The company strengthened its design capability by acquiring some leading foreign designers to work with the local styling and design team in China. The newcomers include the director of design at Chery Automobile James Hope, who was previously a designer at General Motors and Hakan Saracoglu, a former designer at Porsche.

The Concept α was unveiled and it has a frontal appearance blended with elements of a covered bridge from ancient Chinese architecture. According to Hope, the grille contains the yin and yang elements of Chinese traditional culture while the flowing outline embodies the element of water, which is one of the five elements in traditional Chinese culture.

The former GM designer added that Chery Design also strives to integrate practicality, inclusiveness, virtue and innovation, all of which have spiritual connotations in terms of Chinese mainstream culture.

Chery’s deputy general manager Chen Anning went on to say, “There are many brands in China which are similar to Chery, so we have to set ourselves apart. For example, we accept neither blind imitation nor the act of plagiarism in terms of design and R&D.”