Chery confirms new Lepas brand to launch in UK
Lepas will be the fourth brand to join the Chery family in the UK, alongside Jaecoo and Omoda...
Chinese car manufacturer Chery has confirmed that Lepas will become its fourth automotive brand to enter the UK market, with its launch due later this year.
Designed to appeal to the European market, Lepas will join the Chery family alongside Jaecoo, Omoda and Chery itself, and it’ll focus on plug-in hybrid and electric cars. The name Lepas is said to be a portmanteau of ‘leopard’, ‘leap’ and ‘passion’.
The first UK offerings from the brand haven’t yet been confirmed, but our sister title Autocar previously reported that Lepas will bring its L4 and L6 SUVs here initially, both of which are closely related to the Jaecoo 5, Omoda 5 and Omoda 7. The L4 is pitched as a Dacia Duster-sized small SUV while the L6 will be slightly larger, with both expected to use combustion, plug-in-hybrid and fully-electric power options.
Lepas also offers its flagship L8 SUV in other international markets – a family SUV likely to be a similar size to the Chery Tiggo 8.
While the Lepas models look distinct from their Omoda and Jaecoo siblings, they bear stronger resemblance to the Chery Tiggo models launched here in the UK over the last year, with their soft-edged design. However, Chery International president Zhang Guibing has said that the Tiggos will take on new, chunkier styling to move them onto a different path compared with the Lepas models.
Omoda and Jaecoo have recorded a strong start for sales here in the UK since their launches, having sold 48,087 new vehicles in 2025, representing 2.38% of the market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). With Chery, all three brands combined accounted for 2.65% of the new car market last year – beating the likes of Mini and Tesla.
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