The Malaysian car market, especially the already crowded SUV space, is about to get hotter real soon. Chinese carmakers have our market in their sights and are preparing to take the fight to B-segment bulk sellers Honda HR-V, Toyota Corolla Cross and the Proton X50.
UPDATE: The Chery Omoda 5 has been launched in Malaysia, with pricing starting from RM109k.
In many ways, the latter – which let’s not forget, is their peer, just with a Malaysian badge – showed that Malaysians can accept Chinese cars with modern design and specs, at lower than Japanese prices. Great Wall Motor will be bringing its Haval SUVs in, as previewed at last week’s Malaysia Autoshow, but Chery is much further ahead of the curve.
The Omoda 5 and Tiggo 8 Pro will be launching in June/July and both SUVs will debut in CKD form – yup, no initial small CBU batch to ‘test the waters’ but local assembly (at Inokom in Kulim, Kedah) right from the start, with full EVs and plug-in hybrids lined up for the second wave. Another bold move is Chery doing Malaysia – a very difficult market to penetrate – alone and without a local partner. Even the mighty BYD has Sime Darby.
Not sure which is bolder, Chery going it alone in Malaysia or the Omoda 5’s studded nose, which is something you’ll either love or hate. The rest of the SUV’s body should be less divisive. It’s a sculpted shape with blacked out rear pillars and a full-width strip for the tail, with Chery spelled out in letters. Very current. Face aside, I see a bit of Lexus in the Omoda 5, which is no bad thing. What do you think?
The Omoda 5’s dashboard is similarly on-trend, sporting co-joined screens pioneered by Mercedes-Benz and a high centre console. Although it’s nicely minimalist, you don’t have to dive into the touchscreen for vital controls such as AC functions, which are stealthily embedded in the trim.
Chery is perhaps the most international-minded Chinese OEM, and the Omoda 5 gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Wireless too, and your phone rests on an angle for easy viewing. Speaking of phones, there’s also wireless charging. Also included are a sunroof (manual sunshade) and an eight-speaker Sony sound system. And how about double-glazed windows to boost NVH?
There’s more, so join the full tour in the video, where Hafriz Shah also praises Chery’s right-hand drive conversion, which is better than Geely-Proton’s efforts.
Pop the hood (struts) and you’ll find a 1.5 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 154 hp (115 kW) and 230 Nm of torque, hence the 230T badge. Drive goes to the front wheels via a CVT with nine virtual ratios. We can confirm that the engine will get Chery’s 10-year/1,000,000-km warranty, which should put to bed reliability concerns.
Where does Chery’s in-house 1.5T stand on paper? The HR-V’s 1.5L VTEC Turbo four-pot makes 181 PS (178 hp) and 240 Nm, while the X50’s 1.5L turbocharged three-cylinder generates 177 PS (174 hp) and 255 Nm in TGDi form (Flagship variant) or 150 PS (148 hp) and 226 Nm in PFI guise. The HR-V uses a CVT while the X50 goes the DCT route. Our man runs an X50 Flagship, so what does he think of the Omoda’s powertrain? Watch the video.
Buyers will get a lot of specs and design for the money, but at what money? This fully-loaded top-spec version will be priced between the X50 Flagship (RM113,300) and HR-V Turbo V (RM134,800), and we’re anticipating the RRP to be closer to the Proton than the Honda. Do we see some raised eyebrows? The official launch is just around the corner now, so stay tuned.
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I think the only concern for this vehicle (or brand for that matter) is the after sale service
But better than merc
Really? Didn’t know they actually sold cars in Malaysia. From the review, sounds like they just coming into Msia market. Interesting .
10 year warranty only on the engine? What about the CVT? Any less and it gets disingenuous.
10 years and 1m km warranty on engine is a real game changer. even japanese manufacturers dare not put such a long warranty on their cars.
Ini kalau Beemer dah KO
Ya ke….tapi performance, handling dan reliability tak lawan beemer, tapi Chery boleh lawan Merc sbb Merc dah kalah semua bila bandingkan dengan Merc
The warranty is not “on the car”, but on the engine block alone. And the warranty is void if you don’t bring the car to their SC.
They might charge you “premium” engine old every 5k to qualify …
Sure, looks great & specs (in & out) competitive price tag – main question is, After Sale Service & Maintenance (spare parts)
Better up your game Proton
Looks great and price is reasonable but the main attraction here is the warranty
If the price is RM160k to 179k, take my money. The lowly spec and B SUV from Hyundai…Creta made in Indonesia already RN150k.
No local parner means senang nak cabut.
If cherry will set the price within rm 100k to 115k its absolutely will boom the malaysia market for the suv segment.
If they sell it for RM35k to RM40k they would sell even more.
Give it to you for free hou mou?
Good looking design…
1.5 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine
Work Harder OR never afford a Proton
This can easily fight with Merc
Warranty la smpi 100 tahun sekali pun, kalo x smpi brp tahun pull off, mau tersedak owner2 nnti.
Really? Didn’t know they actually sold cars in Malaysia. From the review, sounds like they just coming into Msia market. Interesting .
This car is priced the same range in China with the newly launched Proton X90.
Let us see how much this will be priced.
I saw RX lexus rear section, range rover interior and steering, only the front is unique.
Also alot of chinese vehicles have single stripe tail light, similar to porsche, hmm.
No point giving 10 years warranty if they don’t have parts like Proton.
One thing don’t quite like is the headrest. Not adjustable. It is a pain when driving long range
why china get 1.6L with better output ? Malaysia only get 1.5? Anyone know ? Same engine from Kunpeng China or different ?