Geely to build 15 overseas production bases in next five years: chairman

Shanghai December 29 (Gasgoo.com) Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. will build 15 overseas production bases in the next five years, boosting both vehicle production and sales to two million units, Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday, citing the Group's chairman Li Shufu.

Geely, the new Chinese owner of Volvo Cars, plans to make over 40 models based on five technical platforms and 15 of its existing models by 2015. Meanwhile, it will develop six engine platforms, more than 10 engines, and a full range of manual and automatic transmissions, in line with the domestic and international regulatory requirements for both gasoline and diesel vehicles.

Geely has started August this year to export its Englon TX4 taxi to Europe, and is planning to invest in developing the next generation of the car, with the goal of delivering it to the rest of the world.

The TX4 taxi is manufactured by Shanghai LTI Automobile Components Co, Geely's joint venture with Britain's Manganese Bronze Holdings, in which Geely takes up 51% stake, Shanghai Maple takes 1%, totally 52% for Geely Holding Group as a controlling shareholder while Manganese Bronze Holdings holds 48% stake.

In June, Geely launched its Panda-based Tobe minicar in Taiwan and surprisingly received orders for more than 1,500 units of the car in the same month. Now the car has successfully gone on sale in the Vietnam market.

Aside from that, Geely has received orders for more than 100,000 sets of automatic transmissions since it acquired Australia's DSI automatic transmission supplier last year. DSI is currently in preparation for establishment of three automatic transmission plants in China and intends to bring its top-of-the-line technologies to the local market, while Geely has also begun construction on the plants in Hunan and Shandong provinces to ensure prompt supply of automatic transmissions to its new products, the chairman said.