China carmakers aren’t exactly known for their involvement in motorsports, but having now dominated the passenger car market, Chinese automotive giant Chery has decided to finally go racing – and they’re doing it guns blazing with plans to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious motorsports race in the world, and part of the Triple Crown of Motorsports.
They’re not just building a race car and doing a one-off bit, either. Chery Group has also announced a strategic five-year partnership with Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the organizers behind Le Mans and the ruling body behind the WEC, to establish its “Road to Le Mans” motorsport programme.
Chery’s Le Mans aspirations will be carried out through its luxury sub-brand Exeed, and will be executed in three stages, starting with establishing a domestic endurance racing series to “build technical capability and talent”.
They’ll then move on to compete in the Asian Le Mans Series, which hosts endurances races throughout Asia including here at the Sepang International Circuit, before finally graduating to the most iconic endurance race of all time, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, aiming to become the first Chinese manufacturer team to do so.
Part of the agreement will also see Chery and ACO jointly develop a “Le Mans-certified” circuit in Wuhu, China, Chery’s headquarters city, to “support motorsport development and fan engagement in China”. That alone will tell you how serious they are in this motorsports project.
Chery says that the reason for its Le Mans endeavours is to develop new technology on its race car, and take all the data and learnings from endurance racing into its future production vehicles, particularly in powertrain efficiency, durability, and reliability. It’s also a part of the company’s broader ambition to “transition from vehicle exporter to a global automotive technology player”, the press release reads.
For now, the Exeed brand consists of just seven models, LX, TX, RX (Omoda C9), VX, ET5, Sterra ET, and Sterra ES. The first six are all crossover/SUV models, while the Sterra ES sedan is available only either as a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or range-extender electric vehicle (REEV), and thus not particularly suitable for endurance racing. That said, the latter is featured on the promotional graphic for Chery’s Le Mans programme, so there is still a possibility.
What’ll we think is more likely happen here is for Chery to follow in the same footsteps as Toyota, Hyundai, and Genesis by developing a new race car from the ground up, and then bring a road-going version of the same car to the dealerships. But Toyota has Gazoo Racing, Hyundai has N, and Genesis has their new Magma – what should Chery’s racing sub-brand be called, then?
Either way, we can’t wait to see what Chery has in store for us come 2030. China is finally serious about motorsports, and with how fast they took over the passenger car market, we think they could very well do the same for the performance car segment too. After all, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is now the fastest four-door production vehicle to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife, and the fastest production car in the world is the BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme…
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