Chrysler-badged Chinese cars to be sold in Mexico next year

The first fruits of the Chrysler-Chery partnership may be realized as early as next year with news today that a Chinese-built car will be sold wearing Chrysler badges in Mexico within the next 12 months. The new car is the Chery A1 hatch (pictured) and it will be the first global model spawned from the partnership between the American and Chinese carmakers signed in July last year.

The information comes from Chery general manager Zhang Lin, who revealed to Automotive News that Chrysler had sent a number of engineers to China to work on developing the car for global markets. The Chery A1 was originally styled by Italian design house Stile Bertone and the Chrysler version is expected to be virtually identical.

Despite Chrysler’s desperation for small cars as revealed by its co-President Tom LaSorda earlier this week, the A1 won’t be sold in the U.S. However, LaSorda confirmed that both carmakers were discussing plans for the development of a new model that could be built in China and sold in both the U.S. and Europe as a Dodge.