Chery Hires Porsche Designer to Oversee Car Design From Shanghai

Bloomberg News, February 25, 2013

Chery Automobile Co., the state- owned Chinese maker of the low-cost QQ mini car, hired Hakan Saracoglu from Porsche AG to head its design center in Shanghai in a bid to improve its styling.

Saracoglu, 47, joined Chery as design director in October, according to the Wuhu, Anhui province-based automaker. The Turkish-born German national worked for 15 years at Porsche, where he helped design the exteriors for models including the 918 Spyder, Boxster and Cayman.

Chery is the latest among Chinese automakers hiring foreign designers to help boost their brand image and reverse a loss in market share to overseas automakers such as General Motors Co. (GM) and Volkswagen AG. (VOW) The hirings are part of a broader hunt for international talent, with salaries for foreign auto engineers in China reaching three times that in the U.S. and Europe, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

“Having somebody with a known profile gives you more credibility,” said Bill Russo, Beijing-based president of auto consultancy Synergistics Ltd. “But it’s going to take a long time to really embed those capabilities.”

Other Chinese companies have also looked abroad for help with styling. Beijing Automotive Group Co., which traces its roots to producing sidecar motorcycles for use in the Korean War, hired Ferrari Daytona designer Leonardo Fioravanti as chief design officer last year.

Foreign Designers

Great Wall Motor Co. (2333), China’s biggest maker of sport- utility vehicles, appointed former Mercedes-Benz designer Andreas Deufel as design director in 2011. Former Volvo Car chief designer Peter Horbury joined Zhejiang Geely Holding (175) Group Co. the same year as senior vice president in charge of design.

Saracoglu, who said he had never visited China before being approached by Chery, started his career at Ford Motor Co. (F)’s Cologne offices as part of the team on models such as the Focus and Mondeo. He received a degree in transportation design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

In Shanghai, Saracoglu will lead a team of 30 to come up with new concepts for models from sedans to SUVs.

“Chery is not just QQ, we’re going to change that,” he said in a phone interview on Feb. 22. “The company is redefining itself. Chery’s standing for value, for design and gaining customer confidence. That’s where we want to go.”

Chery has a 50-50 joint venture to produce Tata Motors Ltd. (TTMT)’s Jaguar Land Rover in China. It also co-owns startup carmaker Qoros Auto Co. with Israel Corp.

Asked how much of a salary increase he was offered to leave Porsche, Saracoglu said, “I cannot comment on that. Let’s say I’m not unhappy.” 

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Jaguar Land Rover in tie-up with Chery

The Financial Times, March 21, 2012

Jaguar Land Rover in tie-up with Chery - FT.com
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9ac0a1b2-733b-11e1-aab3-00144feab49a.html#axzz1pZ6nhHoF

 

Jaguar Land Rover is to form a joint venture with China’s Chery Automobile in the UK premium carmaking group’s first foray into manufacturing in the world’s largest car market.

Indian-owned JLR and Chery said on Wednesday that they had reached agreement on a proposed joint venture that will build vehicles under the British group’s two brands, as well as those of the joint company itself. The two companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which still must be approved by Chinese regulators.

China requires foreign carmakers that wish to build vehicles locally to form joint ventures and recently began requiring them to establish local brands.

JLR and Chery said they would also establish a research and development facility in China, build engines and sell vehicles produced by the joint venture together.

JLR, which makes most of its vehicles at three plants in the UK, is a latecomer to manufacturing in China, where its larger premium competitors Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have built cars with local partners for years and are recording record sales.

The two UK brands sold 42,000 cars in China in 2011, a 60 per cent rise on 2010 and equivalent to 17 per cent of the group’s global sales, up from just 1 per cent in 2005. China is the JLR’s third-largest market, after the UK and the US.

In a country where large vehicles are popular, Land Rover’s 4x4s are selling particularly well. JLR earlier this month began recruiting 1,000 workers for its plant in Halewood, near Liverpool, that makes the marque’s Evoque and Freelander 2 small sport utility vehicles.

JLR already produces the Freelander in its owner Tata Motors’ home country of India, and is looking to expand operations there. Speaking in Geneva earlier this month, Ralf Speth, JLR’s managing director, said that the carmaker was in discussions with several parties in Brazil about launching manufacturing there.

Chery, based in Wuhu in China’s Anhui province, is one of the country’s largest privately owned carmakers. It makes cars, SUVs, engines, and transmissions and sold 643,000 vehicles last year, making it China’s sixth-largest carmaker.

Most of the country’s big automakers already have at least one JV with a foreign producer, but this will be the first for Chery, which has a reputation in the industry for independence .

The Chinese company in 2007 signed a letter of intent to build cars with Italy’s Fiat which was never consummated. In 2009 Chery and Chrysler broke off long-running plans to co-operate on small cars as the US carmaker headed towards a bankruptcy filing.

“Chery is an unproven company when it comes to dealing with multinationals,” said Bill Russo, a former Chrysler executive who runs Synergistics, an auto consultancy.

Russo Interview on the State of the Asian Auto Industry

Bloomberg TV, January 31, 2011