#Chery

Last Friday, a Rely X5 SUV rolled off the assembly lines of Chery Auto in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. It was Chery’s 2 millionth car and won Chery the coveted membership in China’s “Two Million Club.” According to People’s Daily, Chery is the first non-state owned car maker to produce more than 2 million cars in China. Chery ranks fifth after Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen, Shanghai GM and Guangzhou Honda.

When China’s Chery announced last December that they would be will be the first ever Chinese brand to enter the venerable Dakar Rally, a lot of people said: “Yeah, sure. Chinese cars, in the Dakar? Don’t they fall apart when they leave the lot?”

Chery’s team didn’t win, but they survived.

China’s Chery will be the first ever Chinese brand to enter the venerable Dakar Rally.

After the Paris-Dakar Rally had been canceled in 2008 for fear of terrorist attacks, the world’s roughest race moved to South America in 2009. For good, as it seems. The 2010 edition will start on New Year’s Day in Buenos Aires, to return (with a considerably thinned-out field) to Buenos Aires on January 16. The route is some 9,000km/5600m long. Four of the 14 legs of the race will be spent in the Atacama Desert. The Andes will be crossed two times at altitudes of about 4,700m. Team Chery will send 4 cars: