You know Chery, but do you know the brand’s line of electric vehicles? Unless you spend a lot of time outside of South Africa, we’re guessing the answer is ‘no’. That’ll change later this year when Chery brings the ‘Q’ into the country, looking to compete with the ever-growing local market of affordable electric vehicles.
An official price and launch date are still up in the air, but barring any big surprises, the company hopes to make this South Africa’s most affordable EV yet. That title is currently held by the Geely E2, which turned up on our streets only a month ago, toting a price of R340,000. If it can truly beat that, Chery may have a real winner on its hands.
Chery-picked
Shown off at the Beijing Auto Show, Chery said that the car would be sold under the ‘Q’ moniker in SA, rather than the ‘QQ’ name it’s known by elsewhere. The Citizen also got a look at the car at the company’s International Business Summit, where it confirmed it was busy crunching the numbers to make that price point a reality.
At that price, you can probably guess this is not a big car. That may prove handy for nipping down to the local Spar, but it likely won’t be much use for longer trips. It’s built on Chery’s dedicated T12 electric platform, and offers a rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. It may be a tad unusual, but the outlet reports that its first drive of the vehicle felt “nimble and agile,” with the biggest issue being its lack of acceleration.
That’ll be the case regardless of whichever battery pack Chery brings to South Africa. In China, the Q can be bought with a 29.4kWh battery inside, providing 50kW of juice and 90Nm of torque. A more respectable 41.2kWh cell knocks that up to 90kW/115Nm. It’s not yet clear which one Chery SA will bring here.
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Chery claims that it’ll deliver ranges of 310km and 425km, respectively. That sounds great — on paper. Chery is using the China Light-Duty Vehicle Test (CLTC) cycle, which overestimates the battery’s abilities in a real-world setting. What those ranges will look like on the generally more accepted WLTP cycle is unclear, but they’ll be… smaller.
The creature comforts Q buyers will get in South Africa is still undetermined, but it seems we’ll either get our hands on a 15.6in infotainment system or a smaller 12.8in one. We can expect to see a few others, like a wireless phone charger, folding electric mirrors, a 540-degree camera system, and an electric boot, to name a few.
The specifics will likely be confirmed closer to the Q’s official SA launch. Again, Chery isn’t spilling the beans on when that’ll be. It has assured South African motorists that they can expect more details on local specs and pricing “in the coming months.”
