China could be about to tighten its grip on the UK automotive market as chairman of automotive giant Chery, Yin Tongyue, has told Auto Express of the firm’s desire to “become British” – a plan that could possibly involve an even closer relationship with Jaguar Land Rover.

 

“We need to be a British brand,” Mr Yin said in a roundtable interview at the firm’s headquarters in Wuhu, China. “In the future, I really want to have products designed in the UK, engineered in the UK and produced in the UK, but to sell worldwide.”

 

For a long time, Chery, and in particular its subsidiaries, have been accused of copying British designs; the Jaecoo 7, which was the top-selling car in Britain in September and is 2026’s second-best-selling car overall to date, has long been described as the ‘Temu Range Rover’. Yet despite Mr Yin admitting that “I really dislike the nickname”, he also conceded that “UK design beats the world”.