The tie-up between Octopus and Chery comes just a month after the UK company signed a preliminary agreement with China’s BYD to buy 5,000 cars from the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) builder over the next three years.
“The fleet business in developed markets like Europe offers growth opportunities for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers because their cars enjoy the advantage in production costs,” said Qian Kang, a Zhejiang-based entrepreneur who owns car components businesses. “Car rental services also help Chinese EVs build their brands abroad.”
Chery, based in eastern China’s Anhui province, is one of several Chinese carmakers actively pursuing growth in European markets, along with BYD, Zeekr, SAIC and Nio.
In February, it started to sell its Omoda 5 sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in Spain, and it plans to offer the SUV in Britain later this year, according to Victor Zhang, Omoda UK’s executive vice-president.
“As a new…