Chery reaches the 20 million milestone, has Yin Tongyue decided to stop competing?

```

Chery has reached a critical milestone.

On July 25, Chery Group’s global cumulative sales surpassed 20 million units.

At this milestone, Chery Automobile Chairman Yin Tongyue stated: “After 20 million units, we will no longer participate in ‘involution’. We will no longer only pursue sales volume, but pursue brand advancement, greater value creation, more technological breakthroughs, and greater improvement in customer satisfaction.”

The Fengyun A9, launched on the same day, was delivered to users as the representative model marking Chery’s global sales breaching 20 million units.

For a Chinese automobile enterprise established nearly 30 years ago, 20 million units is not only a numerical milestone in production and sales scale, but also marks Chery’s growth from relying on independent R&D, low-cost manufacturing, and exports, to entering a stage where it needs to redefine its competitive approach.

In recent years, China’s auto market has entered a period of accelerated transition to new energy and intensified price competition. Chery maintained growth in this round of competition, especially excelling in overseas markets, but its domestic business is under pressure, and its brand structure and intelligence capabilities are lacking — challenges it must address after crossing the 20 million mark.

Thus, for Chery after 20 million units, the real question is not whether to pursue sales volume, but how to increase per-vehicle value, brand influence, and user recognition while maintaining scale advantages.

01 The Foundation of 20 Million Units

In Chery’s business system supporting the achievement of 20 million sales, the export-oriented characteristic holds an important position.

Public historical data shows that among the 20 million units, cumulative exports have approached 7 million units, accounting for over one third. This proportion demonstrates that overseas markets are a key support for Chery’s long-term expansion.

As the domestic car market enters a stock game phase, overseas business has become a major engine for overall sales growth at Chery.

At this milestone, Chery chose to deliver the Fengyun A9 as the symbolic 20-millionth vehicle.

This model is positioned as a long-range pure electric sedan, with an official guide price of 109,900 to 129,900 yuan. In terms of product line and brand planning, choosing “Fengyun” has clear business implications.

The Fengyun series was Chery’s main sedan and export model in its early days, and is now restructured as an independent lineup undertaking Chery’s transition to new energy.

The delivery of the Fengyun A9 is both an attempt to fill gaps in Chery’s new energy sedan lineup and a task to optimize sales structure.

However, judging from Chery’s recent operating data, its current scale growth still heavily depends on the traditional fuel vehicle sector and overseas increments.

In the first half of 2026, Chery Group’s cumulative sales reached 1,357,500 units, up 7.7% year-on-year. Within this figure, domestic and overseas market trends are markedly diverging.

In the first half of the year, Chery exported 943,800 vehicles, up 71.5% year-on-year. Exports now account for nearly 70% of total sales, and Chery has repeatedly broken Chinese carmakers’ monthly export records.

These figures show that rapid expansion in overseas markets is a key factor supporting Chery’s overall sales growth. Of the 1,357,500 units sold in six months, new energy vehicles accounted for 475,200 units, about 35% — fuel vehicles remain Chery’s main sales and profit source.

By contrast, Chery is facing operational pressure in its domestic terminal distribution channel.

Yin Tongyue publicly disclosed the contraction in domestic business, saying this year is extremely difficult for the industry. Chery voluntarily “squeezed out water” in the first half, sending out 150,000 fewer vehicles to the domestic market, mainly to reduce dealers’ inventory pressure.

In auto distribution industry parlance, OEMs proactively cutting wholesale volumes to ease dealer capital strain usually indicates terminal sales are under pressure or dealers face negative margin risks.

Shrinking the basic plate of domestic fuel vehicles, combined with price competition in various sub-markets, is causing pressure in Chery’s traditional domestic channels. The 150,000-unit reduction at the wholesale front may be defensive, to help dealers and prevent networks shrinking, or a business adjustment to stabilize terminal prices.

Structurally, Chery’s 20-million-unit milestone is primarily a victory in scale achieved through fuel vehicles and overseas markets together.

