a walk through Beijing, Ebro, Chery and the silent streets

This is the third time in two years that I have visited China. The first time was for visit OnePlus and OPPO headquarters in Guandong. The second, for get into the kitchen at the Honor factory and headquarters in Shenzhen. Now I do it for something totally different and that’s why I would like to do something different. I tell you.

On this occasion I accompanied Ebro, yes, the car company of the Chery group, to the Beijing Motor Show and the Chery headquarters in Wuhu. And I do it for a reason: cars, historically, have not been my greatest passion, but now, at almost 32 years of age and with a view to starting a family, I am thinking about changing cars and I know China has a lot to say about this..

In Córdoba, my city, everything always arrives late. I mean, relatively recently they opened the first bowling place. açaito give you an idea. That’s why I know that something is changing, because every time I take my car, a small Seat Ibiza, I see cars from brands on the road that I didn’t see two years ago: Omoda, Jaecoo, Ebro, MG and BYD, mainly. Understanding his success requires understanding the context of his native country. and, to do this, there is nothing better than coming to it and experiencing it first-hand. And that’s why I propose something to you.

I propose that we live this together through a kind of daily blog in which I will tell you what I have seen, what I have learned and what things have caught my attention. Not from the perspective of an engine expert, but from the curious point of view of someone who knows that A new car is part of your next stage in life and you can’t stop seeing how Chinese brands are becoming more and more popular.

Together we will visit the Beijing Motor Show, we will tour the streets of the Chinese capital, we will travel to Wuhu and we will see what and how is cooked in the bowels of Chery. That’s why I think the first thing is to put ourselves in context.

At the group level, Chery takes bronze in the Chinese market, only behind BYD and Geely. Only in 2025, the firm sold 2,860,393 cars exactly, which is said soon. Chery, in turn, has several brands and subsidiaries such as Chery Automobile (where we find Chery New Energy and Fulwin), Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas, Zongheng, Luxeed (along with Huawei), Exeed, Jetour, Karry, iCar, Rely, Soueast and the Chery Jaguar Land Rover joint venture. Its most famous products are, without a doubt, the Tiggo and the Arizo.

Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas (arrives in Spain this year) and Exlantix (in China it is Exeed and will arrive in Spain next year) are the brands that the company uses to boost your export strategy.

Ebro, for his part, It is a joint venture established in 2024 between Chery and Ebro EV. Roughly speaking, this partnership allows Chery to assemble vehicles at the former Nissan plant in Barcelona and distribute them in Spain and Portugal under the (revived) Ebro brand. It’s a little more complex, but let’s stick with that idea.

Actually, Ebro cars use Omoda platforms | Jaecoo (with some adjustments, for example in the suspension) and these, in turn, are the exported versions of the Tiggo. He Omoda 9 SHS It is, clearly, a Tiggo 9.

Why so much branding? Because so they can attack different market segments with specific models and strategieshas no more. It is exactly the same thing that other Chinese groups such as Geely do, which has Geely, a large part of Volvo and Polestar, almost half of Proton Holdings, Zeekr or Lynk&Co, to name just a few.

Having said that and having that context, the first thing that has caught my attention in the short time I have been in China is how ubiquitous local brands are. I’ve seen endless BYD, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Nio, BAIC and ArcFox. I have even had the chance to see a couple of Xiaomi SU7s.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes or Audi, because there are, but it gives me the impression that they have a more luxury component. From the models I have seen, I get the feeling that European cars still have a certain premium aroma here. Toyota, Hyundai and Honda are also relatively common, but the omnipresence of local brands is evident.

Something that stands out in Beijing, where I am right now, is that you hardly see Chery cars. There are, a priori, three reasons:

• Chery​ is a great exporteris a Chinese brand whose power is not in China (despite being one of the best-selling brands), but in the international market. It makes sense, since abroad there is much, much, much less competition than in the local market and, above all, in the big capitals.
• We are in Beijing, a Tier 1 city. There is more capital and users are looking for higher-end/premium products, which explains the greater presence of Tesla, European, electric brands such as Nio or Arcfox and, above all, BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holding). BAIC is a local brand and all taxis are BAIC. Arcfox is BAIC’s premium electric range.
• The registration system. Buying a car in Beijing is not about going to the dealership and that’s it. To avoid pollution, the government established a points and lottery system to obtain permission to buy a car. Gasoline cars go by lottery and the chances are tiny, 0.1%. New Energy cars (electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, etc.) are on a waiting list. It is long, very long, but unlike the lottery, it is safe. If you want a car in Beijing, the easiest thing is to buy an electric one and there Chery is at a disadvantage (although it is transitioning its catalog).

However, I have a feeling that we will see a lot of Chery when we go to Wuhu, where their headquarters is. We will clear up doubts in a few days.

By the way, if you ever come to China, look at the license plates. The blue ones are for gasoline cars and have been obtained by lottery. The gradient green ones are for new energy vehicles and have been obtained through the waiting list.

The undisputed winner is the SUV . This is something that We already discovered last yearwhen we attended the Beijing Motor Show: the winning format is the SUV and the trend is electrification. However, China faces a dilemma: the government wants to promote electric cars and has built a spectacular network for them, but Chinese brands want to export and what the international market demands is not, at the moment, completely electric cars, but hybrids. If we add to that an absolutely wild price war In the local market, where brands number in the hundreds, we have a complex situation, to say the least.

This brings me to another interesting note: there is hardly any noise. Even though the traffic jams are enormous, the noise on the road is very, very low. And what draws our attention in Spain is that the car has a large central screen and another instead of an instrument panel? Well, the most regular car you can put your face around here already has it.

The vast majority of motorcycles are electric and, to make matters worse, riding on the sidewalk is a religion. I’m not exaggerating: there are plenty of pedestrians on the sidewalk, not motorcycles. It is not strange to go for a walk and have a man (probably without a helmet) pass by with a motorcycle next to you.

What has this electrification of the vehicle fleet translated into? In which Beijing, the capital of China, once known for its fog and its very poor air quality, has managed to undo the situation. In 2024 they only had two days of high pollution, 96.6% less than in 2013. In 2025, just one day.

If one thing is clear to me, it is that Europe won the race for the conventional automobile, but has fallen far behind in the race for the future, which is the race for the electric car. China leads in technology, investment and resourcesand that is noticeable from the moment you leave the airport.

Something tells me that when this trip is over, this will be even more evident.

More tomorrow.

Images | Xataka

In Xataka | MG, BYD, Lynk&Co, Omoda: who’s who of Chinese car manufacturers in Spain