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Chinese-designed and built cars are coming to New Zealand, with Ateco Automotive - which imports Alfa Romeo, Citroen and Fiat products for Australia and New Zealand - signing a deal with Chinese company Chery Automobile.
Ateco says it will launch three Chery models early next year - a light and a small passenger car, plus a small crossover, which is most likely to be the Tiggo.
Chery has four new models to unveil later this year and plans to release 38 new models over the next five years.
Chery, which is owned by the Anhui Provincial Government, is the largest independent vehicle manufacturer in China - as opposed to Chinese companies in joint ventures with global carmakers. Chery ranks fourth overall.
Ateco will also be establishing a national dealer network for the new brand.
"We believe that China represents the future as a source of automotive products, which makes this association with Chery a very exciting development for Ateco," says Ateco's governing director Neville Crichton.
Much like Korean companies two decades ago, Chery is still on a massive learning curve and most of its models - while made in ultra-modern factories - are highly derivative. But during a recent visit to New Zealand, Crichton assured local media the quality of the Chinese product was high.
The cars will be sold under the Chery name - not rebadged with a more familiar brand.
Nor is there an expectation that the cars can compete dollar-for-dollar with established models.
Chery cars are expected to sell at lower prices than equivalent Korean or Japanese vehicles.
Ateco first approached Chery almost three years ago. Crichton signed a memorandum of understanding in China with the company in November 2005, and the distributorship agreement was executed last month.
Chery built its first car in December 1999 and its one millionth in August 2007. Last year, Chery sold 261,000 vehicles domestically and exported a further 120,000.
Chery has collaborations with suppliers such as Johnson Controls, Delphi, Bosch, Siemens VDO, Autoliv, GKN, Hella, Futuris. It also has an agreement to export 100,000 engine sets a year to Fiat.
