Lepas is the latest new Chinese brand to come to the UK, and it’s another Chery spin-off – Carwow
February 04, 2026 by Jamie Edkins
Chinese car maker Chery is about to launch its fourth new brand in the UK. Called Lepas, the first models to go on sale here will be announced soon. News editor Jamie Edkins is here to tell you everything we know so far.
We’ve seen some pretty interesting brand names from Chinese car makers over the past couple of years. Jaecoo is a mashup of the words “Jaeger” and “Cool”, while Omoda combines the letter O to symbolise the world, and Moda comes from the Italian word for fashion.
Well now we’ve got another new brand which hopes to capture our imagination with a whacky name: Lepas. It comes from the words leopard and passion, and Lepas is owned by Chery International, the same parent company as Omoda and Jaecoo.
The cars which Lepas will be selling in the UK will be confirmed in the coming weeks, but we expect to see a range of hybrid SUVs which use similar technology to the Chery Tiggo 8 and Jaecoo 7.
While the official model lineup hasn’t been announced yet, we can take an educated guess on which cars we’ll get based on the ones which have been revealed for other markets.
The car we’re most likely to get is the Lepas L8, a family SUV which is around the same size as a Chery Tiggo 8 or Peugeot 5008. Chery calls Lepas a “new energy vehicle brand”, which means the lineup will almost certainly feature plug-in hybrid engine options.
You can expect to see a similar hybrid system to the Chery Tiggo 8, which pairs a 1.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor to make a combined 204hp. Chery also makes some of the longest-range PHEVs on the market, so the Lepas could get as much as 90 miles of electric driving range.
Other models we could get include the L4, a small SUV which rivals cars like the Volkswagen T-Roc, and the L6 which is around the same size as a Chery Tiggo 7.
The first Lepas model to be offered in the UK will be announced in a few weeks’ time, and sales will start towards the end of the summer this year.
As with the other three Chery brands, you can expect to see a generous equipment list and a temptingly low price tag. We reckon the L8 would cost around £30,000, which is around the same as a Chery Tiggo 8 PHEV and a whopping £12,000 less than a plug-in hybrid Skoda Kodiaq.
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