Chery built a "slow-developing car".

On August 26, the Chery Fengyun T7 was officially launched. This compact pure electric SUV is available in three models, with guide prices of 97,900 yuan, 108,900 yuan and 118,900 yuan respectively, and a limited-time trade-in price of 94,900 to 115,900 yuan.

The Fengyun T7 has a relatively simple product portfolio. All three models are equipped with a 65.05 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery, and the CLTC range is 600 kilometers. The maximum power of the motor is 178 kW, and the official charging time from 30% to 80% is about 20 minutes.

More attention is being paid to Chery's explanation of the car's development pace than to its price.

At the press conference, Li Xueyong, executive vice president of Chery Automobile, responded to outside comments about Chery's "slow car manufacturing" with a video featuring himself.

He stated that, according to Chery's disclosed project details, the Fengyun T7 underwent two years of planning and three years of R&D, and required testing according to multiple global standards. Li Xueyong summarized the indispensable stages as product development, reliability verification, and co-creation with global users, adding, "A global car can't be rushed."

This statement corresponds to the recent discussions in the automotive industry about "rushed-to-produce cars." In the past few years, platformization, modularization, and virtual simulation have improved the efficiency of vehicle development, and the development cycle of some new energy vehicle models has been shortened to 18 to 24 months.

However, the focus of the industry controversy is not the development time itself, but whether the automakers have completed all the necessary processes such as design verification, mass production verification and durability testing.

Fengyun T7 attempts to explain its "slowness" with a quantifiable verification process.

According to Li Xueyong, the project deployed 81 dedicated durability testing vehicles, with a total test mileage exceeding 6 million kilometers, of which 1.45 million kilometers were specifically tested for durability. The tests covered various operating conditions, including the rainy season in Southeast Asia and high-temperature and high-humidity environments in the Middle East. It's important to distinguish that the 6 million kilometers represents the cumulative mileage of multiple test vehicles and multiple test projects, not just the mileage of a single vehicle.

In terms of safety development, Chery claims that the Fengyun T7 meets the 2026 Euro NCAP five-star standard, with 80% of the body made of high-strength steel and 18.84% of it made of hot-formed steel, and is equipped with nine airbags.

The Fengyun T7 did not lower its starting price by offering a low-range version; all three models offer a 600km CLTC range, giving it a certain degree of brand recognition in the price range of around 100,000 yuan.

Its cockpit uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8775 chip and supports CarPlay, HiCar, and CarLink; higher-spec models offer the Falcon 500 driver assistance system. This configuration reduces the cost for consumers to choose in terms of range, but different versions still differ in comfort and driver assistance features.

The "slow train" also has an overseas background.

According to data disclosed by Chery, the company exported 1.344 million vehicles in 2025, bringing its cumulative exports to 5.85 million vehicles, with its products entering more than 120 countries and regions.

The LEPAS L6 EV, which Chery calls the same model as the Fengyun T7, was launched in Thailand this year. For an automaker with a high proportion of overseas sales, adapting the same model to different regulations, climates, roads, and usage habits makes the initial verification process objectively more complex.

From this perspective, the emphasis on "slow" in the Fengyun T7 is not simply an explanation for its late market launch, but rather an attempt to transform Chery's existing global R&D and verification system into a selling point for domestic pure electric products.

However, the R&D cycle is only one of the prerequisites for product quality. The Fengyun T7 still faces a competitive market environment with numerous models in the same price range, rapid updates to intelligent features, and ongoing price competition.

The CLTC's battery life, test mileage, and safety development goals will also need to undergo further testing through long-term use, failure rates, after-sales service, and third-party testing. For the Fengyun T7, its market launch is not the end of a "slow process," but rather the beginning of market validation.

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