Chinese manufacturers have quickly become apex predators in the EV space, pushing out great-looking cars with the performance and range to match. In Europe, where Chinese cars aren’t barred from sale through high import taxes, they’ve outclassed many domestic offerings, often at lower price points. The fastest road car on the planet is no longer a Bugatti or a Hennessey—it’s a Yangwang.
One manufacturer from China isn’t content with road car domination. Chery, one of the biggest manufacturers in the country, announced today plans to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the most iconic endurance race of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This plan doesn’t just involve developing a race car and sending a team out to Europe to see how it can do. Chery says it has signed a five-year partnership with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the organizers behind Le Mans and the ruling body behind the WEC. And instead of using the Chery brand for this effort, it’s backing Exeed, a luxury subbrand that only sells SUVs, and has yet to be sold in Europe.
Chery calls that five-year partnership its “Road to Le Mans” motorsport program, and it’s, uh, pretty damn extensive. The plan involves everything from Chery forming its own racing series in China, to participating in the Asian Le Mans series, to building its own top-level racing circuit. From the release:
Under the five-year plan, EXEED will progress through three stages:
- Establishing a domestic endurance racing series to build technical capability and talent
- Competing in the Asian Le Mans Series
- Forming an EXEED factory team to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans, aiming to become the first Chinese manufacturer team to do so
As part of the agreement, Chery and ACO will also work together to develop a Le Mans-certified circuit in Wuhu, Chery’s headquarters city, to support motorsport development and fan engagement in China.
To give you an idea of the cost involved with this level of commitment, developing a race car from scratch for a series like IMSA or the WEC costs tens of millions of dollars. But that’ll be a drop in the bucket compared to building a WEC-compliant circuit, which can cost many more millions of dollars, depending on where it’s built and whether it’ll host races or simply be used as a development facility.
Like most manufacturers, Chery says the reasoning for all of this is to develop tech on its race cars that’ll eventually make its way to road cars:
Chery said the partnership is focused on technology development rather than branding alone, with data and learnings from endurance racing feeding directly into future production vehicles, including improvements in powertrain efficiency, durability and reliability.
The Le Mans program represents Chery’s broader ambition to transition from vehicle exporter to a global automotive technology player, using motorsport as a proving ground for next-generation innovation.
I’m most curious about which car Chery will use from the Exeed brand’s lineup to spearhead this racing effort. Currently, Exeed sells just four cars: The VX, the RX, the TXL, and the LX. All of them are crossovers, and none of them have particularly impressive specifications (the plug-in version of the RX can get from 0 to 62 mph in 4.9 seconds, which is sort of impressive by 2019 standards, I guess).
The Exeed brand also has a sedan called the ES, which is branded as the Exlantix ES internationally. It’s sold as either a range-extended electric vehicle or a pure EV, with a 0-62 time of 3.7 seconds for the version without the onboard ICE generator. It’s certainly the sportiest car in Exeed’s lineup, but far from anything worthy of racing at Le Mans.
If I had to guess, Chery will probably build a new car from the ground up without any connection to Exeed’s road cars. If anything, it’ll develop a road-going version of the car to go alongside the race car, similar to what Genesis and Toyota are doing right now with their respective supercars. Establishing and maintaining momentum to get a car to Le Mans is no easy feat. I’ll circle back in 2030 with an update to see how things are going.
Top graphic image: Chery International; DepositPhotos.com
Well it was only a matter of time.
This raises more questions than it answers. What class do they intend to participate in? Hypercar? LMGT3? Garage 51? Are they hoping to hold WEC races at their circuit? Building a circuit to spec isn’t that expensive (yes, still millions, but Yas Marina in Abu Dahbi is rumoured to have cost more than a billion) if you aren’t worried about fans and hospitality. Are they planning to run an EV? Hybrid? Sustainable(?) fuels?
“Wuhu”
“Did you win?”
“A trip, yeah.”
Coincidence on the name of their headquarters city. At least to this American’s ears.
That is a beautiful car color in the top photo, hard to get teal just right.
Do we have any credible numbers on the reliability of these things yet? I am tired of hearing the positives without anything else. From what I have heard is that they are not reliable.
Exlantix ES is recommended for mild to moderate gastrointestinal distress. Do not use Exlantix ES for more than two weeks unless under a doctor’s supervision. Side effects of Exlantix ES can include the overwhelming desire to wear tight pants and carry a checkered flag.
“Carry.” The flagstaff looks like its defying gravity in the lede photo.
Yeah, I think Peter (or someone on the Autopian team) ‘shopped that in.
Smooth move, Exlantix
Yeah, and I thought Stellantis was as pharmaceutical-sounding as you coukd get