MILAN, April 21 (Reuters) - China's Chery Automobile is working to expand beyond its SUV-focused range to smaller cars to support its growth in Europe, but platform development has just started and times remain undisclosed, a top group executive said.
Chery, China's largest car exporter, has a portfolio of brands including Chery itself and Omoda and Jaecoo, which are leading the group's growth in the European market.
The Lepas brand was added last year, with a range now consisting of three SUV models,
including the L6 which was unveiled in Europe late on Monday during the Milan Design Week.
Chery's Head of Engineering, Peter Matkin, said the group had focused on SUVs as those are "what everybody's asking for" both in China and in other global markets where it exports cars.
"Now my constant push ... is that we're missing 50% of the European market because all of our cars are 4.2, 4.3 meters (and) above, and we need to now compete in the below 4 meters," he told media after the presentation.
Matkin said Chery was looking at developing a new architecture which can support cars below four meters, to come in the future.
"We can't do everything at once, but I can promise you that it will come very, very soon, very, very fast, I mean (we are) daily on this program," he said, adding however he did not know the precise timing. "We just started working on this now".
Chery - which is already assembling cars in Europe through a joint venture in a former Nissan plant in Spain - is looking to expand production in the region through partnerships with other automakers allowing it to use existing factories.
(Reporting by Giulio PiovaccariEditing by Keith Weir)
