OREANDA-NEWS. March 20, 2012. In 2011, Chery achieved a record export volume of 160,200 units, maintaining the lead among domestic automakers. In the first two months of 2012, Chery maintained strong export momentum with both volumes of over 10000 units. The result is inseparable from Chery’s efforts to constantly improve its capabilities of R & D, manufacturing, sale and service in global markets. Remarkably, R & D capability improvement has laid a solid foundation for Chery’s overseas success.

Early at the beginning of its establishment, Chery worked out an R & D mode of “independence based on opening up and cooperation”, integrated and utilized resources worldwide, and focused on developing core technologies. After years’ accumulation, Chery has established a distinctive independent R & D system, brought together a host of innovative talents in technology and management, and built a strong team of more than 6,000 high-caliber researchers and developers. Besides, Chery’s practice of spending at least 10% of sales revenues on R & D every year has passed from mouth to mouth.

Quality is the life of enterprises and must be ensured by rigorous and efficient R & D systems. Chery’s new R & D institution has formed a matrix organization of cross collaboration of the project development platform center (vertical) and the technical center (horizontal), and established a pre-study and sharing technology institute and a sample trial-manufacturing center. Besides, the automobile engineering center established in 2010 was merged into the general research institute and renamed the “trial and vehicle engineering technology institute”. Thus, the previous mode in which tens of developers work on a vehicle has been transformed into the mode in which 2,000 to 3,000 developers work on a vehicle. A person in charge of Chery Automobile Engineering Research Institute, said, “Compared to the past, several times of developers discuss a technical plan, it is not only extensive growth but also intensive improvement, we should ensure product quality with Chery’s best experts at all relevant technologies, and strive to perfect product quality, controllability, comfort, energy conservation and environmental protection, appearance, etc.”

In key projects, engineer resources have multiplied, too. The advantage of the practice is going deeper into details, bringing together specialties of all research institutes, and making technical research more thorough, thereby ensuring the quality level of every subsystem and link of product R & D. With more scientific and efficient systems and processes, products will naturally be better. Chery focused on structural design and technological design and gave equal consideration to performance design in the past, but now focuses on performance design in parallel with structural design and technological design. Chery has developed the full capability of forward R & D.

Additionally, Chery invested 1.5 billion yuan in building Asia’s largest auto test technology center, which covers testing development and verification of more than 1,800 test items of 23 professional modules of vehicles and parts. As for collision test laboratory is concerned, Chery’s the laboratory may be ranked among world top five in hardware equipment and testing capacity, can meet the requirements of relevant safety laws and regulations of countries and regions like China, Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and can conduct statutory tests such as frontal collision, 40% offsetting collision, side collision, rear collision and rollover. Besides, the laboratory can conduct NCAP tests such as frontal post collision, side post collision, a full set of pedestrian protection tests and high-performance simulating sled tests. These enable Chery to conduct simulating collision tests for various traffic accidents and star-rated simulating tests in accordance with the requirements of safety standards, laws and regulations of various countries in terms of collision safety performance development, thereby constantly enhancing the safety performance of products, meeting the requirements of standards of major developed countries, and bracing itself for entry into the global auto market.

Constant improvements in R & D capacity have boosted Chery’s auto R & D system construction and integrated innovation capacity, and the step towards overseas market has become steady. Chery’s international business grew by 73% compared to 2010, with its products sold to more than 80 countries and regions. It is foreseeable that Chery will walk further and further in overseas markets with such tremendous R & D strength.