On September 24, Vietnamese company Tasco issued a statement saying that Geely Automobile and Tasco signed an agreement to establish a joint venture car assembly plant in Thai Binh Province, Vietnam, with a total investment of about $168 million, of which Geely Automobile's contribution is 36%.
The factory's initial annual production capacity is 75,000 vehicles, which will assemble Lynk & Co and Geely brand models, and may expand to other brands in the future.
The new factory is expected to start construction in the first half of 2025, with the first batch of models expected to be delivered in early 2026.
The agreement signed by both parties stipulates that Tasco and Geely Automobile will also establish an automotive research and development center in Vietnam.
Tasco Auto, a subsidiary of Tasco, will become the official dealer of the Geely Automobile brand.
On September 23, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha met with Geely Automobile Group CEO Li Shufu at the government's residence.
Discussing some key points of Vietnam's transportation infrastructure development policy, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha hopes that Geely Automobile's investment cooperation projects in Vietnam will be comprehensively and rapidly implemented in research, production, development, technology transfer, and human resource training; while also focusing on the material and spiritual life, education, and healthcare of workers.
Li Shufu briefly introduced the projects of building a car assembly plant, investing in the supply chain of parts, and building an R&D center, and put forward several suggestions on environmental impact assessment procedures, fire protection, construction engineering, preferential import and export taxes, credit, etc., to promote the implementation of Vietnam's investment cooperation projects.
However, regarding investment in Vietnam, Geely Automobile personnel told reporters from First Financial Daily that there is no more information for the time being.
Previously, Geely Automobile has made extensive overseas investments.
According to the China Enterprise Confederation, the top 500 Chinese manufacturing enterprises in 2024 have overseas assets of 7.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.81% compared to the previous year.
Among them, the top ten enterprises with overseas assets, automotive and auto parts enterprises occupy two seats.
Geely Holding Group has 272.3 billion yuan of assets overseas, ranking fourth.
Under the trend of independent brand going global, Southeast Asia has also become a hot spot for Chinese automobile investment.
Previously, Geely Automobile has already laid out the Malaysian market.
In 2017, Geely Holding acquired 49.9% of the shares of Malaysian DRB-HICOM's Proton Automobile, responsible for the comprehensive operation and management of Proton, and continues to provide Proton with products, technology, and talents to enhance the overall competitiveness of the Proton brand.
In October 2023, Geely Holding and Malaysian DRB-HICOM Group signed a cooperation framework agreement again, planning to form a production capacity of 500,000 complete vehicles in Malaysia by 2035, of which 50% will be exported; at the same time, build a supply chain system of 1 million sets of parts, of which 50% will serve the global market.
In the Southeast Asian market, Vietnam is not a very large market.
According to data from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association, in August 2024, the total sales volume of cars in the Vietnamese market was 25,196, a year-on-year increase of nearly 12%, and a month-on-month decrease of 13%; the cumulative sales volume in the first 8 months reached 188,997, a year-on-year increase of 2%.
At present, Chery International is selling Jetour and OMODA brand complete vehicles in Vietnam.
There are reports that BYD is also going to invest in Vietnam, but the agreement has not been finalized yet.
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