Geely cars will be “registered” at the Korean Renault plant

Last updated Apr 16, 2022

The plans include the production of both hybrids and cars with only an internal combustion engine, as well as their export. “Chinese” should get on the conveyor of the Korean company in a couple of years.

Last summer, Renault Group and Geely Holding announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding, which provides for “the exchange of technologies and resources.” According to him, the new hybrid cars will be produced in China under the French brand (the sale of “traditional” passenger cars of the French brand there was reduced due to low demand), moreover, this document said that the partners would jointly explore the possibility of organizing production in South Korea. And now the companies have announced a second deal: French group Renault Samsung's plant in Busan, Korea, will build a “brand new line of vehicles” developed in partnership with Geely.

Recall that the automotive division of Samsung has been owned by Renault since 2000 and has long been unrelated to the manufacturer of home appliances and smartphones. Today, this company produces converted Renault models under its own brand (for example, XM3 and QM6 crossovers, i.e. Arkana and Koleos, respectively) for the Korean market, as well as Arcana, which is exported (already under the Renault brand). However, difficulties still arise at the plant, because before that there were much more orders: earlier, the previous Nissan Rogue SUV for the USA was still assembled at this site (in other countries, the model is known as the X-Trail), but Nissan eventually refused the services of the Korean plant. And it is the Chinese Geely that has now been declared a “strategic partner” of Renault Samsung.

Samsung XM3 and Samsung QM6

Which new models (or models) will be registered in Korea has not yet been reported. At the same time, it was announced that these will be cars on the CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform, created by the Chinese together with Volvo (the Swedish brand belongs to the Chinese auto giant). It is also known that Renault Samsung will organize the assembly of both hybrids (but without the possibility of charging from the network) and cars with internal combustion engines only. Cars are planned to be sold in Korea and exported (the list of countries was not disclosed). Under what brand? Also unknown. However, in the Korean market, new items are likely to be from Samsung.

Meanwhile, in a previous issue of Renault and Geely, the Lynk & Co brand (a joint project of Geely and Volvo) was mentioned, most of whose models are based on the CMA “trolley”. And in December, Reuters reported, citing its own sources, that the Lynk & Co 01 crossover would be the first to be put on the assembly line of the Korean plant. By the way, Renault promises to share experience “in the field of design“, that is, it can be assumed that the “unit” will change externally.

Link & Co 01

And finally, we recall another insider from Reuters: after organizing production in Korea, Geely is reportedly considering the possibility of starting deliveries of cars to the United States, because they can be imported duty-free (between the States and South Korea).

The start of mass production of CMA vehicles at the Renault Samsung plant is scheduled for 2024.