As the Omoda | Jaecoo brand makes a meteoric rise across the globe, hitting significant accolades like having sold one million units worldwide in the past three years across the 69 markets it operates in, Caesar Huang, deputy general manager, Latin American (Latam) Region, Omoda | Jaecoo, sees the countries under his operational umbrella as part of the brand’s greater goal of one million unit sales per annum by 2027.

“We launched Omoda | Jaecoo in the Caribbean region, starting from Jamaica, Suriname, and Sint Maarten since last November and December, gradually. So far, so good. We have seen rapid customer demand and recognition of our brand and vehicles. We are quite happy with that, and are looking forward to bigger numbers and an even better customer experience that we can bring to the Caribbean,” Huang told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

European sales for Omoda | Jaecoo have increased by 246 per cent year-on-year. The brand achieved 4.7 per cent UK market share. While closer to home, sales in Chile have grown 29 per cent year-on-year, as Huang, in his year and a half at Omoda | Jaecoo, has been navigating the complexities of the LATAM region, which includes the Caribbean.

“If you talk about the Caribbean, it just sounds like one region, but it actually accounts for around 18 markets. In comparison to our other markets in Central and South America, it’s more complicated. We have right-hand drive and left-hand drive. For some markets, we have import duties free for EVs, some not; so we have to deal with this complicated situation for the Caribbean region. The truth is to have the right product for each of these markets, which is a challenge for us.”

For Huang, this not only means tailoring the correct models and technology, but the messaging as well.

“Due to the complexity of the Caribbean region, for some markets we see the Omoda 5 as the volume model, and in some others we see Jaecoo J7 PHEV and Jaecoo J8, which is our flagship model, as stars in certain markets. So, it’s quite interesting to have different models as different stars in different markets,” he said.

Beyond the products themselves, Huang believes it will be the customer experience of the Omoda | Jaecoo brand that will move its sales forward.

“We need our dealer partners to build their showrooms, because the showrooms are the place where we can have our customers view and experience our vehicles. Customers can feel and test the competitiveness of our vehicles. So, our teams are working hard with our dealerships to build showrooms in each of these markets to bring that kind of experience to our customers,” said Huang.

Currently, there are 1,364 Omoda | Jaecoo showrooms worldwide, with the company adding one a day.

— Rory Daley

Caesar Huang, deputy general manager, Latam Region, Omoda | Jaecoo. (Photo: Rory Daley)