Geely or legally known as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd is an automobile manufacturing company based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. They particularly design and produce passenger cars for the Volvo and Geely brands and cars used for the London Taxi brand as well.
The company has been managing Volvo, a Swedish car manufacturer, since 2010. Geely acquired Volvo from Ford. Moreover, the company has also owned The London Taxi Company since 2012. The name ‘Geely’ is actually a Mandarin Chinese word which means lucky.
Geely was founded in 1986, not as a car manufacturer but as a refrigerator maker. Founder Li Shufu borrowed money from their family to transform it to an automobile company. Their first years in the industry was slow. They started making motorcycle in 1990 and only began designing their own vans eight years after.
Related Other Chinese Car Brand Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.
One year after this, they were given a state approval to design auto. They began the production of cars in 2002 and two years after, they were able to get their IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Geely was able to make name in 2005 and 2006 when they joined the Frankfurt Motor Show and Detroit Auto Show, respectively.
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In 2008, Geely then went to Ford and asked if they could purchase Volvo Cars. The deal was sealed in 2009 and the turnover was complete by mid-2010. During this time, the total sales of the company reached over 415,000 units which as actually lower than the projected 680,000 per year.
In the last quarter of 2011, Geely began selling their cars in the United Kingdom. After this, they have announced their intention to also sell their products in Italy. As of today, Geely cars are sold in Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Video of Geely Car Models