It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole. Almost weekly there are announcements from new brands promising better technology, longer driving ranges and cheaper prices coming to Australia and a great deal of them hail from China.
As journalists who dedicate our working weeks to covering car news, even we struggle to stay on top of just how many are coming, their various promises and targets – they can’t all have Tesla Model Y rivals and end up in the 10 best-selling brands with Toyota, Mazda, Ford and more.
There’s already a laundry list of them on sale here – you’ve probably heard of MG, BYD, Chery, GWM/Haval and LDV. Each seems to have an ambition to become mainstream but so far only MG has managed to crack the top 10.
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From Aion to Zeekr, below is a list of all the Chinese brands that have promised to bring cars to Australia, their flagship models and when each is expected to arrive in local dealers.
Where applicable, we have included sub-brands – Chery’s Jaecoo, for example– and there are some joint ventures with European names, such as Smart and Leapmotor, in the list, too.
Aion – 2025
Sitting under overall owner GAC (say it “gee-aye-cee”), Aion is an EV-only brand. In China it sells a selection of products but the Aion V electric mid-size SUV is looking likely along with an as-yet unseen Toyota Corolla-sized electric car.
The brand is still setting up shop in Australia though has promised a likely launch by next year, pending any compliance snags.
GAC
Aion will be the specialist electric arm, with hybrids and people movers to also be imported by AGA Auto as GAC products.
It is understood that a Toyota Kluger-sized GS8 and Kia Carnival-rivalling M8 are under consideration. They are sold in China with Toyota hybrid systems but it is unclear if that set up will apply to Australia-bound models.
Geely – late 2024
Geely Auto is a massive carmaker that produced 1,686,516 vehicles in 2023. Its holding company is a part owner or manager in Volvo, Polestar and Lotus as well as various in-house brands.
For Australia, the non state-owned brand is looking to bring its Riddara R6 electric ute, to be called Radar, to compete in Australia’s most popular market segment.
Despite already having a presence here, in a sense, with Volvo and Polestar, Geely alone has not set up permanently in Australia so the RD6’s arrival was informally announced via a LinkedIn post.
IM Motors – unconfirmed
This is a joint venture between state-owned SAIC motor – MG’s parent company – and online shopping giant Alibaba.
The pitch is a premium one with Tesla and Polestar on IM’s radar. Notably, IM is soldering ahead in solid state battery technology, releasing the L6 sedan with semi-solid batteries that boast up to 1000km of driving range from a charge.
While IM Motors has not been confirmed for Australia, local MG boss Peter Ciao has shown an interest in various models in the portfolio for the future.
JAC – Q3 2024
Despite JAC being an approximate acronym for Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp, we’re told the three-letter capitalised name should be pronounced “Jack”, not “jay-aye-cee”.
The brand will release the T9 diesel ute by the third quarter of this year with pricing under $50K drive-away to compete with low trims of the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, while competing directly with the GWM Cannon and LDV T60.
Not to be confined to commercial vehicles, local JAC executives have promised future expansion with an electric version of the T9 ute to be followed by electric SUVs, plug-in hybrids and potentially even passenger cars.
Jaecoo – 2025
Chery’s premium semi off-road brand (not to be confused with rugged Jetour, which has been ruled out) will launch here shortly with its Range Rover Velar lookalike J7 mid-size SUV to be followed by the larger J8 at a later date.
Leapmotor – 2025
This year, global automotive mega-group Stellantis invested €1.5 billion (AU$2,434,000) into Chinese start-up Leapmotor giving it 21 per cent equity.
The plan is to roll vehicles out to Europe by late 2024 with expansion into other markets, including the Middle East, Africa, India, Asia Pacific and South America – with Australia on the list.
The brand’s C10 mid-size SUV would be a perfect Tesla Model Y rival and is most likely. A T03 city car is also in the expansion plans but would likely be a harder sell in Australia.
Skywell – late 2024
One of the less conventional names on the list, all we can think about is James Bond when mentioning the Skywell Skyhone electric sedan that has the Tesla Model 3 in its sights.
Skywell is technically already a player in the Australian market – albeit a quiet one – with importer EV Automotive selling a selection of basically equipped but quite expensive electric commercial vehicles competing with the LDV eDeliver9 and eDeliver7.
Next on the list is apparently the BE11 SUV that is also heading to the UK, with Managing Director David Potter confirming “plans to introduce several new vehicles including the new model SUV just in time for the holiday season,” which means end of this year. We’ll wait and see.
Smart – Q4 2024
Not strictly Chinese, Smart has been reborn as a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely with Australian pricing confirmed for its #1 and #3 (pronounced “hashtag one and three”) models will arrive in the fourth quarter of this year.
Not quite through official Mercedes-Benz channels, though, with dealer group LSH Auto securing the contract. They will be available at LSH locations in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from $54,900 before on-road costs.
Xpeng – late 2024
Unlike Skywell, Xpeng (which we’re pronouncing "ex-peng" not "cross-peng") has a fully-fledged consumer-facing website that looks a lot like Tesla’s.
On there, the suspiciously Tesla Model Y-like G6 electric SUV can be pre-ordered with a $1000 refundable deposit. Final pricing will be revealed in September with customer deliveries to begin between October and December this year.
Australian importer, TrueEV will offer two variants - Standard and Long with up to 210kW, all-wheel drive and a 570km driving range (WLTP). The larger G9 SUV and X9 people mover also appear on the website.
Zeekr – November 2024
Lynk & Co have gone quiet, and instead Zeekr is Geely’s in-house brand to conquer the semi-premium electric segment in Australia currently dominated by Tesla and BYD.
Zeekr has announced most of its plans so far via social networking site LinkedIn and took lifestyle media to China last month ahead of the Zeekr X small SUV’s promised November release. It does not yet have an Australian website or major dealer presence.
The Zeekr X shares its parts kit with the just-launched Volvo EX30 electric small SUV. It will be followed by the Zeekr 009 people mover later in the year. Other models, including sedans and larger SUVs, are on the cards but nothing further is confirmed.
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