Australia and New Zealand Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Citroen and Fiat importer Ateco has extended its interests to cars from China.
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The company has signed a distributorship agreement for the two countries with Chery Automobile Company.
Ateco first approached Chery almost three years ago. Governing director Neville Crichton signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in China in November 2005 and the distributorship agreement was finalised earlier this month.
“We believe that China represents the future as a source of automotive products which makes this association with Chery a very exciting development for Ateco,” Crichton said.
Ateco expects to launch three Chery models early next year – a light and a small passenger car plus a small SUV. Chery has four new models to unveil later this year and plans to release 38 new models over the next five years.
Last year Chery sold 261,000 vehicles domestically and exported a further 120,000. It has been China’s leading vehicle exporter for the past five years.
Ateco will be establishing national dealer networks for the new brand.
Earlier this week, a UK dealer publication said Ateco was involved in a joint venture that plans to import Chinese vehicles into the UK in the next few years.
