New tease of Chery SUV for Europeans

Chinese car-maker, Chery, has once again released teaser pics of its all-new SUV concept ahead of the vehicle's unveiling at next month’s Frankfurt motor show.

The new Chery SUV, which is believed to be near-production ready, is claimed to incorporate the Chinese brand's new "Life in Motion" design language that will inspire all future models made by the car maker.

Featuring a wide grille and full LED headlights, the new SUV’s nose, unusually, appears to feature a daytime LED running light strip that stretches across from the corner of the fenders to the grille badge. There’s also plenty of styling hints that are reminiscent of the current Hyundai Santa Fe.

The Chinese car-maker also gives us a glimpse of the SUV’s cabin, showing a large landscape-mounted touch-screen infotainment screen and three simple rotary dials for the climate control system.

Designed specifically for Europeans, the SUV will spearhead a new sales assault on Europe, focusing chiefly on SUV and crossover models.

Chery says its new SUV offers "advanced safety features" and "electrified" powertrains, hinting at a model range that will include hybrids at the very least, and possibly pure-electric powertrains.

It’s not clear where Chery plans to position its SUV in the market, whether it will be a natural rival for the Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe or whether it is aiming at more premium rivals from Volkswagen, or even Audi.

Question marks also hang over whether or not the SUV will be engineered for right-hand drive European markets, like the UK and Ireland.

If it is, the new still-to-be-named SUV could potentially be sold Down Under if the Chinese brand fancies another crack at the Australian market.

Already one of China’s largest car producers, Chery manufactured more than 700,000 cars last year. Of that number, only 100,000 were for export markets.

Thought to be set for an on-sale date some time in 2019, the new Chinese SUV could end up going head-to-head with Geely-owned Lynk & Co.

To help future Chery models break through in Western markets the Chinese car maker has announced that it will have a new European R&D hub and design centre up and running within a “few years”.