Geely and Volvo – 10-year partnership by the numbers

On August 2, 2010, Zhejiang Geely Holding (ZGH) closed the deal that saw it acquire Volvo Cars from Ford, with the Swedish carmaker currently parked under the Geely Auto umbrella. Since then, both companies have been hard at work collaborating and expanding their product portfolios, which has proven to be rather fruitful endeavour.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of that deal, and to mark the occasion, the Chinese company has released a video detailing – through numbers – how both companies have improved from the start of the relationship up until the present day.

First up, revenues. In 2009, Volvo Cars registered 95.7 billion Swedish krona (SEK) in revenue, while Geely Auto managed just 14.069 billion Chinese yuan (CNY). Fast forward several years and both companies breaches the 100-billion mark, with Volvo notching up SEK274.12 billion and Geely recorded CNY106.6 billion.

Looking at net profits, post-Ford Volvo experienced a SEK5.19 billion loss in 2009, while Geely earned a net amount of CNY1.319 billion. As of 2019, Volvo is now in the green with a net profit of SEK14.3 billion, while Geely grew ten-fold to CNY12.674 billion in 2018.

The encouraging financial results are backed by increasing sales on both sides, with Volvo shifting 705,000 units last year compared to just 335,000 units in 2009. Geely’s sales growth is even more impressive, as it sold just 327,000 units in 2009, but has consistently broke the one-million mark for the last three years, with the most recent being 1.362 million units in 2019.

Looking at the Fortune Global 500, which is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue, ZGH first entered the list in 2012 and was placed 475th at the time. As of last year, the company is now ranked 220th.

New products are key to these sales figures, and Geely has managed to expand the number of research and development (R&D) centres it operates from just the one in China in 2009, to a total of 10 in 2020. This includes one in Malaysia, which was formed together with Proton.

The result of all that R&D work has also seen the creation of four vehicle platforms that underpin most models made by Geely and Volvo, including the B-segment Modular Architecture (BMA), Pure-electric Modular Architecture (PMA), Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) and Scalable Product Architecture (SPA).

Of course, Volvo isn’t the only one to be touched by Geely, as the group also owns stakes in several other companies over the years, including Geometry, smart, Polestar, the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC), Lotus, Lynk & Co and Proton. It also dabbles in other ground and sky mobility companies like Terrafugia, Volocopter, CaoCao, StarRides, as well as low-orbit satellites via Geespace.

That’s quite a resume, but there are no plans to slow down, as Geely is hopeful to be among the top 10 automobile companies in the world moving forward. Given the current momentum, that goal certainly holds promise.

The post Geely and Volvo – 10-year partnership by the numbers appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.

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