Geely to sell Panda EVs in mainland China

Sinocast Daily Business Beat (Hangzhou) - Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. has deepened the cooperation with Taiwan's Yulon Motor Co., Ltd., and will become the dealer of Geely Panda electric vehicles (EVs) in Mainland China, disclosed Yang Xuliang, an executive for the Mainland China-based company.

Since 2009, both sides have jointly brought the Geely Panda to the Taiwanese market. Thanks to the efforts of Yulon Motor, the Tobe, an EV product of the Geely Panda came into being.

Previously, the Tobe priced at about CNY 100,000 successively marched into Southeast Asian markets, such as Vietnam and the Philippines. In 2011, it will make inroads into Mainland China.

As its mainland dealer, Geely will copy Taiwan's Tobe sales network. Although the intellectual property right of the Tobe still belongs to Yulon Motor, the mainland company will still be able to better know the mainland EB market along with the Taiwanese partner.

In the production field, Geely has never stopped expanding its business. Days ago, its president Yang Jian aired that the company separately contacted Foxconn Technology Group and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) for the cooperation in new energy vehicles and intellectual automobiles.

On March 28, 2010, the Geely Chairman Li Shufu and Ford Motor CFO Lewis Booth entered into an agreement in the Volvo Goteborg headquarters upon the acquisition of Volvo Car Corporation. The Chinese company was to take over the entire Swedish car company, including equities, assets and intellectual properties, at a consideration of USD 1.8 billion, according to previous reports.

On January 25, 2011, Freeman Shen, chairman for Volvo China, stressed that Volvo Car Corp. would run independently in China in the future.

As a unit of Geely, Volvo Car Corp. will operate its business independently from its parent company in China, sticking to its luxury brand positioning and environmental-friendly philosophy, according to the chairman. It inaugurated its China headquarters in Jiading, Shanghai, eastern China on January 25, 2011.

After setting up a management team for its China operations, it has started working on a five-year expansion plan for an approval from the Volvo global executive team and the board of directors.

With China as its second largest market at the moment, Volvo Car Corp. successfully put an end to a two-year business decline and return profitable in 2010. It will not only R&D and manufacture Volvo cars but also provide services such as outsourcing and after-sales services in Shanghai in the future, noted the chairman.