Li Shufu: Geely invests over £4 million in UK EV business

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Li Shufu, the chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.,Ltd (Geely), revealed at China-UK Business Forum today that Geely's electric vehicles produced in London are expected to be marketed in U.S..

According to Li Shufu, as early as 2006, Geely had purchased stakes in Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC, a specialty automotive and taxi service company in UK, and co-established a joint venture in China. In 2013, Geely acquired London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC), the core business and asset of Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC, through a trustee agency. In the past several years, Geely has invested over £400 million in LEVC. Besides, it built a world-class R&D center there and created more than 800 jobs locally.

In the first half of last year, Geely built an EV plant near Coventry with a planned annual production capacity of 36,000 units. This is not only UK’s first vehicle production base in the past decade, but also the Chinese automaker's first project of greenfield investment in UK.

In addition, Geely acquired 51% stakes in UK’s Lotus Cars on June 23, 2017 and plans to research and develop new generation Lotus-branded multifunctional new energy vehicles with more investments.

Geely's investment in UK has already reaped some achievements. The all-new electric vehicle eTX, manufactured by its Coventry plant, was approved to carry fare-paying passengers in London. The eTX adopts range-extended hybrid power technologies with a battery range of up to 645km. This EV model had received around 300 orders as soon as it went on sales in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Besides, the model is expected to hit U.S. market in the near future and be put into production in China in 2019.