Zhang Guibing, executive vice president of Chery, told Bloomberg that even without access to the American market, Canada is a market worth having a factory for manufacturing. Chery has not named a site, a partner or an investment figure. The remark came in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Wuhu, Anhui, and was reported on Oct. 23.
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Carscoops revisited the comment on Nov. 9, framing it against a trade arrangement that lets a capped number of Chinese-built electric and hybrid vehicles into Canada at a low duty. For Chery, building cars inside Canada is a way to grow beyond that cap, while the United States stays closed to Chinese brands.
What Zhang actually said in Wuhu
According to CnEVPost’s account of the Bloomberg interview, Chery is weighing two routes: taking over idle capacity at existing plants, or building factories alongside partners. Zhang said the company is looking for a suitable opportunity and discussing possible formats, and that it is already speaking with local investors interested in Chinese automakers, none of whom he identified. Bloomberg reported that Chery vice president Charlie Zhang has been in frequent contact with Canada’s industry minister, Melanie Joly.
The Carscoops summary adds the economics. The easiest route is a local plant with spare capacity, because a new factory is expensive and would make sense only if the quota rises substantially or disappears. At Chery’s present share of the allowed volume, a multibillion-dollar plant is not yet justified.
The 49,000-vehicle quota and its 6.1 percent tariff
The opening came from a preliminary Canada-China agreement announced in mid-January. Battery Tech Online reported that Canada will admit up to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles a year at the 6.1 percent most-favored-nation tariff, down from 100 percent, with the cap rising to about 70,000 by year five. That ceiling is a low single-digit share of Canada’s roughly 1.8 million annual auto sales. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the deal preliminary but landmark, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned it offered no real guarantee of equal or immediate investment.
Carscoops describes the quota as covering EVs and hybrids and lists BYD, Geely and Chery among the brands moving in. Geely’s main brand announced its Canada entry on Oct. 9, with first models planned for 2027, and BYD has said it is considering a Canadian factory of its own, according to CnEVPost.
A sales launch that moved to next year
The retail timetable has shifted. A June Bloomberg report carried by BNN Bloomberg said Chery had held its first Canadian dealer meetings, was road-testing cars in cold weather to gauge warranty costs, and planned to begin sales in the fourth quarter. By late October, CnEVPost and Carscoops were both describing a launch in 2027. Chery’s own timetable for the factory is far less defined than either date.
Preparation for retail has been visible since January. Drive Tesla Canada, citing The Globe and Mail, reported that Chery began recruiting Canadian auto industry veterans to build a sales operation from scratch, with roles tied to its Omoda and Jaecoo sub-brands and a planned headquarters in the Toronto area. The same report puts Chery’s 2025 global sales at about 2.6 million vehicles, with a group target of 3.2 million for 2026, a scale that makes a 49,000-vehicle national quota a small slice of its output.
Zhang had said in that June report that Chery definitely has the idea of selling cars in the United States, which fits Carscoops’ reading that the company is more eager to enter the American market but still sees value in Canadian production. U.S. officials, per CnEVPost, have said Chinese-brand vehicles will not be allowed in through Canada.
Skepticism from Canada’s parts industry
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, told CTV News that the vehicles arriving under the quota are completely manufactured in China with Chinese components. He contrasted that with building cars in Canada and buying about $3 billion worth of parts a year from Canadian suppliers. Canada also does not want knockdown kits, meaning cars built abroad, partly disassembled and reassembled locally.
Chery’s foreign factory record gives a sense of its method. It runs a joint venture plant in Spain, took over a former Nissan factory in South Africa that will now build Chery vehicles, and has signed a memorandum with Nissan to explore building at the Sunderland site in the UK. Each of those used someone else’s existing capacity or a partner’s balance sheet, the same pattern Zhang described for Canada.
What remains open is whether any Canadian plant owner accepts a deal before the quota rises. Zhang named no counterparties, and Bloomberg’s text sits behind a paywall that blocked retrieval, so the details of his Canada comments rest on the Carscoops and CnEVPost accounts. Canadian reaction to a Chinese-owned assembly plant would also be tested by Joly’s June meetings with BYD, Geely and Chery executives in China, where she said the companies were willing to explore joint ventures.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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