Mercedes-Benz partners with Geely Holding Group to manufacture smart-branded electric vehicles

With the rising global demand for electric vehicles, multiple brands have been focused on introducing their electric cars to the market. In recent news, Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to manufacture its smart-branded electric vehicles. Mercedes’ electric cars will be manufactured in Xian, China. As per a representative from Daimler (Mercedes-Benz parent company), the chosen factory has the capacity to produce 150,000 cars on an annual basis.  

The announcement was made by the Executive Vice President of Daimler in China, Leng Yan, on China’s EV 100 forum that was held in Beijing. The forum marks an annual event that invites leaders of the auto industry from across the globe for discussions that circle around auto policies and the global market at large.

Daimler And Geely Will Be Investing $388.8 Million Each In The Chinese Venture

According to the announcement made on Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz and Geely have agreed to invest $388.8 million each in the Chinese venture. The partnership will be focused on manufacturing state of the art, high quality, intelligent electric vehicles for the Smart brand.

Smart is also a Daimler brand just like Mercedes itself. Initially, it was announced that the venture will operate from Ningbo (eastern Chinese city). While manufacturing was revealed to be confined to China, sales operations were planned for China as well as Germany.

Geely currently has a 9.7% stake in Daimler. The Chinese company has already started building its production factories for the Smart brand in Xian. For manufacturing its Mercedes-Benz vehicles in China, Daimler has a partnership with BAIC in Beijing. Beiqi Foton Motor (BAIC’s unit) also works with Mercedes to manufacture its trucks in China.

Smart Delivered 116,800 Vehicles Worldwide In 2019

According to Daimler’s statement on January 9^th, Smart delivered as many as 116,800 vehicles across the globe in 2019.

Daimler’s focus on electric vehicles is likely to help improve its global sales in the upcoming years. As per the analysts, it can also be expected to help the stock that remained challenged in 2019. Having started the year at around 50 EUR in 2019, share prices were seen as high as around 60 EUR in April. The growth, however, was marked unsustainable as the stock dropped sharply in the subsequent months and exchanged hands at around 40 EUR in August. Regaining much of the loss, Daimler is currently trading at around January’s opening level of 50 EUR in the stock market.