Who Makes Omoda Cars? Owner, Factory and Reliability

Omoda cars are made by Chery, a Chinese carmaker founded in 1997 by the city government of Wuhu in Anhui province, where it is still based. Omoda is one of Chery’s brands, not a separate manufacturer, and the electric Omoda E5 sold in the UK is built in Wuhu.

Omoda launched in Britain at a ceremony in London’s Docklands on 29 August 2024, when Just Auto reported it as a subsidiary of Chery International with 60 franchised sites shared with its sister brand Jaecoo. It has grown quickly: Omoda registered 3,137 new cars in October 2026, a 2.1% share of the market, and 34,669 in the year to date, against 16,325 at the same point in 2025, according to SMMT figures. Our Omoda brand guide covers every model on sale.

Who owns Omoda?

Chery owns Omoda. Omoda’s own UK site says Omoda and Jaecoo belong to the Chery Group, and Motoring Research reported in August 2026 that the two brands, both part of the Chery group, had passed 100,000 UK sales in under two years.

Chery itself was founded in 1997 by the government of Wuhu, Caproasia reported. Chery Automobile listed its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 25 September 2025, raising HK$9.145 billion, and FinanceAsia described it as the second-largest domestic passenger car company in mainland China and the eleventh largest carmaker in the world by 2024 volume. Its headquarters remain in Wuhu.

There is no hidden company behind the name. Omoda says the name “reflects our unwavering commitment to modern living”. Chery also sells cars in Britain under its own badge; our Chery UK guide explains the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8.

Is Omoda the same as Jaecoo and Chery?

Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery are three badges with one owner, and their cars share a lot of hardware under different bodies. Motor1 says the E5 shares its platform with the petrol Omoda 5 and that the platform is the basis for a series of Omoda, Jaecoo and Exeed models, and Auto Express notes that the Omoda 5 SHS-H hybrid shares its powertrain with the Chery Tiggo 4.

The clearest example is the electric pair. The Jaecoo E5 uses the same 58.9 kWh usable battery as the Omoda E5, yet costs £27,505 in November 2026 rather than £33,065, with a 248-mile WLTP range against 267 miles. Our Jaecoo UK guide covers that brand’s range.

Together the badges now sell in large numbers. These are SMMT’s October 2026 figures for the Chery brands.

Brand	October 2026 registrations	Share	October 2025 registrations
Jaecoo	6,089	4.0%	2,851
Chery	3,707	2.4%	1,263
Omoda	3,137	2.1%	2,102

The Omoda 5 was the brand’s best seller, 15th in the October chart with 1,770 registrations, Motoring Research reported. In September, Chery’s four UK brands together outsold Volkswagen.

Where are Omoda cars made?

The Omoda E5 is built in Wuhu, China, where Chery is based, according to Motor1’s technical analysis, which adds that the E5 is also built in Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran. The first UK-specification Omoda 5 and E5 cars arrived at the Port of Southampton on the Cosco ship Liao He Kou before the 2024 launch.

No Omoda is built in Britain. On 3 June 2026, Nissan and Chery International UK signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to study building Chery International UK passenger cars on Line One at Sunderland, with production possibly starting in financial year 2027, Nissan announced. Nissan would keep full ownership of the plant and its staff. No model has been named, so treat it as a plan, not a promise; we explain the detail in our report on Chery’s UK R&D base and the Sunderland deal.

Which Omoda models can you buy in the UK, and what do they cost to run?

Omoda sells one fully electric car and two plug-in hybrids in the UK, alongside the petrol and hybrid Omoda 5 and a petrol Omoda 7, all listed on Omoda’s UK site. The table uses the spec rows in our dataset and our own running cost figures. Method: efficiency is WLTP miles divided by usable kWh, costed at 6.5p/kWh at home (Intelligent Octopus Go), 26.32p/kWh on the October to December 2026 price cap and 82p/kWh on a public rapid charger (Zapmap, October 2026), ignoring charging losses; see our methodology.

Model	Type	Price, Nov 2026	WLTP electric range	Battery	Peak DC	Boot	Home cost per mile
Omoda E5	Electric	£33,065	267 miles	58.9 kWh usable	130 kW	370 L	1.43p
Jaecoo E5	Electric	£27,505	248 miles	58.9 kWh usable	80 kW	480 L	1.54p
Omoda 7 SHS-P	Plug-in hybrid	£32,005	56 miles	18.3 kWh*	40 kW	590 L	2.12p
Omoda 9 SHS-P	Plug-in hybrid	£44,995	90 miles	34.46 kWh usable	70 kW	660 L	2.49p

*Omoda publishes 18.3 kWh for the Omoda 7 without saying whether it is usable capacity, so our figures for it use that number.

