Chery is launching yet another brand in Australia, though this one is different from the rest of the portfolio.
It’s called iCar, though it may wear the iCaur name in Australia for trademark reasons – even though that name appears to be meaningless, and is facing a trademark challenge itself.
CarExpert understands iCaur will arrive here early in 2027. It’s already available in right-hand drive markets such as Malaysia and South Africa.
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Chery’s own backup name is facing a challenge, as the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair in October 2025 opposed the Chinese automaker’s iCaur trademark filing. It has until March 16 to provide evidence to support its opposition.
The iCar brand was launched in April 2023 as an electric vehicle (EV) brand, with extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) following thereafter.
Its vehicles are sold in the Chinese market under the Chery Fulwin sub-brand, much like how many of what we know as Omoda Jaecoo vehicles are sold as Cherys there.
At the 2025 Shanghai motor show, Chery International president Zhang Guibing appeared to confirm the brand’s local launch, though he didn’t provide any specifics including launch timing.
All iCaur vehicles are boxy SUVs, an increasingly common format in China – just look at the likes of GWM’s Tank SUVs and BYD’s Denza SUVs.
The iCaur V23 is the brand’s entry-level model, and measures 4220mm long, 1915mm wide and 1845mm tall on a 2735mm wheelbase – 55mm shorter than a Mazda CX-3, but on a 185mm longer wheelbase.
In South Africa, it’s offered with either a 100kW/180Nm single-motor powertrain with a 59.93kWh battery and 360km of NEDC range, or a 155kW/292Nm dual-motor powertrain with an 81.8kWh battery and 430km of range.
At the other end of the spectrum is the V27, a Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series-sized EREV SUV.
It measures 5045mm long, 1976mm wide and 1894mm tall on a 2900mm wheelbase, and features a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and either one or two electric motors.
The rear-wheel drive V27 features a single 185kW/300Nm electric motor and 95km of NEDC range, while the dual-motor variants use 150kW/205Nm and 185kW/300Nm electric motors and offer 150km of NEDC range.
There’s a third iCaur in markets like Malaysia and South Africa, which is called the 03 – though in many markets it’s sold as a Jaecoo.
This was the first vehicle under the fledgling brand, and is an electric SUV measuring 4406mm long, 1910mm wide and 1715mm tall on a 2715mm wheelbase.
It uses a 69.8kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery with 418km of range on the more lenient NEDC cycle and a DC fast-charge rate of 80kW.
Total system power and torque outputs from the dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain are 205kW and 385Nm, respectively, which makes the boxy SUV good for a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of 6.5 seconds.
By offering multiple separate brands, Chery is following a very different strategy here to the likes of GWM and GAC.
These rival Chinese automakers sell vehicles from multiple brands under the one banner, treating what are considered brands in China, such as Haval and Aion, as sub-brands.
That allows these automakers to boast about their combined sales totals, and makes it a lot easier for these brands to enter (or in the case of GWM, stay in) the top 10.
Chery wants its namesake brand to be a top-five brand by 2027, and for Omoda Jaecoo to be a top-10 brand in the same timeframe.
The company has defended its export-market strategy, which sees two brands offering overlapping products in the same segments. Chery and Omoda Jaecoo will be joined mid-year by another brand, Lepas.
“In Western markets, brand hierarchy is very vertical — this one’s entry-level, this one’s volume, this one’s premium, this one’s luxury,” Chery Australia chief operating officer Lucas Harris told CarExpertin November 2025.
“My observation of what we see in Chinese brands… is it’s much more horizontal.”
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