Fail, learn, rectify and return — Chery's lesson in the fine art of disruption

Daily Maverick

6 days ago

The rise of the Chinese car brand to become the eighth-bestselling car in South Africa demonstrates its highly successful reinvention.
South Africa's roads are changing. Not just in the predictable ways of more potholes, more congestion and fewer traffic cops, but in what's moving on them. A close look at the badges on vehicles everywhere reveals something that might have seemed unthinkable five years ago: Chinese brands all over the place.
There's the Chery Tiggo 4 idling at a robot. That's a Haval H6 gliding past on the highway. And that SUV cruising through a shopping mall parking lot is a BAIC B40 Plus.
Increasingly, these brands are not oddball outliers – they're frontrunners in the sales race. But this shift didn't happen overnight. In fact, in Chery's case, it didn't even happen on the first try.
An exit and comeback
To understand the scale and stealth of this disruption, look no further than Chery, a brand whose first attempt in South Africa could generously be described as forgettable.
When it first entered the local market in the late 2000s, Chery's most visible product was the QQ compact hatchback: a flimsy, uninspired Daewoo Matiz clone with about as much charm as a broken stapler. The car's build quality was dismal, its resale value didn't exist and after-sales support was patchy at best.
Consumers, quite rightly, looked elsewhere. By 2018, Chery took the hint and quietly folded its South African operations.
It went to Frankfurt, Germany, where it opened an advanced European reseach and development centre in the same year as its South African exit. The goal wasn't just to break into Europe – it was to learn from it. The strategic location was within reach of some of the world's most respected automotive engineers and a supply chain famous for its efficiency and precision.
That pivot from hasty imitation to calculated reinvention would rewrite Chery's future. When the carmaker returned to South Africa, it didn't bring back the QQ, thankfully. It brought a new kind of ambition and an SUV strategy built for the times.
Today, Chery's Tiggo range, spanning from the entry-level Tiggo 4 Pro to the flagship 8 Pro, has struck a chord with South African buyers. The proof is on paper: in 2024, Chery ranked as the eighth-bestselling vehicle brand in the country. That's not a footnote. It's a tangible market shift.
What changed? Certainly not the economy. South Africans aren't any richer than they were in 2018. If anything, household incomes are more constrained.
The difference is product maturity. Chery returned with vehicle designs that felt less like knockoffs and more like actual contenders. Add to that a surge in tech features, competitive warranties, a robust dealer network and smart marketing that leans into value rather than apologises for price, and the brand is finally speaking the language of the market.
Chery's success wasn't about undercutting the Volkswagen Polo Vivo or Kia Picanto on price. It sidestepped that overcrowded ­battlefield entirely and zeroed in on cross­over SUVs, one of the few segments in which South Africans are willing to spend R300,000 to R500,000 if it feels like a good deal.
Disruption disguised
In business textbooks, disruption often gets told as a story of instant conquest. But real-world disruption, especially in the conservative, brand-loyal automotive sector, tends to look more like what Chery did: fail, learn, disappear, rebuild and then return with something genuinely better.
This learning curve has played out in other Chinese brands, too. GWM and its SUV-focused sub-brand, Haval, have quietly become household names in South Africa, offering feature-rich vehicles that punch above their price tag. BAIC and JAC are making slow, steady inroads.
Even electric carmaker BYD has launched locally, preparing for a future that seems far away but probably isn't.
It's worth noting that this isn't happening because Chinese brands are 'cheap' – an outdated and lazy stereotype.
These brands are succeeding because they've identified strategic gaps in the market, invested in research and development and entered with offerings that are aligned with what South African consumers want: space, comfort, status, tech and, crucially, perceived value.
Watching the long game
The South African car market has long been dominated by the big Germans (Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz), the resilient Japanese (Toyota, Nissan, Honda) and the savvy Koreans (Hyundai, Kia). But that dominance bred complacency in some corners.
And while they were busy playing defence by refining existing models, shaving off fractions of fuel consumption and tweaking infotainment systems, the Chinese were busy playing offence: investing, listening, building, iterating.
Chery's story is a case study in how failure is not always fatal, and how being early but bad can sometimes be the first chapter of being late but excellent.
The influx of Chinese car brands is not a blip. It's a restructuring of South Africa's automotive landscape – one in which badge loyalty is slowly eroding, and consumers are more willing than ever to reward brands that offer more for less.
This doesn't mean legacy brands are doomed, but it does mean they'll have to fight harder for every sale. The days of coasting on brand equity alone are over. Chery might not have got it right the first time, but it might just be getting it right at exactly the right time. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.