Geely and Daimler Establish Joint Venture To Develop Smart

The Chinese automobile company Geely Holding Group (Geely) and the German Daimler AG (Daimler) announced on Mar. 28 the formation of a 50-50 global joint venture to develop and operate smart brand.

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Both companies have agreed that the new generation of smart vehicles will be styled by the worldwide Mercedes-Benz Design network with engineering from Geely global engineering centers. Future production will be located in China.

“Geely Holding and Daimler look forward to this challenging and exciting new project, through which we will further push the introduction of premium electric products to give a better mobility experience to our customers,” said Li Shufu, Geely Holding Chairman.

A new generation of smart electric models will be assembled at a car factory in China with global sales due to begin in 2022. Until then, Daimler will continue to produce the current generation of smart vehicles in its Hambach plant France (smart EQ fortwo) and at Novo Mesto (Slovenia, smart EQ forfour).

The joint venture is expected to be finalised by the end of 2019. Financial terms of the smart joint venture have not been disclosed.

Featured photo credit to Daimler