The Omoda 9 plug-in hybrid has 90 miles of electric range on the WLTP test and can tow 1,500 kg. The Omoda 7 plug-in hybrid has 56 miles of electric range and a 1,250 kg braked towing limit.

Worked UK example: what does an Omoda E5 cost to charge?

An Omoda E5 driven 10,000 miles a year costs about £143 in electricity if every mile is charged at home on a 6.5p/kWh overnight tariff. That rests on 4.53 miles per kWh, which gives 1.43p a mile.

The same 10,000 miles would cost about £581 at the 26.32p/kWh price cap rate (5.81p a mile), and about £1,809 if every mile came from public rapid chargers at 82p/kWh (18.09p a mile). Most owners mix the two, so the share charged at home decides the bill.

A full charge of the 58.9 kWh battery costs £3.83 at 6.5p/kWh and takes about 8 hours 25 minutes on a 7 kW wallbox. Measured against list price, the E5 costs £123.84 for every mile of WLTP range, against £110.91 for the Jaecoo E5. The Jaecoo is £5,560 cheaper for 19 fewer miles of range, though its 80 kW peak charging rate is slower than the Omoda’s 130 kW.

Are Omoda cars reliable?

There is no independent owner reliability score for Omoda yet, because the brand is too new to appear in the big UK surveys. The 2026 What Car? Reliability Survey brand table of 30 brands does not include Omoda, and Auto Express said in March 2026 that it was still waiting for Omoda to appear in its Driver Power survey.

The nearest evidence comes from the sister brand. In What Car?’s survey of 39,332 owners, the Jaecoo 7 scored 71.9% and came sixth in the list of least reliable cars. Of the owners who responded, 30% reported a fault, and 65% of those cars were off the road for more than a week. Non-engine electrics made up 17% of faults. Although every car would still have been under warranty, only 75% were fixed for free; 20% cost £51 to £500 and 5% cost £751 to £1,000. The Jaecoo 7 is a different car from any Omoda, but it comes from the same owner and the same dealer network.

On safety, Euro NCAP gave the Omoda E5 five stars in November 2024, with scores of 87% for adult occupants, 87% for child occupants, 68% for vulnerable road users and 88% for safety assist, Omoda reported. The petrol Omoda 5 earned five stars in 2022.

The government’s recall checker lists no recalls for the 2025 Omoda E5 or the 2025 Omoda 5 on 10 November 2026.

The warranty does a lot of work here. Every new Omoda is covered for seven years or 100,000 miles, and the battery for eight years or 100,000 miles, with Omoda repairing or replacing defective battery parts so capacity returns to at least 70% of the original.

What are the common mistakes about Omoda?

The most common mistake is treating Omoda as a start-up with no backing. It belongs to one of China’s largest carmakers, which is already studying UK production.

The second is confusing Omoda’s own discount with the government’s. Omoda’s website advertises a £3,000 “OMODA EV Grant” on the E5, but no Omoda or Jaecoo appears on the government’s list of eligible cars. The Electric Car Grant is a separate scheme, so check which discount a quote includes.

The third is assuming every Omoda is electric. Only the E5 is. The Omoda 7 is a plug-in hybrid with 56 miles of electric range and the Omoda 9 a plug-in hybrid with 90 miles; both have petrol engines, and the Omoda 5 is sold as a petrol or a hybrid.

The fourth is assuming a long warranty means no bills. What Car?’s Jaecoo 7 owners show that a quarter of fixes still cost money within the warranty period.

Should you go fully electric instead of an Omoda plug-in hybrid?

For drivers who can charge at home, the Omoda E5 is the cheaper car to run per mile. At home it costs 1.43p a mile, against 2.49p for the Omoda 9 plug-in hybrid with its 90-mile electric range and 2.12p for the Omoda 7 plug-in hybrid with its 56-mile electric range. On a public rapid charger the gap widens: 18.09p a mile for the E5, against 31.4p for the Omoda 9 and 26.8p for the Omoda 7.

The plug-in hybrids make sense if you tow, need a bigger boot (590 litres in the Omoda 7, 660 litres in the Omoda 9, against 370 litres in the E5), or regularly drive beyond the E5’s range without time to stop. Once the battery is empty, both run as petrol SUVs, so their low running costs depend on charging every day.

Should you buy an Omoda?

Our verdict, based on published data rather than a drive of our own: the Omoda E5 suits buyers who want a well equipped electric SUV backed by a large manufacturer and a seven-year warranty, and who can charge at home. It suits less well anyone who puts a proven reliability record first, because Omoda has none yet and the sister Jaecoo 7’s survey result is a warning. Buyers who need boot space should note that the cheaper Jaecoo E5 offers 480 litres to the Omoda’s 370.

If you are shopping for an E5 now, read about the current free Octopus charger or £1,000 charging credit offer before you sign.