Jaguar Land Rover, a British carmaker owned by India's Tata, took the first step towards setting up a manufacturing base in China by proposing a joint venture with Chery, a Chinese car company.
Indeed, a Chery sedan failed badly in a recent independent crash test in Russia.
In 2007, Chery received a great deal of attention with its international push.
Chrysler now has a tentative deal with China's Chery Automobile to build a small car for North America and Western Europe.
Chrysler's small-car solution, instead, lies with Chery Automobile, a Chinese carmaker with bold ambitions of its own.
The West Midlands-based luxury carmaker agreed a "milestone" deal with Chery Automobile and will build a plant near Shanghai, which is due to open in 2015.
As with most Chinese manufacturers that learned the business by tearing down cars and reengineering the parts, Chery has run into a few skirmishes over intellectual property rights.
For example, some labor representatives on Chrysler's supervisory board had resisted Chrysler's plan to hook up with China's Chery Automobile to develop a low-cost mini-car for North America and Europe.
Chery sprang to prominence recently amid a well-publicized plan by entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin to export 250, 000 Chery-built luxury cars to the United States.
General Motors protested to the World and pursued a settlement with Chery Motors over like issues.
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In December Chrysler revealed plans to farm out production of a new model to Chery, an independent Chinese carmaker.
Jaguar Land Rover agreed to form a joint venture with Chery Automobile that would manufacture and sell the U.K. auto maker's luxury vehicles in China.
Chery's vehicle assembly line runs at a rather slow pace, churning out one car every 120 seconds compared with half that at the best North American plants.
Chrysler already has a tentative deal with China's Chery Automobile to import Chinese-built small cars to North America and Europe.
Shanghai Autoalso happened to own a 20% stake in SAIC-Chery Automobile Co.
It recently announced an agreement in principle with China's Chery Automobile Company, for instance, to develop a small car for sale in North America and Western Europe.
They also had their starter-alternator combinations in the hybrid Chery taxis that have run in Beijing since about a year prior to the start of the Olympics.
He has a few smaller deals with Konami, PepsiCo, Chery and KFC.
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Today Chery makes its own engines--20 different ones, ranging from a tiny 0.8-liter up to a 6-cylinder now undergoing testing--with the help of avl, an Austrian engineering firm.
Chery eventually dumped Bricklin in favor of Chrysler, and even Bricklin admits it was a logical decision.
By collaborating with an established American carmaker, says Uludag, Chery will quickly learn lessons that otherwise would have taken years, like how to nurture a brand in the U.S. or build a dealer network.
Separately, it also signed a deal with the Ofer Group, an Israeli company that Bricklin had introduced to Chery executives.
Zotye, a small Zhejiang province-based automaker also reportedly has an electric vehicle ready for sale, as do Chery of Anhui Province and Lifan of Chongqing.
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