The wheels are turning fast at Chery South Africa, which this week signed a binding agreement with WesBank for the provision of financial services to both clients and dealers.

The agreement follows several months of negotiation between China’s leading exporter of vehicles and South Africa’s leading provider of innovative vehicle and asset solutions and includes the provision of comprehensive vehicle finance solutions under the newly created Chery Finance. It will also take care of all asset and dealer floorplan finance through the same alliance.

“For Chery, affordability means much more than just the sales price. We consider the cost of finance, maintenance, and insurance in our calculations, and we want to make sure that it makes sense to our customers on every level.

“With this in mind, we are very proud to partner with WesBank for the creation of Chery Finance. WesBank is known for its innovative approach to vehicle finance and cost competitiveness. This will ultimately benefit our future owners, who are guaranteed to get the best possible deal on their new or pre-owned Chery through Chery Finance,” says Jay Jay Botes, National Sales Manager of Chery South Africa.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday at a small ceremony at the Chery offices in Bryanston, Johannesburg. It will now allow Chery’s sales and dealer development team to implement the finance solution at each of the 30+ dealers that will start trading in November 2021.

“We are proud to be associated with Chery South Africa and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship,” says Ghana Msibi, CEO of WesBank Vehicle and Asset Finance. “In our due diligence prior to creating the Chery Finance alliance, we were impressed with the company’s focus on quality, safety and customer service, and we believe that this will help the company to grow in a market that values these attributes highly.”

The creation of Chery Finance follows on last week’s official announcement of Chery’s establishment in South Africa. This is the first time that the company enters South Africa as a wholly owned subsidiary of the global group, although it has supported the existing owners with parts and service support throughout.

“We are excited to introduce South African customers to our range of modern SUVs. Vehicles like the Tiggo 4 and Tiggo 8 Pro are very popular in every market where they are sold, thanks to their combination of modern technology, powerful engines and unique safety innovations,” says Botes.

“Now we can add to that list the many finance innovations on offer through Chery Finance, including fast online finance applications, immediate vehicle settlement calculations and best-in-class dealer support.”

Chery has completed its local vehicle testing and homologation and looks forward to introducing its first vehicles later this year. This will be followed by a comprehensive range of ultra-modern vehicles in 2022 and the continued growth of the Chery network of dealers.