However, one local carmaker there is bucking the trend and that’s Chery. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers or CAAM, Chery’s domestic sales surged 91.3 percent for the first five months of the year. This makes them ranked one among Chinese auto brands.

Since the start of 2021, Chery’s sales volume has been up. From January to May, Chery sold 348,302 vehicles—up 84.2 percent year-on-year. And while the low sales base is due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s still 30.8 percent higher compared to the same period in 2019.

Internationally, Chery has also been performing strong. According to the brand, someone buys a Chery vehicle every 2.3 minutes. Since February, their exports have also seen an upward trend. In five months, they exported 94,916 vehicles in total. By the end of 2021, they expect this to exceed 200,000 vehicles.

Along with their growing sales, Chery’s brand influence has also been recognized globally. In Russia, they’ve won the title of “The Most Popular Chinese Car Brand” for five times. In fact, they boast of more than 200,000 users. The story’s the same in Brazil where the Tiggo 8 was named as “Best Midsized SUV of the Year 2020.” Meanwhile, in the Philippines Chery has just revealed their new brand ambassador in order to keep their market push going.

During its 20-year internationalization strategy, Chery has worked to increase its competitiveness. This has resulted in 1.8 million customers outside China as well as ranking it first in terms of the number of passenger cars exported for the last 18 consecutive years. By 2025, they plan to hit 500,000 export vehicles at a value of US$ 5 billion.