Slow and Steady Craftsmanship Builds Great Cars, Chery's "Global Car" Reverse Overseas Expansion

August 12, Chery Fengyun T7 officially opened pre-sales. This launch event, themed "Slow Craftsmanship Builds Great Cars, Have Waited Long Enough", is less of a product debut and more of a clear response from Chery to the current industry trend of "Speed-made Car Manufacturing".

The new car was launched in 3 versions, with a pre-sale guide price ranging from 109,900 yuan to 129,900 yuan. All models come standard with 600km range (CLTC), integrated cockpit-driving 8775 chip, and Falcon 500 Driving Assistance System—when these configurations are concentrated on a 100,000-yuan class pure electric SUV, the Fengyun T7's product logic is already clear enough: build cars with global standards, sell cars with national prices.

"Reverse Overseas Expansion": Test in the World First, Then Launch in China

What is most noteworthy about Fengyun T7 is not the stacking of certain configurations, but its development path.

Currently, many car models follow the routine route of "Domestic Launch First, Then Overseas". However, Fengyun T7 follows a reverse path—its homologous model Lepas L6 was launched earlier in overseas markets such as South Africa and Thailand, and gained recognition from overseas users. Only after completing real-vehicle verification in overseas markets did Fengyun T7 land domestically to open pre-sales.

This "First Accept Global Market Verification, Then Launch Domestic" reverse input rhythm is not common among local car companies. Chery Executive Vice President Li Xueyong frankly admitted at the pre-sale launch event that Fengyun T7 underwent two years of planning and three years of R&D, "cannot be fast at all". He emphasized that automobiles relate to the safety of millions of families and face the test of different road conditions, climates, and habits globally, "some time really cannot be saved".

This "slowness" is reflected in numbers: the project invested 81 dedicated endurance cars for simultaneous road testing, the whole vehicle accumulated test mileage over 6 million km, and the endurance special actual test reached 1.45 million km. Testing covered Southeast Asian rainy season, Middle East high-temperature sun exposure (40°C-55°C), Indonesian high humidity, Nordic extreme cold and other hundreds of extreme operating conditions.

Six Rigid Needs: How a Car Responds to All Family Expectations

Fengyun T7's product definition logic is also clear—centered around the "Six Rigid Needs" of family users: Appearance, Safety, Travel, Intelligence, Comfort, Reassurance.

On the appearance rigid need level, the new car was designed with participation from Chery's 10 global design centers, with over 5,000 domestic and overseas users co-creating throughout the process. The homologous model Lepas L6 once appeared at Milan Design Week. The exterior uses a wind-driven front face, wind-sculpted satin body, and skyline sunset tailgate design, providing 6 color options: Blazing Orange, Mountain Smoke Purple, Cloud Pink Beige, Flowing Light Silver, Green Bamboo Grey, and Ink Stone Black. Interior features two styles: Warm Black-Brown and Extreme Night Obsidian. All interior leather, sealing strips, and plastic parts are selected materials according to the standard of not being easily hardened or faded.

Safety rigid need is Fengyun T7's hardest card. The new car is designed against the 2026 version E-NCAP five-star safety standards, with functional safety reaching the highest ASIL D level. The body uses 80% high-strength steel and 18.84% hot-formed steel to create a nine-horizontal five-vertical cage body, equipped with shotgun structure, dual-frame subframe+Pack anti-collision beam. The whole vehicle is equipped with 9 airbags, including 48L dual-chamber remote airbags and rear seat side airbags. All models come standard with Rhinoceros Battery, featuring a super strong 6D protection structure, IP68 waterproof rating is 96 times the national standard.

Regarding travel rigid needs, Fengyun T7 achieves "range parity"—all models come standard with 65.05kWh Rhinoceros Battery, CLTC range 600km, actual test range reaches over 667km. Charging from 30% to 80% takes only 20 minutes. Equipped with global integrated thermal management dual-source wide heat pump air conditioning+high-voltage PTC, operating stably in ultra-wide temperature range from -30°C to 55°C. Combined with all models standard AGS Intelligent Air Intake Grille and 14 low wind resistance optimizations, high and low temperature energy consumption is more stable.

On the intelligence rigid need level, Fengyun T7 is equipped with the first-of-its-class 4nm process integrated cockpit-driving 8775 chip, NPU computing power 72 TOPS, response only needs 80ms. Equipped with 15.6 inches 2.5K high-definition large screen, supporting CarPlay, HUAWEI HiCar, CarLink wireless connection, covering over 99% of phone screen casting on the market. Lingxi Smart Cockpit 2.0 includes built-in Power Nap, Camping, Pet, Wake Up and other six scene modes. Regarding intelligent driving, Falcon 500 Driving Assistance System is equipped, integrating 3 millimeter-wave radars, 7 high-performance cameras, and 12 ultrasonic radars, totaling 22 high-precision sensors, supporting over 300 types of full-scenario automatic parking, covering dead-end road parking, one-touch trajectory reversal, multi-floor parking and other scenarios.

Regarding comfort rigid needs, the whole vehicle size is 4570×1852×1694mm, wheelbase 2700mm, interior space usage 84%. Rear seat pure flat floor, legroom 911mm. Rear seats can be folded down to expand into 1955mm pure flat space, trunk volume 450L, expanded to 1550L. 9-layer cloud-feel seats are equipped with ventilation heating functions, can heat up to 30°C in 5 minutes in -20°C environment. The whole vehicle has 38 storage spaces, equipped with 4 riveted rings with maximum load bearing 300kg and 2 hooks with maximum load bearing 3kg. The chassis was tuned by an international team, axle load ratio 50.8:49.2.

On the reassurance rigid need level, Chery launched two bottom-line guarantees and two lifetime benefits. Two bottom-line guarantees: if the power battery causes thermal runaway damage due to its own reasons, compensation is the same model new car; if an accident is caused by intelligent driving system reasons within one year of purchasing the car, maximum compensation is 5 million yuan. Two lifetime benefits: whole vehicle lifetime warranty (including three-electric system); 666 yuan to purchase 3,999 yuan lifetime basic maintenance package.

Completing Fengyun Series Pure Electric Portfolio, Facing Red Ocean Competition

The launch of Fengyun T7 completes the last piece of the portfolio for Chery Fengyun series plug-in hybrid, extended range, and pure electric three technical routes. According to the plan, Chery Fengyun will launch 12 new models in the next three years. Fengyun T7 is the debut work in the pure electric SUV category.

However, the 100,000 to 150,000 yuan pure electric compact SUV market is exactly one of the most competitive sub-segments of the new energy vehicle market in China. BYD Yuan PLUS, Deepal S05, Changan Qiyuan Q05 are all direct competitors. Whether Fengyun T7 can find a balance between "Slow Work Car Manufacturing" and "Rapid Market Response" is a proposition Chery needs to continuously answer.

But one thing is certain: when a pure electric SUV that has undergone global 6 million km verification, benchmarking E-NCAP five-star safety, all models standard 600km range and 8775 chip, sets the pre-sale price at 109,900 yuan, the value it defines is not just a product, but a return to a car manufacturing philosophy—good products deserve slow craftsmanship.

Fengyun T7 is expected to officially launch at the end of August. At that time, this "Born Global, Tempered and Returned" pure electric SUV will formally accept the test of Chinese consumers.