Renault and Geely will launch a new joint business to sell hybrids and traditional internal combustion engine cars in South Korea.
The Chinese and French brands will come together to design the vehicles, which will be produced starting in 2024 at the Renault-Samsung facility in Busan, on South Korea’s southeast coast.
The collaboration is part of Renault’s unfortunately named “Renaulution” program to upgrade the Renault-Samsung brand and product portfolio.
The new vehicles will take the best of Geely’s compact modular architecture and its advanced hybrid powertrains, while Renault and Renault-Samsung will focus on design and customer experience, and “cutting-edge technologies” to “exceed local market expectations.”
“Geely has a proven track record in creating mutually beneficial collaborations that focus on technology, experience and shared ideas with the ultimate goal of creating higher quality, more sustainable products. We are looking forward to working with Renault and realizing new synergies that combine strengths from both parties to create value for the end-user,” says Eric Li, Chair of the Geely Holding Group.
The new vehicles will provide South Koreans with premium features, industry-leading technologies, and strengthen Renault-Samsung’s reputation in the market. While the vehicles will be initially designed for the South Korean market, Renault-Samsung “will allow” for export in the future.
“We are happy to initiate such an innovative partnership with Geely Group, which has impressive track record in Automotive Industry. Through this project, Geely Holding and Renault Group pave the way to pursue 20 years of successful RSM journey and contribution to the South-Korean industry,” says Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group.
This new collaboration certainly seems interesting. Geely, of course, is growing remarkably quickly and really stretching its legs on the world automotive stage.
Renault, on the other hand, seems to have fallen slightly behind the curve compared to emerging challenger brands and the Stellantis behemoth. This partnership with Geely might allow Reanult to make up some lost ground.