This is also an overall industry feature. CITIC Securities auto analyst Zhao Shaobo wrote in a report that, in the first half of 2026, the domestic passenger vehicle market was under pressure and exports became the main driver, with overseas sales at Chery, BYD, and Geely all up over 70% year-on-year.

But, from a long-term operational safety perspective, over-reliance on exports still faces tariff barriers and geopolitical risks.

Stabilizing domestic terminals, rebuilding dealer channel confidence, and ramping up new energy core products are basic problems that Chery needs to solve after crossing the 20-million mark.

02 Can Chery Really Avoid ‘Involution’?

Before Yin Tongyue’s statement this time about “no longer participating in involution,” the public remembers he previously often expressed “being unreserved” in the fields of new energy and intelligence.

The shift from “being unreserved” to “no longer participating in involution” reflects a change in Chery’s business focus.

Previously, the so-called “being unreserved” was based on capital and capacity advantages, using aggressive pricing and heavy launches to break into the new energy market and gain share.

Now, emphasizing “no longer participating in involution” and focusing on value creation reflects the management’s caution after a period of trading price for volume, wary of low margins and lost channel control.

However, given the current fundamentals of China’s auto industry, whether Chery can truly escape “involution” still needs to be tested through terminal competition and pricing mechanisms.

From the most direct business perspective — product pricing — the difficulty of refusing “involution” at the execution level is obvious.

Take the newly launched Fengyun A9: though executives expressed hope to stop price and sales competition, its 109,900–129,900 yuan price and its features were still interpreted by the market as “high specs, low price.”

This pricing strategy shows that competition is fierce among pure electric sedans priced from 100,000 to 150,000 yuan in China, and “not participating” is hard to implement at the product level.

Leaving aside short-term pricing compromises, from the perspective of long-term profitability and strategic survival, “brand upward movement” has become a question Chery must answer.

Chery’s complex internal multi-brand matrix needs clearer price gradients to reduce internal friction.

Currently, Chery Group covers five major brands: Chery, Jetour, Exeed, Zhijie, and iCar. Due to historical plans and multi-front operations, these sub-brands overlap in products and users within the 100,000–200,000 yuan price range.

If the high-end Exeed and the Zhijie co-developed with Huawei cannot establish price premiums and market footing above 200,000 yuan, Chery's capacity plans may devolve into sub-brands competing against each other in the sinking market.

Zhao Shaobo stated that looking to the second half of 2026 and 2027, the industry’s main theme will shift to export realization and profit recovery. Leading carmakers may achieve growth in both volume and profit via diversified powertrains, overseas factory building, and external cooperation. Domestic competition will remain fierce, and high-end development is still worth attention.

Therefore, achieving brand advancement is an important way for Chery to widen product price gaps, improve R&D resource utilization efficiency, and reduce internal competition.

The next-generation smart electric vehicle development needs a higher-margin business structure for support. At the 20-million-unit release event, Chery announced future technology layouts, covering battery cells and chips, Robotaxi & robotics, green energy & computing power, and even proposed controlled nuclear fusion research.

In addition, Chery signed a cooperation agreement with Yinwang, aiming for breakthroughs and mass production of L3 and L4 autonomous driving during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.

An auto industry engineer told Wallstreetcn that such long-term, high-risk, high-intensity capital investment cannot be sustained by low-margin volume models. If Chery cannot achieve brand advancement and obtain premium ability per vehicle, its technological transformation blueprint will face bigger financial pressures.

The historical cumulative sales of 20 million units have given Chery bargaining power in supply chains, room for trial and error, and scale effects, but these advantages first solve the baseline for company survival and entry into the market.

Yin Tongyue’s statement about “no longer participating in involution, no longer only pursuing sales volume” signals Chery’s awareness that its original growth model has hit bottlenecks and its attempt to shift from scale-driven to profit and value-driven development.

Whether Chery can achieve brand upgrading and win user recognition through specific models will test the company’s abilities.

Risk warning and disclaimerThe market involves risks, and investment needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular situation. Investment based on this article is at your own risk. ```