Chery Recalls 8,878 Omoda 5 SUVs in Malaysia After Rear Axle Detachment; Regulator Halts Sales

Chery has ordered a recall of 8,878 Omoda 5 SUVs in Malaysia following an incident in which a rear axle separated from a vehicle while it was being driven, a failure serious enough to trigger an immediate regulatory crackdown on the model.

The event involved a 2023 model year Omoda 5 in Malaysia and resulted in no injuries, according to a Chery statement issued on Sunday. The company said it began an investigation right away and stayed in close contact with authorities, including Malaysia’s Road Transport Department (JPJ). That probe concluded that certain welds on the rear axle trailing arms of the affected production batch may not have adequate strength, leaving open the possibility of weld failure under extreme conditions. Chery noted that vehicles built with this design are no longer in production. Its Malaysian subsidiary is carrying out the recall with JPJ, inspecting the affected parts and replacing them at no cost where required. The company added that it has also started precautionary inspections of Omoda 5 units from the same production batch in China and other markets, promising to release results quickly.

The root incident occurred in Johor Bahru, in the state of Johor, on October 6, when an Omoda 5 lost its rear axle and wheels while being driven, local media reported — an event that quickly raised public questions about the model’s safety. On October 11, JPJ said it was suspending the Omoda 5’s Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) and blocking new registrations until a technical investigation is finished and the safety risks are confirmed to be properly resolved. The agency directed Chery Malaysia to identify every potentially affected vehicle by part numbers, production batches and VINs, and said it would run technical audits of the Omoda 5’s production and assembly line as well as its rear axle component supplier.

Chery Malaysia said the recall covers the C and H variants of the Omoda 5, without specifying which production years are involved. It stressed that the action does not extend to models currently on sale — the Omoda 5 has already been discontinued in Malaysia, replaced by the Chery O5 in September 2025. The older Omoda 5 used a torsion beam rear suspension, while the O5 switched to a multi-link independent rear setup. Notably, this is the Omoda 5’s second Malaysian recall tied to rear axle problems: in April 2024, another vehicle suffered a sudden rear axle detachment, prompting Chery to recall 600 units for inspection. That earlier investigation blamed improperly calibrated rear axle welding equipment and ultimately identified 60 vehicles built on August 15, 2023, that needed axle replacement. Chery Malaysia has not yet said whether the latest case stems from the same defect.

The Omoda 5 launched in China in 2022 but struggled domestically, with monthly volumes failing to top 1,000 units from 2023 onward; it was later pulled from the home market and is now mainly sold abroad. Chery created the Omoda marque in 2021 as an overseas brand aimed at younger buyers globally, and together with Jaecoo, introduced in 2022, it forms the so-called O&J brands. The two brands said in April that their combined global sales had passed 1 million vehicles. Overseas markets remain Chery’s key growth engine: Chery Group sold 292,308 vehicles in September, up 4.2% year on year, with exports reaching 207,814 units — a monthly record for a Chinese automaker, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.