The Brazilian press launch of the new Chery Tiggo 2 was accompanied by a little surprise.
On the stage, during the press presentation, there was one blue example of the Sino-Brazilian crossover/SUV with a piece of white paper hiding a small area on the bottom right of the tailgate.
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When the paper was removed, a new logo appeared, CAOA Chery (same typeface) but this was not fitted to any of the cars available for journalists to test drive after the presentation.
The meaning was serious. Two Chinese Chery directors attended the event: chairman Anning Chen and the president for international operations, Pan Yanlong.
Brazil’s CAOA group announced last November it had become a locally based auto manufacturer – currently the only one – by buying for BRL200m/US$63m a 50% stake in the local Chery factory.
Now we learned it was possible, if a more substantial market share is achieved, that future models could be badged just CAOA – similar to India where Suzuki models are branded Maruti.
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By GlobalDataBrazil has already had its own brands. The first was Puma, specialising in sports cars. There were also about two dozen small manufacturers of dune buggies, SUVs and sports cars. They focused on producing vehicles with existing mechanical components, mostly of VW origin.
Gurgel went even further by designing its own two cylinder, 800cc engine for the Gurgel BR-800 and Supermini city car.
All ended up succumbing due to lack of capital, administrative errors and the sheer impossibility of competing with the local subsidiaries of traditional manufacturers based abroad.
In 1956, Romi-Isetta joined together Brazilian and Italian names while DKW and local company Vemag branded their cars DKW-Vemag.
CAOA Chery’s plans are audacious. The company insists it will spend BRL2bn/$600m in coming years to increase market share from 0.6% to 2% by 2020. By the end of this year, the number of dealerships will jump to 55 from 25.
There are three other CAOA Chery launches later this year, all locally assembled but with low Brazilian content.
just-auto has learned that, besides the Arrizo 5 saloon (same size as the VW Virtus and Honda City), the Tiggo 4 will make its debut, a mid-size SUV just launched in Chile. Both will be produced alongside the QQ and Tiggo 2, in Jacarei, in Greater Sao Paulo, where the phased-out Celer hatch and saloon previously were assembled.
The larger Tiggo 7 SUV will be made in the CAOA factory in Anapolis, State of Goias.
The new Tiggo 2 has evolved in terms of handling, finish and production quality. Its highs include a more refined style and the 108/113 bhp (petrol/ethanol) four-cylinder engine. Wheelbase is 2.55 m (almost matching that of the Polo, 2.56 m). Boot volume is an adequate 420 litres.
Despite being the tallest of today’s compact SUVs, its suspension does the work well. But there is a certain amount of wind noise in highway driving, insufficient sound deadening at higher speeds and an overly high steering position that leaves the manual gear shift lever positioned too far away from the driver. A four-speed automatic gearbox will be available in June.
Launch prices, between BRL55,900/$16,900 and BRL66,490/$20,000, are within the expected range.
