Big question mark after the handshake of the Chinese automaker with Renault

The Memorandum of Understanding that marks the beginning of the relationship between Geely and Renault signed in August 2021 has become an agreement to establish a joint venture and exchange shares.

Accordingly, Geely Automobile Holdings, through its subsidiary Centurion Industries Limited, will hold a 34.02% stake in Renault Korea Motors (RKM, also known as Renault Samsung Motors). Meanwhile, Renault Group will remain the main shareholder of RKM.

In January, Geely Auto’s parent company Geely Holding Group and Renault Group jointly announced a new partnership between the two parties to introduce a completely new product portfolio, including hybrid and hybrid vehicles. internal combustion engine in the Korean market, also when looking for export opportunities. The new models will be manufactured at RKM’s existing plant in Busan, South Korea.

These models will use the compact car modular platform (CMA) and Geely hybrid powertrain technology.

Renault and RKM will contribute other strong technologies, experience in design and customer experience.

This new series of products will be distributed to the market through RKM’s existing sales system. RKM’s after-sales service is ranked first for the sixth consecutive year through 2021, according to the survey results of car users in Korea.

This agreement leads to some opinions that Geely is creating a premise to be able to export duty-free cars to the US, because Korea currently has a free trade agreement with the US.