It’s no secret that all of China’s major auto manufacturers have multiple brands under their wing. You could easily get confused when you see different brands and logos on the car, but when you pop the hood, you’ll realize the engines, parts, and other bits and pieces are from the same manufacturer.

That’s definitely the case for Chery. Apart from their namesake auto brand, they also own and market many others like Omoda, Jaecoo, Luxeed, Exeed, Lepas, Soueast, and more recently iCaur. But in the last few years, they’ve been showing off something new: Freelander.

As the name states, Freelander is an offshoot of their joint venture partnership with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which previously had two generations of a compact 4WD called Freelander and Freelander 2. Chery is JLR’s partner in the Chinese market, but having the Freelander spinoff as its own brand is definitely new. The goal is promising: build an SUV that has the design and cred that JLR can provide, as well as the electrified platform, engineering, and cost efficiency of Chery.

The brand is so new that we actually caught Chery winter testing their first model, the Freelander 8, in northern China near the Russian border in February prior to its debut at the Beijing auto show two months later. Actually, Chery is still preparing the rollout of the brand, having only done the Chinese market launch on September 3, to be followed by an international launch in Abu Dhabi on September 29.

After the UAE, reports indicate that the brand and model will be launched in the UK, Europe and Australia, but there have been no mentions of launches in Southeast Asia. That will change today.

AutoIndustriya has received information that Chery is seriously looking at launching the Freelander (stylized as FREELANDER) brand in the Philippine market. The indicator is that Freelander (well, Chery) management is actively interviewing and hiring experienced executives from other Chinese brands to head up the upcoming effort in the Philippines.

As to when, there is no indicator yet; the best guess right now is sometime in mid-2027, and it will likely be done together with Chery's local subsidiary Omoda Jaecoo, as the Chery brand is being handled by distributor UAAGI. As you may already know, Omoda Jaecoo Philippines will also be handling iCaur when they launch it this year.

As for the vehicle, we can expect the brand to be headlined by the Freelander 8 that is starting to undergo series production in China. The Freelander 8 is a luxury 6-seater 4WD SUV that measures just about 5.1 meters long and features a smart technology suite that is powered by Huawei. It runs on an 800-volt electric platform that can be either BEV or a dual-motor range extender/PHEV with a 1.5L turbo gas engine. Yes, all-wheel drive will be standard.

Do you think there is potential for the Freelander in the Philippines? Drop us a comment.