Covid-19 pandemic reduces Geely China’s profit for 2020.
News just in from China’s biggest car manufacturer, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd shows that this global car brand sold 1.32 million cars last year, which was a lower number from its 2019 sales figure of 1.36 million units. This is not really surprising as auto sales in the world’s biggest market and also in most countries around the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall auto sales in China fell 1.9 percent to 25.3 million vehicles in 2020, according to industry data.
Geely Automobile also shared some interesting news on Tuesday this week. its parent group will form a joint venture for a new electric vehicles (EV) program and launch a new brand called Zeekr despite its profit falling 32 percent last year.
In a stock exchange filing, Geely Automobile said the venture will work on research and development, purchase and sale of smart electric vehicles under the Zeekr brand. Geely Automobile and parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group will jointly invest 2 billion yuan in the new venture. Geely Automobile will own 51 percent of the new company, it said.
The Hangzhou based Geely Automobile, which is also the highest profile Chinese auto manufacturer in the world due to parent group’s investments in Volvo Cars, Daimler AG, Lotus Cars and lets not forget Proton Cars, posted a 2020 profitfigure of 5.53 billion yuan (USD850 million), versus 8.19 billion yuan in 2019, as auto sales in the world’s biggest market was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first Zeekr vehicles are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2021, with production being undertaken by parent company Geely Holding under a light asset strategy. Zeekr aims to deliver a new electric vehicle to market each year in the coming five years.
Zeekr will create a new ecosystem that is focused on the full integration of the end user into a new super ecosystem focusing on the full service of end user requirements with an innovation as standard approach in terms of sales and servicing. The Chinese name of Zeeker has been confirmed as Ji Ke.
Under the plans, Zeekr will use Geely Holding Group’s leading Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) and will include its own battery technologies, battery management systems, electric motor technologies and electric vehicle supply chain support. By utilizing SEA technologies, Zeekr vehicles will be able to offer software upgrades throughout the lifetime of every vehicle through Over the Air Upgrades as well as offering an unrivaled luxury vehicle experience in terms of comfort and performance.
