Lepas in the UK: the dealer network is growing faster than the cars arrive
lepasinternational.com
Chery’s premium brand Lepas has approved more than 50 UK dealers and targets 90 by the end of 2027. The L8 plug-in hybrid starts at £34,900.
More than 50 approved dealers look convincing for a brand that has not started mass deliveries yet. What matters more to a Lepas buyer is something else: how many of those sites will actually be open by the time the car is handed over. Chery expects to grow its British network to 70 outlets by the end of 2026 and 90 by the end of 2027.
Most locations are planned as standalone Lepas showrooms rather than corners shared with Chery, Omoda or Jaecoo. That supports the declared premium positioning, but it costs more time and money. Some partners will still put the brand under one roof with other marques — just not with the group’s own. Arnold Clark, Marshall, Stoneacre, Greenhous and JCT600 are already on the list.
The first model is the five-seat Lepas L8 plug-in hybrid. The entry-level Essence costs £34,900, around €40,800, while the Elevate is priced at £37,900, or roughly €44,300. The hybrid setup pairs a 1.5-litre turbo engine with an 18.4 kWh battery, good for up to 56 miles of electric running on the WLTP cycle.
32CARS.RU has already looked at how the L8 is meant to slot in among family crossovers such as the Volkswagen Tiguan and the Toyota RAV4.
Lepas promises a seven-year or 100,000-mile warranty, a separate eight-year battery warranty with the same mileage cap, and delivery of common parts to service centres within 48 hours. RAC assistance runs for a maximum of seven years and renews annually only if servicing is done on schedule at an authorised partner. The brand itself claims that most owners will be no more than 30 minutes from the nearest outlet. Still, the real value of a network is measured not by the number of signed contracts, but by the distance to a service centre that is already open.
