One of my factors for how seriously I take a company's claims is its media-facing website. So it's worth noting that Chery Auto has suddenly lifted its game, as well as its sales.

Were I being kind, I would say that the state-run firm hasn't always had the clearest information on the releases it makes available to the likes of me. I'm all for balance and anyone learning from mistakes so feel compelled to report that Chery has lately been communicating far better. The latest news shows that.

So here's what's impressed me: in calendar 2011, the company claims it sold 'around 643,000' vehicles, of which a record 160,200 were in 'overseas markets'. It wasn't always that well worded, believe me. And here's the impressive bit, which also shows just how the company's SKD and CKD plants are doing the world over - YoY overseas markets' sales are said to be up by a combined 73 percent.

There's still some work to go. The headline of Chery's press release is as follows:

'Chery achieves export record in 2011'.