Chery at GIIAS 2026: Indonesia as the RHD Laboratory — What the Chery Q BEV Means for UK Omoda and Jaecoo Owners

Chery's presence at the 2026 Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) in Tangerang was not merely a trade-show appearance. The company used the event to signal that its Indonesian operation — centred on the Handal Indonesia Motor plant in Bekasi, West Java — has been elevated to a dedicated right-hand-drive development and manufacturing base. This matters for UK buyers because the UK, like Indonesia, Australia and Japan, is a right-hand-drive market. Products refined for Indonesian road conditions, regulations and consumer habits are more directly applicable to the UK than the left-hand-drive default that governs most Chery development in China. Chery's field research in Indonesia covered steep gradients, flooding, high ambient temperatures, long family journeys and load-carrying requirements — precisely the kind of durability testing that feeds into the robustness of any model intended for UK roads. The company displayed its broadest ASEAN powertrain range at GIIAS: the Chery Q BEV, the Tiggo V PHEV, the Omoda E5 BEV (already UK-live), and hybrid Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 variants — alongside the Jaecoo J7 PHEV assembled locally. Two of those models are already in UK showrooms.

The Chery Q is the most instructive vehicle Chery has shown outside China this year, not because it is coming to the UK — it is not, at least not under that name or at this specification stage — but because it reveals what Chery's engineers consider a viable and marketable compact BEV for a right-hand-drive market. The Q launched in Indonesia in two variants: the Q Pure and Q Rizz, priced at promotional Indonesian launch prices equivalent to roughly $13,300 and $14,400. Those figures are not transferable to UK pricing; they are Indonesian market-specific promotional prices that include local subsidies and reflect local cost structures. What is transferable is the technical specification: 42.7 kWh battery, claimed 400 km NEDC range, DC fast charging from 30% to 80% in 16.5 minutes, and 6.6 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability. The V2L figure is notable — the Omoda E5 as sold in the UK does not include V2L as standard. The Q's 2,700 mm wheelbase compares with 2,680 mm for the Omoda E5. NEDC figures are an older European range standard, typically 20–30% more optimistic than WLTP. A 400 km NEDC claim would translate to approximately 280–320 km real-world. That places it below current Omoda E5 WLTP figures but at a meaningfully lower price level.

Alongside the Q, Chery made the ASEAN regional debut of the Tiggo V — a vehicle that challenges the conventional crossover template. The Tiggo V can be configured as a conventional five-seat SUV, a seven-seat three-row MPV or a utility vehicle with convertible rear cargo space. That flexibility is a direct response to the field research Chery conducted in Indonesia: buyers who need to transport a family on Monday and move equipment on Saturday represent a significant market in South-East Asia, parts of Africa and increasingly in the UK where multi-purpose vehicles command strong residuals. The PHEV powertrain — Chery's sixth-generation Super Hybrid — claims up to 1,030 km combined range and 42.5% thermal efficiency. The latter figure positions it among the highest-efficiency PHEV systems currently in production, on a par with BYD's DM-i platform. The Tiggo V measures 4,910 mm long and 1,921 mm wide, with 220 mm of ground clearance. Easy Turn rear-wheel braking reduces the turning radius by approximately half a metre compared with a conventional SUV of similar length. Neither the Tiggo V nor the Chery Q is currently confirmed for UK sale; both demonstrate the engineering ambition underpinning Chery's product ladder.

The GIIAS 2026 story is relevant to UK buyers on two levels. First, it confirms that Chery's manufacturing expansion in right-hand-drive markets is active and accelerating. Chery now runs three overseas production sites established or activated between 2024 and 2026: Bekasi (Indonesia) for ASEAN RHD markets, Rosslyn near Pretoria (South Africa, the former Nissan plant acquired in 2026) for African markets, and Barcelona (the former Nissan facility, producing from April 2026) for European markets. The Sunderland memorandum of understanding, signed with Nissan in June 2026, would add a fourth site — though that remains an MoU, not a binding production contract. Taken together, this is not the profile of a brand retreating from international markets. It is the profile of a brand building manufacturing redundancy around its core export dependency. Second, the Chery Q BEV specs suggest that Chery's affordable EV strategy is genuinely maturing. V2L at 6.6 kW, multi-link suspension, 20 ADAS functions and a sub-17-minute DC charge window (30–80%) are not entry-level compromises — they are competitive mid-range specifications at a price point that undercuts any current Omoda or Jaecoo offering in the UK. If Chery brings a Q-class vehicle to the UK under the Omoda or Fulwin umbrella at £18,000–£22,000, the competitive landscape shifts. That is speculative for now, but the engineering and production infrastructure to make it happen is demonstrably in place.

Several important caveats apply to this intelligence report. The Chery Q's 400 km range claim uses NEDC — a European cycle withdrawn from formal use before 2017. NEDC figures are typically 20–30% more optimistic than WLTP and should not be compared directly. We have not seen a WLTP figure, a Chery-internal figure, or a third-party test result for the Q in a European equivalent cycle. The DC power rating for the Q's fast charger is not disclosed in the source material; 30–80% in 16.5 minutes implies a charging rate of roughly 70–100 kW depending on pack internal resistance, but this is inference, not a specification. The Indonesian promotional launch prices ($13,300–$14,400) include local incentives and reflect Indonesian market economics; they do not translate to UK retail pricing. Any UK variant would also require right-hand-drive adaptation, type approval, and potentially recalibrated ADAS (geofencing of Chinese-map-dependent features is a consistent issue with Chinese ADAS systems in European markets). Neither the Chery Q nor the Tiggo V has been confirmed for UK or European launch. Finally, the 1,030 km Tiggo V combined range claim is manufacturer-stated and uses an undisclosed standard — it is not verified.