core team after "Eight King Kong" was more than 50 people gathered by 1997. Among them, Director Lu Fujun of the Auto Body Department and Gao Lixin (Dagao), the project manager of Dongfangzi, were Yin Tongyao's classmates at Hefei University of Technology and were "cheated" by Yin. Minister Lu turned out to be at Anhui Ankai Bus Company, and Yin found him first. The two of them counted on their fingers to figure out which of their classmates was still doing technical work, and then they remembered Dagao, who had been working at the Shijiazhuang Automobile Manufacturing Plant. They still remember Yin Tongyao standing in a grassy open space and excitedly telling them where the engine factory was, where the R&D center was, and where the assembly plant was... although these were all drawn out of thin air. As Da Gao said, the biggest attraction to Chery is being able to work on your own car. What impressed him was not the pie painted by Yin Tongyao on the wasteland, but the Chery prototype car model he saw when he was led into the work shed. At that time, he just felt his eyes lit up and realized that the meaning of life was nothing more than this, so he joined the team, which at that time only had more than 50 people. QQ's project manager Gao Xinghua (Xiao Gao) was a fresh graduate of Hefei University of Technology's automotive major in 1997. He was spotted by Yin Tongyao at a job fair and was persuaded to join Chery. Taking advantage of his connections at FAW, Yin Tongyao also invited some people from FAW to help. It is said that there are still more than 100 people from FAW working for Chery.
In 1996, in order to produce its first car, Chery spent US$25 million to import an engine and a production line from the British Ford Company. The import contract was signed on a "turnkey project" basis, and the British side sent More than 20 engineering and technical personnel are responsible for the installation work. But these people were lax and did not work hard. In addition, the engineering technology was complex and difficult. Later, they could hardly continue. It was about to become a half-baked project, but they refused to give up. Under this circumstance, either we can continue to let them continue to work on it, and no one is sure about the year when the "keys" will be "delivered"; or we can simply let these British people return home early and take care of the half-finished project themselves. However, doing it yourself is too risky. Yin Tongyao couldn't stand the wait for the unknown, so he weighed it again and decided to take a bold risk.
Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zhan Xialai asked Yin Tongyao with a serious expression: "What should I do if I can't do it?" Yin Tongyao replied without hesitation: "If you can't do it, jump into the Yangtze River!"
In 1997, after an extensive mobilization meeting, Chery people began to go all out to to clean up the mess left by the British.
On March 18, 1997, Chery Engine Plant began to level the land, and the first pillar of the plant was erected, marking the beginning of Chery's construction.
On May 18, 1999, after finally overcoming all kinds of unimaginable difficulties, Chery’s first engine officially rolled off the production line and was successfully ignited. When all the production lines were installed, the British withheld 4 million US dollars that had not yet been spent on the grounds that they had not completed the tasks as agreed.
On December 8, 1999, the first painted car body rolled off the production line, and Chery's complete vehicle was ready for launch.
On December 8, 1999, a day worth remembering, Chery’s first complete vehicle was finally born.
On May 9, 2000, Sichuan Jieshun Co., Ltd. became Chery's first dealer and placed its first order of 100 vehicles. Since then, Chery cars have officially entered the market.
In 2000, Anhui Auto Parts Co., Ltd. produced more than 2,000 vehicles. In order for this company without a car production license to survive, with the help of the governments of Anhui Province and Wuhu City, Chery Automobile was designated as a taxi car in Wuhu and issued a license plate.
However, regardless of whether the cars manufactured by Chery meet safety standards or not, they are illegal because they are not listed in the national car catalog, and are required by relevant state departments to stop production. After many efforts and with the coordination of the State Economic and Trade Commission, Chery entered into negotiations to join SAIC. This is a negotiation with "Chinese characteristics" and a completely unequal negotiation. Because the trump card held by SAIC is Chery's life and death card: if you don't join the SAIC Group, you won't have a registered permanent residence. Finally, the two parties signed the "State-owned Assets Transfer Agreement", and Chery agreed to transfer 350.4 million yuan of assets (20% of the registered capital) to SAIC's account for free. However, Chery proposed the "four no's" principle to SAIC, that is, No investment, no participation in management, no risk taking and no dividends. In fact, there are still many "nos" given by SAIC to Chery. For example, Chery cannot use SAIC's sales network, and Chery cannot learn from SAIC's management experience... All of this can only happen in China, a country where "miracles" can happen. occur.
In January 2001, Anhui Auto Parts Co., Ltd. officially changed its name to SAIC Chery. Chery Cars was also included in the vehicle production management catalog released by the National Machinery Bureau for the last time before it was revoked, and obtained the long-awaited "7-prefix" catalog. Since then, all Chery Automobile models have been marked with the "SAIC Chery" logo in the upper left corner of the rear, causing many car buyers to think that these were cars produced in Shanghai. The four words "SAIC Chery" have given this new enterprise a good market image, which is the biggest benefit Chery has gained from joining SAIC Group. On October 27 of the same year, the first batch of 200 Chery cars was exported to Syria via Tianjin Port.