Geely increases commitment to Aston Martin, resulting in a Chinese electric Vantage

Many Chinese manufacturers are arriving in Europe, but Geely stands out by doing its utmost to appropriate our market, aspiring to become the Volkswagen group of the 21st century.

This Asian company continues its expansion on the Old Continent and, in addition to owning its own brands, it partially or totally acquires certain emblematic European brands. Aston Martin is one of them, and Geely is already the third shareholder.

Geely already owns Volvo, Lotus and half of Smart

Chinese giant Geely continues to grow in importance in Europe as it expands its portfolio of acquisitions. After acquiring Volvo, Lotus, the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEV), a British taxi company, 10% of Mercedes-Benz Group and 50% of Smart, Geely also bought 7.6% of Aston Martin at the end of 2022 .

Since then, shares of Aston Martin Lagonda have continuously increased, which also corresponds to the good results of the Formula 1 team. Geely must be extremely satisfied with these developments and has decided to increase its stake in Aston Martin.

Going from 7.6% to 17% of the British brand, Geely becomes the third shareholder of the company based in Gaydon. The second shareholder is Saudi Arabia, holding 18% of Aston Martin, and the first is the Yew Tree Consortium, with 21%.

Geely spent 269 million euros to buy Aston Martin shares, up 45% from their stock market value yesterday. Since the announcement of Geely's increased stake in Aston Martin, shares of the British company have continued to climb. At the time of writing, they are already up 28.8% from yesterday.

Geely Holding Group Chairman Eric Li said: “Since our first acquisition of this minority stake, we have worked closely with Chief Executive Lawrence Stroll and his colleagues. We now look forward to exploring joint technology synergies and seizing new growth opportunities to help this iconic automotive brand reach its full potential. »

Lawrence Stroll , the managing director of Aston Martin, expressed the idea that Geely, as a partner, could bring us in-depth knowledge of the growing Chinese market, as well as access to its range of technologies. Moreover, Geely shares our vision at Aston Martin.

If the collaboration between Geely and Aston Martin continues to progress, it would be reasonable to consider the possibility of manufacturing a model of the British brand in China in the future , taking as an example the previous one with Lotus.

When Geely acquired Lotus in 2017, it was obvious that the Chinese would not be satisfied with the low car production of the English company at the time (less than 2,000 cars per year).

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A few years later, in 2021, Lotus announced the inauguration of a factory in China, specifically in Wuhan . This factory has the capacity to produce up to 150,000 electric cars a year, including the all-new Lotus Eletre, a zero-emission SUV that was not planned before Geely joined Lotus.