In recent years, the Geely group has been climbing its position in the international market to become one of the world’s leading car manufacturers. This has been possible in part thanks to the purchase of renowned foreign firms such as LEVC (London EV Company), Lotus, Polestar, and Volvo.
Nor can we lose sight of its growing portfolio of own brands; Without going any further, Lynk & Co is already enjoying some success in the European market. To all this, we would have to add the strategic alliances that Geely has been weaving at the stroke of a checkbook with some of the most important players in the industry.
Thus, the Chinese company owns 10% of Mercedes-Benz and 50% of smart; In addition, it recently acquired 34.02% of Renault’s South Korean business. According to a recent report, Geely would also be interested in taking over 40% of the company’s thermal vehicle business, which will announce the creation of an independent electric car division in the fall.
Geely’s next step will be the international launch of its young Zeekr brand, created last year with the aim of marketing premium electric cars. Zeekr will land on the European market over the next year, which will strengthen the position of the increasingly powerful Asian group.
Zeekr will arrive in Europe in 2023
To support the launch of its new brand, Geely has started manufacturing a new generation of ultra-fast charging points through its subsidiary VREMT. The company seeks to create a network (we understand that initially only for China) similar in its approach to Tesla Superchargers.
Thanks to a new liquid cooling system, the new VREMT stations will be capable of delivering 600 kW of power in direct current. The current 360 kW points produced by VREMT were already at the top of the market; however, the new generation will make it possible to form the most powerful network on the planet, surpassing rivals such as XPeng (480 kW).
Initially, only Zeekr 001 and 009 equipped with CATL’s new Qilin batteries will be able to take advantage of these points. According to initial estimates, Qilin batteries will be able to support charging rates of up to 4C, so vehicles equipped with them should be able to go from 10 to 80% autonomy in just 10 minutes.
