Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Geely, the owner of Volvo to form a joint venture company identified as Smart Automobile Company that will produce electric vehicles from 2022.
According to Agency Reports, Both companies will invest $388.77 million in the Joint Venture..
As the two auto majors say, this newly formed joint venture company will manufacture premium and intelligent electrified vehicles. The 50:50 venture has already received regulatory approval in China and the plant will be set up in Ningbo.
This JV will have sales operations in China and Germany, with Geely leading the engineering and Mercedes-Benz taking care of overall look.
Geely’s Tong Xiangbei will head the new company as global chief executive.
Back in 2010, Geely acquired Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo from Ford. In 2018, it built a stake of around 9.7 per cent in Daimler to set up a ride-hailing firm in China.
Recently, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd and BMW AG formed a similar partnership to built Mini branded electric cars in China. The Mercedes-Geely partnership is expected to compete with the BMW-GWM joint venture.
