Geely to boost exports
The new chairman of Geely Automobile is aiming for major overseas growth by targeting one million vehicle exports this year.
That’s more than double its total in 2025 as China’s slumping domestic market forces its carmakers to set their sights on overseas sales.
An Conghui, who took over from retiring chairman Li Shufu on August 18, wants to eventually draw two-thirds of the company’s global sales from international markets.
He also wants Geely to expand by tapping the underutilised production capacity of global partners, such as Volvo, Renault and Ford.
The strategy comes as marques in China look overseas for growth amid intense competition in the home market that undermines margins amid decreasing domestic demand. Chery and BYD are also penetrating foreign markets from Europe to South-east Asia.
An says: “Geely is striving to export one million cars a year.” It exports amounted to 420,000 in 2025, which includes vehicles assembled overseas from knockdown kits. They accounted for about 18 per cent of the company’s 3.02m deliveries.
Geely has 12 plants overseas. They assemble vehicles from kits imported from China with the exception of a factory in Malaysia that has a localised supply chain.
Geely Automobile Holdings includes the Geely, Zeekr and Lynk & Co brands, while Geely Holding Group oversees those marques as well as Lotus, Volvo and Polestar.
To realise An’s export target, Geely expects to ship about 400,000 units to Europe next year with half going to Eastern Europe. It aims to export 300,000 to South-east Asia, 200,000 to Latin America and Africa, and 100,000 to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
He says building cars overseas is more important than exporting from China. Instead of constructing greenfield plants, Geely will tap unused production capacity of other carmakers.
An adds: “Collaborating to make full use of capacity, supply chains, human resources and [distribution] channels at various parties is the only way to achieve fast, high quality and low-risk growth in overseas markets.
In November 2025, Geely signed an agreement with the Renault Group to produce its EVs at the French carmaker’s plant in Brazil with output set to start this year.
In late July, Geely also struck a deal with Ford to build EVs at the American company’s factory in Valencia, Spain, with production slated for 2028.
Volvo, the Swedish subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is expected to start producing Geely’s premium models in Europe in 2028, reports Automotive News.
Geely also plans to increase annual production capacity at Proton to 500,000 units from its current 200,000 to turn the Malaysian carmaker it acquired in 2017 into a production hub for the South-east Asia market.
While Geely’s exports surged 158 per cent to exceed 474,000 in the first six months of 2026, its deliveries in China slumped 23 per cent to 948,000 during the same period.
Its global sales edged up one percent to 1.42m. Among the global volume, roughly 800,000 or 56 per-cent were electrified products including EVs and plug-in hybrids.
