The Chinese automotive brand Jaecoo has achieved significant sales breakthroughs in international export markets, including ranking in the top ten vehicle registrations in the Czech Republic with the Jaecoo 7 model and becoming a top-selling vehicle in the UK market, as reported by Car Magazine. Founded under the Chery automobile group, the brand’s rapid ascent has drawn widespread industry attention and consumer comparisons to British luxury SUVs due to its boxy exterior styling.
Design Philosophy and External Influences
The exterior styling of the Jaecoo 7 has prompted frequent market comparisons to Land Rover products, earning the vehicle the common UK moniker “Temu Range Rover,” with some British owners purchasing aftermarket branding logos online to alter the vehicle’s appearance. Steve Eum, master of design and executive technical adviser for global design at Chery, defended the vehicle’s aesthetic in an interview with Car Magazine, characterizing the design approach as paying homage to established automotive templates.
“Good design is simply good design,” Eum told Car Magazine, adding that automotive design relies on foundational shapes and traditional two-box pragmatic silhouettes. Eum, a designer who grew up in California and previously worked for Hyundai, Ford, and General Motors before joining Chery in 2017, noted that the rapid corporate scaling of Chery over a five-year period required extreme adaptability within design teams.
Eum also placed contemporary Chinese vehicle styling into a historical context, noting to Car Magazine that early European and American manufacturers copied one another before Japanese brands like Nissan and Toyota, and subsequently Korean automakers, followed similar developmental trajectories.
Shaw Xu, global general manager for Omoda and Jaecoo, outlined the strategic rationale behind the styling choices in a prior interview with Car Magazine. Xu stated that while initial internal discussions considered ultra-rugged, Jeep-style boxy SUVs, that segment proved too narrow to capture sufficient market share, leading the company to pursue an elegant, traditional SUV profile with Land Rover-inspired aesthetic cues.
Market Expansion and Registration Milestones
The market traction of Chery-affiliated brands extends across Europe, supported by strategic corporate maneuvers, including Chery acquiring a stake in Korean automaker KGM to facilitate shared manufacturing and engineering resources. In the Czech Republic, the Jaecoo brand has established a market presence, securing a spot within the top ten vehicle registrations.
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