In January this year, it was reported that Geely would cooperate with Renault to jointly expand the Korean market, for which Geely Automobile would hold a 34.02% stake in South Korea's Renault Through its subsidiary Centurion Industries Limited. The approach to cooperation is also interesting, geely is responsible for CMA modular architecture and hybrid technology, while Renault is responsible for styling, forward-looking technology and user experience. Obviously, such a cooperation method seems to pave the way for the international development of Geely Automobile.
Different from the domestic automobile market, the Korean automobile market is very closed, due to their own national conditions, so that they want to buy brand cars from other countries, only through imports. Imports will inevitably pay certain tariffs, so that most of them can only choose their own brands such as Hyundai and Kia.
Here I have to mention the domestic situation, because we use the joint venture method to introduce foreign capital, so that they build factories in China, behind the high degree of localization is a lower cost, so we have a lot of choices, and do not have to consider the impact of tariffs (except for some imported cars). The situation in South Korea cannot emulate China's large-scale introduction of foreign capital to build factories in the country, which leads to its rejection of the inevitability of overseas brands. Of course, for some middle-class people, they also have the ability to buy imported overseas luxury cars.
However, Renault is an exception, and the Renault brand has a factory in South Korea!
It's interesting to say that the predecessor of South Korea's Renault was actually Samsung Automobile, founded in 1994, and after many years of operation, it encountered an Asian financial storm, which caused it to have to sell itself to save itself, and in 2000 it was purchased by Renault for 70% of the shares. Since then, Renault has a production plant in Busan, South Korea. However, as we mentioned above, overseas brands actually have limited influence in the Korean market, which leads to the vast majority of Renault-Samsung's products exported to Europe.
Of course, there are also some products that have gained recognition in the Korean market. But the product richness is far from enough, and Geely's addition can help South Korea's Renault solve this problem.
At this point, we can probably see The strategic intention of Geely. The acquisition of South Korea's Renault shares, on the one hand, can directly enter the Korean market, and Hyundai, Kia and other brands under their eyes to compete. On the other hand, it is also possible to use this springboard of Renault to continue to expand Geely's influence in the European market, which can be said to be a strategy of killing two birds with one stone.
In recent years, Geely Automobile has always attached great importance to international development, and the sales of exported cars have also increased steadily in recent years. It is clear that Geely is winning the recognition of consumers around the world, and as its territory continues to expand, Geely's influence in the global automotive industry has also begun to appear.