French Groupe Renault and Chinese Geely Holding will create a joint venture that will produce hybrid cars in South Korea. This was reported by the Reuters agency, citing its sources in the companies.
The cars will be produced under a newly created independent brand, and most of them from Korea will be exported to the United States, since there is a free trade regime between the countries (that is, Korean goods are not subject to duties when imported into the States).
Renault will provide the joint venture with the car plant of its Renault Samsung company, which has been suffering heavy losses for many years due to low demand for products - for example, from January to November 2021, it sold only 120,000 cars.
With the help of Geely, the French concern also expects to return with fundamentally new models to the Chinese market, which it was forced to leave in 2020 due to poor sales of its cars.
The joint brainchild of Renault-Geely will be based on the CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform - the Chinese developed it together with Volvo Cars (part of Geely since 2010). Renault will focus in the joint venture on the development of bodywork and car design.
Geely wants to use the new joint venture to "proxy export" its cars to the US. Due to political and economic disagreements, it is almost impossible to supply cars to the States from China - the Americans impose higher import duties on them, and in addition, certification authorities in the United States are sharply opposed to Chinese cars. According to Reuters, Geely wants to establish production of cars of its Lynk & Co sub-brand in Korea for export to North America. In particular, the Lynk & Co 01 compact crossover with gasoline and hybrid power plants can be prescribed for Renault-Samsung. In addition, the Renault production base will help Geely gain a foothold in the Korean market.
Renault and Geely will jointly produce hybrids
