Geely has replaced Nissan in the affections of Renault as the two companies collaborate on more projects, most recently agreeing to build cars together in Brazil.
“I see a lot of similarities in the way the two companies see the future of automotive,” Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo said on his company’s recent earnings call to investors. “It’s very natural. It's actually, I have to say, probably more natural than the different views of Renault and Nissan have had historically.”
Geely will take a stake in Renault’s Brazilian subsidiary with the goal of building cars at the French company’s Ayrton Senna Complex production plant in Curitiba and distributing its cars via the network of Renault dealers there.
The collaboration still has to be agreed by the Brazilian authorities, but once that happens, it will give a leg-up to Geely in a market that’s already being heavily targeted by Chinese car makers.
BYD was ninth in the Brazilian sales charts in February, according to figures from Bestsellingcarsblog.com, while Renault was sixth.
The Brazil deal follows the establishment last year of Horse, a 50:50 joint venture company that has taken control of Renault's and Geely's production of internal combustion engines.
The new company has 17 engine plants globally supplying nine customers within Geely and Renault’s sphere of influence, including long-time Alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi and Geely-affiliated Volvo and Proton.
Horse also recently announced a deal to supply a 1.0-litre engine to Brazilian start-up Lecar for a planned range-extender EV.
Also bearing fruit is the 2023 deal for Geely to buy a third of Renault Korea (formerly Renault Samsung) with a goal of jointly building cars in Korea based on Geely’s global CMA platform, also used by Volvo.
Last year, Renault showed off the new Grand Koleos hybrid SUV, adapted from Geely’s Chinese-market Xingyue L.
De Meo praised its “relatively low development costs and good profit level” and said Renault planned 50,000 annually, partly boosted by exports to the Middle East and Latin America.
In December, it was announced that Geely-owned Polestar would start building its 4 EV at Renault Korea's Busan factory in the second half of 2025, neatly sidestepping punitive US tariffs on China-built EVs.
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