36Kr Exclusive | Chery iCAR is going to build a "Land Rover Defender-like" vehicle, with the option of extended-range and intelligent driving features.

Written by | Han Yongchang Edited by | Zhang Bowen

After building the first "Little G" for young people, Chery is going to launch a "Land Rover Defender" like model.

36Kr exclusively learned that Chery iCAR is brewing a new vehicle, 05. This is a model that resembles the "Land Rover Defender", with an expected price of around 150,000 yuan, and it is expected to be launched to the market around the fourth quarter.

The most important thing is that, different from the current iCAR 03 and V23, which only have pure electric versions, "iCAR 05 will offer two versions: extended-range and pure electric, and it will also come with functions such as high-speed NOA and automatic parking." A person close to iCAR told 36Kr.

36Kr verified this news with relevant personnel of iCAR. As of the time of publication, no response has been received.

The iCAR brand was officially released to the public on the eve of the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, targeting the younger generation of consumers. At that time, although Chery had a relatively outstanding performance in the fuel vehicle market with models such as the Tiggo series, its new energy vehicles have always remained in the mini vehicle market such as the "Little Ant" and "QQ Ice Cream".

The emergence of iCAR is a sign that Chery's new energy transformation has entered an acceleration period. Just as Yin Tongyue, the usually low-key chairman of Chery, put it harshly, "Chery will not be polite in the new energy field. We will definitely enter the top position in the country."

However, although iCAR has a high starting point, the first two models have experienced many twists and turns.

The first model, iCAR 03, was officially launched in February 2024. A total of 6 models were launched, with a price range of 109,800 - 169,800 yuan. This is the first time that a pure electric A-class SUV model has entered the 100,000 yuan range.

With an extremely low price and the positioning of "the first off-road vehicle for young people", iCAR 03 quickly became popular in the market and sold more than 5,400 units in the first month of its launch.

But after becoming popular, many problems began to emerge. For example, the entry-level model of iCAR 03 does not have a front parking radar and even lacks side airbags, greatly reducing safety guarantees. This has caused a very serious polarization of its market reputation.

The same problem also occurred with the second vehicle, iCAR V23.

iCAR V23 is also a square box SUV. This model is even more popular than iCAR 03. On the day of its pre-sale in November, the orders exceeded 31,000 units. In contrast, even the very popular Xiaopeng MONA M03 took two days to exceed 30,000 orders.

After its launch in December, the official price of iCAR V23 was set at 99,800 - 139,800 yuan, and the reputation of this model began to reverse again.

The reason is still the serious reduction in configuration. The two-wheel drive youth version priced at 99,800 yuan has a pitiful range of only 301KM. If there is a discount in winter, it is even lower than the pure electric range of most hybrid models. The two-wheel drive advanced intelligent driving version priced at 119,800 yuan has a range of only 401KM, which is more than 100KM less than pure electric models of the same price such as Aion RT and Xiaopeng MONA M03.

The more enthusiastic the pre-sale of iCAR V23 was, the more tragic its launch was. A large number of users began to cancel their orders.

Su Jun, the former chief product officer of iCAR and now the general manager of the iCAR Brand Business Division, publicly apologized on social media and urgently adjusted the user rights and interests, including transferring a total of 100,000 points and promising a full refund for the deposit, in order to barely maintain the sales of this model.

In addition, the prices of iCAR 03 and iCAR V23 overlap, and their shapes are similar, which has also caused internal competition. In January of this year, the sales of the two models of the iCAR brand were only 7,853 units, of which V23 became the main force after the urgent apology, selling 6,387 units, and the sales of iCAR03 have dropped to about 1,000 units.

iCAR needs a new, differentiated product to break the sales bottleneck. The extended-range model is this role.

The iCAR brand focuses on low-cost hard-core SUVs. iCAR 05 is also a "square box" model like the previous two models. Such a model needs to combine both light off-road scenarios and urban commuting. If the range is too low, it is difficult to gain the trust of consumers. After all, the first off-road experience of young people cannot end with "running out of power before reaching the destination".

Therefore, launching an extended-range model has become a necessary choice for the iCAR brand to boost sales. Previously, there have been market rumors that iCAR will also launch an extended-range product, 03T, based on the 03 model. After iCAR 03T, iCAR 05 will also meet the market with an extended-range version.

Chery has always had high hopes for iCAR. Yin Tongyue once stated: "iCAR is a new special zone created by Chery Group." There is also public information indicating that the iCAR brand once planned to achieve a sales volume of one million units in 2026. However, in the past 2024, the sales volume of iCAR was only about 66,000 units, and this result is obviously not enough to support the grand goal of 2026.

The launch of the extended-range model may be a turning point for the iCAR sales to accelerate. After all, extended-range models have created several sales miracles in the market. Brands such as Avita, Zeekr, Aion, Xiaopeng, and Zhiji, which once focused on pure electric models, have either launched or are planning to launch extended-range products.

Young consumers who want to own the "first off-road vehicle" might as well wait a bit. After all, the off-road dream cannot only have a range of 300KM.