News from the auto tech world shows a Chinese holding company is poised to unroll new technology for smaller green vehicles.
The Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which is estimated to have sold 2 million vehicles last year, operates with nine brands, including Volvo as well as Chinese brands like Lotus and Proton.
Geely’s stake in Volvo has led to some interesting plans.
“Volvo Cars has become the first non-Chinese brand to import China-made cars into Singapore. Volvo’s authorised agent Wearnes Automotive has begun selling made-in-China models – starting with the S90 flagship sedan and XC60 mid-sized crossover,” reported SG CarMart in 2019. “Volvo has started to sell cars here made from its plant in China, such as the XC60 Sabrina Sng, Managing Director (Volvo, Pre-Owned and Insurance) said the move, which will not result in cost savings, is to address capacity limitations in Volvo’s Swedish and Belgian plants. She gave the assurance that the China-made cars are manufactured according to global quality standards.”
Now, Geely wants to involve the originally Swedish auto maker in efforts to develop different platforms like compact modern architecture (CMA) and B-segment modern architecture (BMA) to build cars that will run on electricity, as well as a small physical footprint.
“ Geely has already put the plans into action with the upcoming Proton X50,” reported Jerrica at WapCar last month. “The highly anticipated B-segment SUV will be the first Proton built on the BMA platform in Malaysia. With the Proton X50 being a locally-assembled car, Proton already has the tools to built cars on the BMA platform. So, we can only speculate that it won’t be long now before the platform is applied to the next Proton car.”
Geely’s progress shows the appeal of multinational efforts to grab brands and boost their appeal with partnerships, but the firm is going to have to compete with other proprietary brands that are working in-house to boost EV designs. Stay engaged if you have holdings related to EV car design.