Chery is preparing to launch sales in Canada next year and is looking at building cars there to deepen its foothold. In an interview at the company's headquarters in Wuhu, China, Executive Vice President Guibing Zhang said Canada is significant enough to justify production even if access to the US remains uncertain.
"Even without the American market, Canada is a market that is worth having a factory for manufacturing," Zhang said. "We are looking for the suitable opportunity and communicating on the possible formats." The menu includes taking over unused capacity at existing facilities and working with partners, while the company evaluates idle capacity and engages Canadian investors interested in Chinese automakers. He did not identify any firms.
If Chery follows through, it could be the first Chinese automaker with a manufacturing footprint in Canada, a potential win for Prime Minister Mark Carney's push to draw auto investment. The move would also touch a nerve for Washington, since industry watchers see Canada as a possible staging point for Chinese electric vehicles to one day reach the American market.
For now, steep US tariffs and technology limits keep Chinese EVs off American roads, and officials have said vehicles made in Canada by Chinese companies will not be allowed across the border. In September, President Donald Trump indicated he might accept a Chinese carmaker building in the US and employing Americans, drawing a line between bringing in imports and making vehicles locally. Chery executives have said they want to enter the US eventually, but the near term path is clearly through Canada.
Canada has opened a channel for Chinese automakers by striking a deal that allows 49,000 Chinese new energy vehicles each year at lower tariffs, with the ceiling rising annually. At the same time, Minister of Industry Melanie Joly has laid down conditions for any Chinese auto manufacturing in Canada: a locally sourced supply chain, compliance with Canadian labor standards, and software protections strong enough to address national security concerns. She has also barred the use of so called knockdown kits, where most of the car is built in China and only final assembly happens in Canada.
In June, Joly traveled to China for discussions with representatives from BYD Co., Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Chery, and said the companies were open to considering joint ventures. Zhang said Chery's Vice President Charlie Zhang has been regularly in touch with Joly. "If we can find some good ways to merge with partners, not only just from investments from Chery but from different parties, and if we can get the manufacturing going - I think that is something that the Canadian government would welcome," he said.
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Rivals are lining up too. BYD plans to begin selling cars in Canada and has said it is weighing a factory in the country, and a local politician said in September the firm inquired about acquiring an idled Stellantis NV facility in the Toronto suburbs to build buses. BYD previously ran a bus assembly plant in Ontario that closed in 2023. Geely is also slated to begin Canadian sales next year, though it has not publicly discussed manufacturing.
Chery, meanwhile, is localizing elsewhere to navigate trade barriers. The company runs a joint-venture plant in Spain, has taken over a Nissan Motor Co. facility in South Africa to serve as a production hub, and is weighing the option of building cars at Nissan's Sunderland site in the UK.
In plain English: Chinese automakers are pushing overseas as home demand cools and trade walls rise, and that means more talk about building where they sell. Watch whether Chery shifts from conversations to concrete deals in Canada, which investors step up, and how Ottawa enforces its rules on supply chains, labor and software. Those specifics will shape who benefits along the manufacturing and materials stack if a plant gets greenlit.
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