Beijing – The next made-in-China export bound for the United States: cars.
Chrysler Group signed a deal Wednesday with China’s biggest automaker, Chery, to launch a low-cost production venture that could export the first Chinese-made cars to the United States.
The first cars will reach Latin America or Eastern Europe within a year, and models should be exported to North America and Western Europe in 2 1/2 years, Chrysler chief executive Tom LaSorda said.
“As part of the Chrysler Group’s global transformation, we are finding new ways to bring vehicles to market faster, more efficiently and with less cost,” LaSorda said at a signing ceremony.
The alliance offers 10-year- old Chery Automobile Co., based in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhu, an opportunity to realize its longtime ambition of entering the U.S. market.
Chinese automakers already export mostly low-priced trucks and buses shipped to Africa and other developing markets. But analysts say they lack the technology to meet U.S. and European safety and pollution standards on their own.
Chery CEO and chairman Yin Tongyao said the deal will help the automaker improve its skills as it tries to expand foreign sales of its own models.
“Chery is still young, so we should learn from Chrysler and improve our own competitive edge in the near future,” he said, calling LaSorda “my teacher in the automotive business.”
The first Chrysler-Chery export will be based on Chery’s A1 compact and sold under the Dodge brand, LaSorda said.
A 1.3-liter version of the A1 retails in China for $7,100 to $7,900. Export prices have not been announced.
The companies will jointly develop future models, probably with Chrysler styling on a Chery platform.
LaSorda said he had “no concerns” about convincing U.S. consumers that Chinese-made cars are safe at a time of warnings about seafood, tires and other imported Chinese goods.
Chrysler will work closely with Chery to ensure that the cars meet U.S. and European safety and emissions standards, LaSorda said.
The agreement follows DaimlerChrysler AG’s agreement in May to sell 80.1 percent of money-losing Chrysler to U.S. private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management LP, freeing the parent company to focus on its truck and Mercedes luxury car lines.
Major automakers have been aggressively expanding production in China.
