iCAR officially “separates”; Chery brand will integrate products such as the Big and Small Ants and the Ice Cream | Exclusive from 36Kr

36Kr Auto has learned from multiple sources familiar with the matter that Chery will once again launch a major adjustment to its new energy vehicle product line. The product lines of QQ Ice Cream, Big Ant, and Little Ant, which originally belonged to the iCAR brand under the Chery Group, have been stripped and integrated into the Chery brand.

Meanwhile, the Chery brand will also launch another new energy product - "Duomi". Currently, Chery dealers have gathered in Wuhu. It is expected that this car will be launched for sale soon after the meeting ends on April 2nd. In the future, the product lines of QQ Ice Cream, Big and Little Ants, and "Duomi" will all be directly managed by Li Xueyong, the general manager of Chery Automobile Marketing Company.

QQ Ice Cream, Big Ant, and Little Ant are different product lines of the Chery Group. Both QQ Ice Cream and Little Ant are positioned as pure - electric small cars. QQ Ice Cream targets the market with a price of 50,000 yuan and below, and 67,800 units were sold in 2023. Little Ant is in the price range of 50,000 - 70,000 yuan, and 29,400 units were sold in 2024. Big Ant is aimed at the mid - sized pure - electric SUV market in the 150,000 - yuan range.

Previously, these three product lines all belonged to the iCAR brand within the Chery Group, but recently they have been integrated into the Chery brand.

Currently, the entire Chery Group has five brands: Chery, Jetour, EXEED, iCAR, and Zhijie.

Among them, the Chery brand has a longer history and targets the mass market. Its representative models include Tiggo 8, Arrizo 8, etc. The iCAR brand was born on the eve of the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, targeting the younger generation of consumers.

For the Chery Group, the iCAR brand is its first independent new energy electric brand and is also regarded as an important step in the new energy strategy within the Chery Group. Its appearance has changed to some extent the situation where Chery's new energy vehicles only had micro - cars like Little Ant and QQ Ice Cream, reflecting that Chery's new energy transformation has entered an acceleration period.

At the beginning of this year, there was a personnel change within the Chery Group around the iCAR brand. Zhang Hongyu, the former general manager of the iCAR brand, was transferred to the domestic business department of the Chery brand as the general manager. The position of the general manager of the iCAR brand was taken over by Su Jun, the former CEO of Zimi Technology.

Compared with Zhang Hongyu, who emphasizes the technical highlights and performance parameters of products, Su Jun, with experience in Internet companies, has a more trendy definition of products, which is undoubtedly more in line with the brand tone of iCAR targeting the young group.

The different ideas of the two former and current general managers about products have led to a series of adjustments to the iCAR brand's product line, which Chery internally calls the "new energy separation". The current adjustment of the product lines such as QQ Ice Cream, Big and Little Ants is exactly the continuation of this "new energy separation" since the beginning of this year. "Currently, the separation is still in progress. In the future, other product lines under iCAR should also be re - planned, and the personnel will also be optimized."

As for the new product "Duomi", a source familiar with the matter revealed that it is a re - badged and modified version of the former Kaiyi Shiyue Mate. Therefore, the market positioning and selling price of "Duomi" will be similar to it. The Kaiyi Shiyue Mate is a pure - electric sedan with fast and slow charging, five doors and five seats, positioned as a city commuting car with a price of 59,800 yuan. "The price of 'Duomi' should be similar to it, with a maximum increase of 2,000 - 3,000 yuan on this basis."

However, different from the Kaiyi Shiyue Mate, which is equipped with CATL batteries, "Duomi" will most likely use Guoxuan High - Tech batteries. "To be more precise, it will use Guoxuan High - Tech's battery cells, and the battery packs will be assembled by Chery itself, using Chery's thermal management, electric heating compartment and other technologies."

In 2023, Yin Tongyue told the outside world: "Chery New Energy got off to an early start but ended up lagging behind." At the same time, he set an "ambitious" small goal for Chery: by the middle of 2024, Chery New Energy should rank third in the industry, and by the end of the year, it should be catching up with Wang Chuanfu, which means ranking second in the industry.

However, by the end of 2024, Chery's new energy vehicle sales were less than 600,000 units, lower than BYD, Geely, and Changan. The expected second - place ranking dropped to fourth. Although in terms of growth rate, it increased by 232.7% year - on - year, it was obviously different from Yin Tongyue's expectation.

Therefore, this year, Chery plans to continue to enter the new energy vehicle market with a multi - model strategy, and "Duomi" is one of the cards in this strategy. It is understood that Chery has not set a clear sales target for "Duomi". "It still uses the strategy of having more products to gain an advantage. By launching more new energy products, the new energy vehicle sales will surely increase."

In addition, going public is also a key word for the Chery Group this year. To prepare for the listing in the second half of this year, Chery is trying every means to increase the sales proportion of new energy vehicles within the limited time window. "Duomi" is also an attempt by Chery in the new energy field.

In the next period, the main theme of the Chery Group will probably be to increase the probability of producing blockbuster models by frequently launching new energy products. At the same time, in the second half of the year, it will fully introduce intelligent driving technology to further boost new energy vehicle sales and stabilize the stock price after listing.