It is finally happening. The battle for Japan’s compact electric car market gets a new contender.
Emta, a joint venture with Chery pulling strings, will launch its first vehicle in 2027. They are targeting the BYD Racco head-on. This is a Kei car. Small footprint, big ambition. The EV will run on batteries from Gotion, a long-time Chery ally.
Here is the lineup plan: four cars. All by end of 2028? No. End of 2029. They have time to get it right, or not.
Who Owns Emta?
Emta sits under Singapore-based Electric Mobility Technologies. It is a tangled web of five partners:
- Chery Automobile (27.27%)
- Jiangsu Yueda Automobile Group (27.27)
- Autobacs Seven (18.18% )
- Gotion (18.18% )
- Anest (9.09% )
The company prefers “EMTA” in all caps. Looks like an acronym, doesn’t it? It is not. CarNewsChina will stick to Emta, lowercase M, because we prefer clarity over confusion.
Chery is the tech donor here. They supply the architecture. The electric drive. The assisted driving systems. Wuhu-based ingenuity, packaged for Japanese streets.
Production happens at Yueda’s Yanchang plant. The same spot that made Kia and HiPhi cars. Rumors said Chery might buy it outright. Turns out, it is just an export-focused project. No takeover. Just collaboration.
“We are shareholders,” Chery said, effectively distancing themselves. “We don’t run day-to-day ops.”
Autobacs Seven handles sales channels. Makes sense, they are giants in auto parts in Japan. Gotion supplies the batteries. Anest? Quality support. Boring, but necessary.
Who runs the show? Design and concepts? That is the Japanese team. Veterans from Honda and Mazda. Good pedigree. Marketing is led by Susumu Uchikoshi, formerly Nissan China’s GM. CEO is He Xiaoqing, ex-president of Changan Ford. A mix of Asian auto heavyweights.
The goal is clear: one car in 2027, three more following. If it works, they look at building a factory in Japan after 2031. Ambitious timeline. Or maybe just necessary for scale?
The #01 Looks Like… This
First up is the boxy K-car. Name? TBD.
The door says #01. So let’s call it that. Externally? It looks a lot like a five-door version of Chery’s QQ Ice Cream, that city EV from China launched in 2021 if you remember that one.
Boxy. Blocky headlights. Blackened pillars. Minimalistic bumper. Side-view mirrors? Tiny. Might actually be cameras, replacing glass for a sleeker (read: cheaper?) profile.
Dimensions matter here. 3.4 meters long. 1.48 wide. Strict Kei class limits, respected. Officials claim it has the safety of a larger vehicle. Big promise for a tiny box.
Price? Specs? Trim levels? Nobody knows yet. Not yet, anyway.
Emta plans to consider manufacturing in Japan only if sales hit a certain level post-2030. That’s a conditional promise, at best. Will it work out. We shall see.
