Chery Malaysia Set to Open New Plant in Shah Alam with Dedicated R&D Centre

Chery Malaysia is planning to open its own production facility in Shah Alam, which will also include a dedicated R&D centre for the ASEAN region.

As one of the fastest-growing automotive brands in Malaysia, Chery has set up a pretty ambitious plan for both our and the whole ASEAN regional markets. Besides launching a slew of new products under its Tiggo lineup, the Chinese automaker is also in the midst of setting up its own production hub in Malaysia.

Chery International Vice President Chunqing Chen (centre), addressing the Malaysian media at the 2024 Chery International Business Conference in Wuhu, China.

As revealed by Chery International Vice President Chunqing Chen during our visit to the firm’s headquarters in Wuhu, China, this new production plant will be located in Shah Alam. This new site will involve both semi- (SKD) and complete knock-down (CKD) assembly for all current and upcoming Chery models in Malaysia.

Chery Malaysia’s decision to make this huge investment is due to the overload capacity of its current CKD plant at the Inokom production hub in Kulim, Kedah. Currently, said production facility is in charge of producing both the Tiggo 8 Pro and Omoda 5 SUVs, the latter being the marque’s best-selling model to date.

Chery models being assembled at Inokom's Kulim production facility.

While the new production facility is set to be operational some time later in 2025, Chen said that the CKD production at the Inokom plant would still continue in order to prevent any further delays for their product delivery.

Chery’s upcoming Shah Alam plant is said to be one of the brand’s key production facility in ASEAN, alongside its new plant in Indonesia.

More importantly, this new facility in Shah Alam will also house Chery International’s R&D hub for the ASEAN regional markets. According to Chen, this new dedicated R&D hub will be in charge of developing new ASEAN-specific products under the Chery brand, which might comprise several types of vehicles ranging from MPVs, SUVs, and even pick-up trucks.

These new ASEAN-specific products will be targeted for the mass market, and Chen added that some of them will be priced under the RM100,000 mark. This move is also in line with Chery International’s ultimate plan to become the leading mass-market automaker in the ASEAN region, specifically with their Chery Tiggo lineup.