Chery is handing an entire Wuhu plant to Luxeed — capacity, production-entity status and all. China's MIIT published the transfer in batch 412 of its manufacturer announcements on Friday, and a Luxeed insider confirmed the Huawei-backed brand plans to go public independently once it stands on its own.

The details are less dramatic than they sound, and that's the point. Luxeed's proposed production address is No. 8 Wanjiang Avenue, Wuhu Economic and Technological Development Zone, Anhui, flagged as a "member company of Chery Group." In the same attachment, Chery applied to deregister that exact address. This isn't new capacity. It's an existing plant changing hands.

"It is Chery's plant that was given to Luxeed," the insider told Yicai. The license becomes official once the public comment period closes on October 23 and approval follows.

What does the license actually change?

Two things, mostly. First, the badge: new vehicles are expected to swap "Chery" for "Luxeed," mirroring how Nio dropped JAC's badge after winning its own license. Second, the corporate footing: a manufacturer's license turns Luxeed from a brand inside Chery's shell into a carmaker in its own right — the prerequisite for the standalone listing the insider flagged.

Dongfeng's Voyah is doing the same thing in the same MIIT batch, taking over No. 8 Yunfeng Avenue in Wuhan while Dongfeng deregisters it. Two OEMs, one playbook.

How far along is the split?

Further than the license suggests. The groundwork runs back over a year:

• January 2024: Chery upgraded Luxeed to an independent business unit with separate accounting and control over R&D, production and sales.
• January 23, 2025: Anhui Luxeed New Energy Vehicle Co Ltd registered in Wuhu with 1 billion yuan ($149 million) capital, Chery as sole shareholder.
• June 2025: business registration changed; Chery's stake fell from 100% to 85%, two Wuhu investment partnerships took 7.5% each. After tracing ownership, CEO Guo Rui holds about 6% indirectly and executive VP Zhao Changjiang about 4.5%.
• August 7, 2025: Chery and Huawei signed the Luxeed 2.0 agreement in Shenzhen — more than 10 billion yuan in R&D investment and a 5,000-person R&D team.

Management turned over accordingly. Zhao Changjiang arrived in January from BYD's Denza sales division. In April, Guo Rui — formerly CMO of Huawei's consumer business for Greater China and global CMO of Honor — became chairman and CEO, replacing Yu Jiufeng.

That's roughly $1.5 billion of announced R&D intent. Treat it as intention, not banked spending.

Do the sales numbers justify independence?

Barely, and the trend is the wrong color. Luxeed sold 90,493 vehicles in 2025, up 56% year-on-year. In the first nine months of 2026, cumulative sales were 43,623 units — down 24.5%.

At that pace, full-year 2026 lands around 58,000–60,000 units, roughly a third below 2025. For context, that's a plant and a license chasing a shrinking order book. The lineup isn't the problem on paper: the S7 sedan launched November 2023, the R7 in September 2024, the V9 MPV, and the RX electric coupe SUV added September 28.

Still, 10 billion yuan of R&D against 43,623 units in nine months works out to a considerable sum per sale. An IPO would help carry that load.

What to watch next

October 23, when the MIIT comment window closes and approval is expected. Then the first vehicles badged Luxeed instead of Chery. Then the listing timetable — which nobody has dated yet, and which the sales slide may well dictate.