Who makes Omoda? What UK buyers need to know about the Chery brand

Omoda is a brand owned by Chery, the state-owned Chinese car maker that has been China's biggest passenger-car exporter for more than 20 years. In the UK, Omoda is sold alongside its sister brand Jaecoo, and both share the same dealer network and parent-company engineering. So the question most UK buyers really mean is: 'Will a company I've barely heard of still be here to honour a seven-year warranty?' The answer looks better than the badge suggests, because the badge is backed by one of China's largest and most export-proven car groups.

The UK line-up is simple: the Omoda E5, a pure-electric SUV. It is built on a platform shared with Chery-group models and sold through a dealer network that also handles Jaecoo. UK buyers are not buying from a start-up; they are buying from the export arm of a company that has been selling cars in Russia, the Middle East, South America and Europe for decades. The UK warranty is seven years / 100,000 miles, with an eight-year / 100,000-mile battery warranty — unusually long for the price point, and only viable for a manufacturer confident it will still exist in year seven.

In June 2026 Nissan and Chery signed a memorandum of understanding to build cars at Nissan's Sunderland plant, with production targeted from April 2027. The deal is not yet a final contract, but it is a strong signal: Chery is serious enough about the UK to manufacture locally. For UK buyers, that matters in three ways. First, UK-made cars avoid EU/UK tariff uncertainty. Second, local production means parts and service support are more likely to persist. Third, it shows Chery is not treating the UK as a short-term export opportunity.

In China, Omoda is not a household name either. The Omoda 5 sold there is mostly a petrol SUV, priced around ¥93,000–129,000. The electric E5 that UK buyers get is an export-focused variant, which means it was engineered with European markets in mind from the start. Autohome owner reviews of the Chinese-market model score it around 4.29/5, with common complaints about dated navigation, no over-the-air updates and a rear camera that blurs in heavy rain. UK cars may differ on software and localisation, but the underlying platform is the same.

The biggest advantage of buying an Omoda in the UK is not the car itself; it is the parent behind it. Chery's export scale and now its Sunderland ambition make Omoda one of the safer new-Chinese-brand bets for warranty and parts availability. The E5 also offers strong equipment-per-pound value and works unusually well via salary sacrifice because of its low BiK. The downside is resale uncertainty. A brand this new has no established residual-value history, so leasing or salary sacrifice is usually a smarter route than buying outright with a balloon PCP.