New Car Brand Alert: Jetour will debut at MIAS

The 2023 Manila International Auto Show is just under two months away from opening day at the World Trade Center Manila, and already we’re getting word of some interesting debuts.

And by that, we mean new brands. Specifically, we’re talking about Jetour.

Yes, the sub-brand of China’s Chery Holdings will have a rather big showing at the Manila International Auto Show with a booth that will be right next to Chery Philippines. From what we understand, Jetour may be a separate group from UAAGI (the company that is the distributor of Chery here) or may be even a separate management group within UAAGI. 

The prospect of Jetour arriving in the Philippines is also likely related to the news that Omoda is also coming into the country. Actually, the whispers in the industry say that Jetour and Omoda will share showrooms, but all that is unconfirmed and unlikely.

UPDATE: Omoda Philippines chimed in and said that they will not be sharing showrooms with Jetour.

Nevertheless, the prospect of Jetour coming in broadens the number of options that car buyers will have in our market. The arrival of so many Chinese brands is actually shaking up how the industry works with regard to product planning and how the market thinks about the concept of value for money. Chinese brands are easily able to offer more features for less thanks to economies of scale, all while steadily (and swiftly) improving their standards of design, engineering, and build quality.

We have no information yet as to the model range of Jetour and Omoda, but from what we know Jetour has some very interesting designs, specifically with SUVs. Actually, Jetour’s entire model line-up for export is comprised of SUVs. The Jetour X70, X70 Plus, X90, and X95 all look quite interesting, but what really caught our eye is the Dashing (see main image) with its very slim headlights.

The key will be the engine displacement. As we wrote before, cars from China that have a displacement of 1.5L take advantage of low import duty for attractive retail prices. Except for the X95, Jetour’s lineup of models abroad all have 1.5L turbo engine options.

Let’s see what Jetour has to offer when MIAS opens in mid-April.