Geely has backtracked on its plans to list shares on China’s Star Market, according to a report by Reuters. The Chinese automaker is listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalisation of US$32.85 billion (RM136.4 billion), according to the news wire.
Plans for a possible merger between Geely and Volvo were announced in February of last year, though with no fixed timeline given at the time. This was then announced in July 2020 to be put on hold, and in December, was said to resume around the first quarter of this year.
In September, Geely said in a filing that it planned to raise US$3.1 billion (RM12.9 billion) from its listing on the STAR market, according to Reuters. More recently in February, merger plans between Geely and Volvo have been scrapped, with the two companies instead electing to deepen their collaboration in terms of powertrain, EV architecture, joint procurement, autonomous drive technologies and in aftersales.
Geely announced Zeekr in March as its premium brand for electric vehicles, for which Geely had said it would seek external funding, according to Reuters. The new brand’s first model, the Zeekr 001, has proven to be a hit with buyers as its allocation for the year had been sold out in June, having been launched in April.
The Zeekr is the production version of the Lynk & Co Zero concept car, and it is built on Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) for electric vehicles. Earlier this month at a media briefing session, Geely explained that this EV architecture will consist of five different versions to cover a a variety of market segments.
This offers the base for what will become a broad range of models; starting with the SEA1 platform for D-(mid-sized) to F-(luxury) segment, and which underpins the Zeekr 001, this will be joined by the SEA2 platform for smaller vehicles of the B- to D-segments.
The SEA Entry (SEA-E) will be for budget and entry-model vehicles while the SEA Sport (SEA-S) is aimed at making sportier models, and the SEA-C base will spawn commercial vehicles between 3.5 to 5.5 tonnes, including pick-up trucks and buses with seating for up to 12 persons.
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