Chery Plans to Join 24 Hours of Le Mans Race with Exeed Brand – Report

Chery is planning to join the coveted 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race with its Exeed sub-brand in five years’ time.

Chery is poised to venture into the motorsport world with its Exeed sub-brand, as it aims to join the coveted 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in five years’ time. This move will not only make both Chery and Exeed the first Chinese automakers to participate in said race but also put them amongst the top automakers such as BMW, Ferrari, Hyundai (Genesis), and many more.

As reported by CarNewsChina, Chery’s Exeed sub-brand announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans France, Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). To go with this signing, Exeed has also announced its five-year “Road to Le Mans” initiative as a preparation plan before its debut in Circuit de la Sarthe.

The five-year plan can be further separated into three core phases, with the first one being the establishment of the “Exeed Unified Race” local endurance race series. This phase will allow the automaker to develop and refine its racing team while doubling as a talent search for its future racing driver lineup.

Exeed's Road to Le Mans roadmap will also see the automaker participating in the Asian Le Mans Series.

The second phase will see Exeed partaking in a regional racing series, particularly the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS). With ALMS now featuring three main classes, LMP2, LMP3, and LMGT3, the Wuhu-based automaker would likely participate in the latter class, which requires them to produce over 2,500 vehicles per year for street use.

The third and final phase will be the establishment of the “Exeed Le Mans Team” that will eventually participate in the main race of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

To go with this, Chery and ACO reportedly agreed to build a Le Mans-certified race track in Wuhu, where the Chery brand is headquartered. This purpose-built motorsport track not only will be used as Exeed’s battleground to improve its cars, but it will also host top-level racing events and series here in China.

Should this ambitious five-year plan come to fruition, Chery is set to become the first Chinese automaker to ever participate in this pinnacle of endurance racing events. That being said, Chery and Exeed’s path to Le Mans won’t be easy, especially given that the automaker’s current engine lineup isn’t as vast or powerful as other established competitors.

Exeed ES7 C-DM is the overseas market's version of the Chery Fulwin A9L, featuring the brand's proprietary Kunpeng C-DM PHEV system.

That said, the automaker could potentially use motorsport to prove the performance of its C-DM plug-in hybrid technology, which, despite having a small four-cylinder lump as a base, can deliver a combined output north of 600 hp. For example, the ongoing Chery Fulwin A9L’s Kunpeng C-DM PHEV setup is capable of delivering a combined output of 630 hp and 854 Nm, which enables a quick century sprint time of less than four seconds.

While this is big news, Chery is far from being the only Chinese automaker that is interested in motorsport, as Geely’s Lynk & Co has been meddling in this foray since 2018 through its partnership with a Swedish-based racing team, Cyan Racing. To date, Lynk & Co has participated in the FIA TCR World Tour series and become its most successful team with nine world titles with the Lynk & Co 03 TCR race car.

Source: CarNewsChina