Geely to Build New Energy Vehicles Bases in China and UK; Zhang Ran Steps Down as Executive Director
January 05, 2015 at 07:51 pm IST
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Geely announced that it has investment plans for its new energy vehicles (NEVs) both in China and overseas, despite struggling for growth in its existing vehicle line-up. In China, Geely will invest CNY 7 billion to build a production base in Nanchong in China's Sichuan province concentrating on NEV commercial vehicles (CVs), state media Xinhua reports. The new plant will have capacity to build 100,000 commercial NEVs per annum as well as 50,000 gas engines, and will also have a NEV CV research centre. The plant is expected to be complete in two years and Geely aims for revenue of around CNY21.6 billion per annum once completed. Geely signed an agreement with the government of Nanchong on 31 December 2014. In the United Kingdom, Geely plans to invest GBP 150 million in a plant in Coventry to produce the TX5, a green variant of the next-generation London taxi scheduled to enter the market in 2018. The production plant is expected to be based in Ansty Park in Coventry, where the current headquarters of Manganese Bronze is located. The existing base, also in Coventry, where the TX4 is currently produced, will not be the base for the TX5; instead, a new plant will be built for the TX5.
The company also announced that Zhang Ran has stood down as executive director of the company to allow himself more time to pursue his other personal and business objectives.
The announcement also states that Zhang, who took on the role in March 2014, was responsible for financial management, infrastructure set up and the management of the company's auto financing system. Zhang joined Geely in 2010 from Ford. Despite not having an active role at Geely, he will retain a position of non-executive director of the company for three years.
Geely Automobile Holdings Limited specializes in the construction and marketing of passenger cars. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- sales of vehicles (96.3%): 1,500,838 vehicles sold in 2018, broken down by brand name as follows: Boyue (226.160 unit's), New Emgrand (223,068), Vision (160.168), Emgrand GS (152,338), Vision SUV/X3/S1 (327,714), Emgrand GL (144,181), Lynk&Co 01 (78,235), Binrui (40,632) and GC9 (38,260) ;
- sales of spare parts and automotive components (3.7%).
At the end of 2018, the group operated 10 production sites in China.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: China (98.7%), Middle East (0.6%), Europe (0.4%), Africa (0.2%) and Latin America (0.1%).