Alado Corporation has signed a joint-venture agreement with Chery Automobile to produce Chery cars in Malaysia from the middle of the year. Chery Automobile will be directly involved in the manufacturing, assembly and distribution activities in collaboration with Alado. For this purpose, a joint-venture company will be established which will be known as Chery Alado Holdings Sdn Bhd and each partner will hold a 50% share.

In the first phase, there will be the local assembly of as many as 9 models which will be for sale in Malaysia and also for export around the ASEAN region and other right-hand drive countries. Oriental Assemblers in Johor (which assembles Hyundai models) will be contracted to assemble the vehicles at a rate of up to 5,000 units annually in the initial stage.

Models to be assembled this year will be the B14 MPV and Tiggo SUV, the former with two petrol engines choices (2.0 litres and 2.4 litres) and the latter with a 2.0-litre petrol engine. The models are already on sale in Malaysia, having been introduced as Completely Built-Up (CBU) imports earlier.

Tiggo SUV and B240 MPV (right) will be first models to be assembled

The joint venture, apart from being a milestone in the bilateral ties between China and Malaysia, will also provide a platform for the nurturing of the auto industry which will complement the growth of related and supplementary automotive parts industry as well as create job opportunities and economic growth, an official statement from Alado Corporation said. It is also expected to 'position Malaysia as an important regional hub for the sourcing and supply of automotive parts'.
 
Chery Automobile is today China's biggest independent automotive carmaker and has achieved cumulative production of one million vehicles. Its current annual production capacity is 650,000 vehicles and its export markets number over 50 countries and regions around the world. For the past five years, Chery has been No. 1 in export volumes from China.

QQ minicar and A160 sedan were first Chery models to appear in Malaysia

• Chery B240 MPV
• Chery Tiggo SUV