Is Chery’s Exeed Sub-brand Finally Coming to Malaysia?

Chery Malaysia is poised to open up a new 'business division'. Could this finally mark the arrival of its luxury sub-brand Exeed?

For those who aren’t familiar, Chinese automaker Chery, via its overseas arm Chery International, owns a slew of sub-brands, each with their own unique target markets and demographics. While our local market is already familiar with Chery itself, as well as both Omoda and Jaecoo, there’s one more brand under Chery International that has yet to make its official landfall in Malaysia, namely its most luxurious sub-brand, Exeed.

It seems  likeChery Malaysia is actively recruiting for its new business division, offering several top managerial roles.

However, Exeed’s arrival into our market might be happening soon, as Chery Malaysia recently posted a recruitment notice via its official LinkedIn page. Upon further investigation, said notice is not for a mere recruitment exercise to replace outgoing staff but is part of Chery Malaysia’s expansion strategy, as the automaker is poised to open an entirely new business division.

Among the key roles that they’re hiring for are Head of Sales & Branding, as well as several managerial positions for key departments like product, regional sales, network, aftersales, finance, and many more.

Plans for the establishment of the Exeed brand in Malaysia have been in Chery Malaysia’s pipeline for quite some time, with initial news being broken during an exclusive media trip to Chery’s headquarters in Wuhu, China, in conjunction with the Chery International User Summit (CIUS) 2023. During said trip, we were also shown several Exeed models that may or may not make their way into our market.

Exeed RX midsize coupe SUV

Surprisingly, one of the Exeed models shown back then, the Exeed RX, has already made its local debut under an entirely different name and brand, the Omoda C9 by Jaecoo Malaysia. With that being said, there aren’t many ICE-powered Exeed models left for Chery Malaysia to bring in, which is why we’re shifting our focus to their EVs instead.

Exeed Exlantix ET midsize EV SUV

Under the Exeed brand, Chery has so far introduced two new EV models under its newly-established Exlantix lineup, namely the ET SUV and the ES saloon—both of which were shown in their concept forms during CIUS 2023. Starting with the former, the Exlantix ET is Chery’s attempt at venturing into the burgeoning midsize EV SUV market segment, which has seen several new inclusions into our market recently in the form of the BYD Sealion 7, Xpeng G6, and Leapmotor C10.

Exeed Exlantix ES sporty four-door coupe EV saloon

What certainly caught our attention was the Exlantix ES, which is essentially the sporty four-door coupe version of the ET SUV. Also known as the Exeed Sterra ES in its native Chinese market, the Exlantix ES competes against fellow sporty EV saloons like the Xpeng P7, the Zeekr 007, as well as the infamous Xiaomi SU7, at least in China.

Back to the main topic, should Chery Malaysia have really decided to bring Exeed into our market, perhaps we can expect to see this luxury sub-brand focus on their all-electric offerings, given that the RX has already launched under a different name and entity here. If that’s the case, which one of these two Exeed EVs are you looking forward to the most? The sleek Exlantis ES or the sizable Exlantix ET?