Geely to build vehicle assembly plant in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is home to a lot of production plants from global car manufacturers. Some of those examples include Toyota in the Philippines, BMW in Malaysia, Ford has one in Thailand, and even Hyundai has one in Indonesia.

Geely, on the other hand, is set to join the aforementioned brands and produce vehicles in the ASEAN region. The Geely Auto Group has signed a joint venture deal with Vietnam’s Tasco to set up a production hub in the region.

The new production hub will be built in Vietnam’s Thai Binh province, where total investment in the project is estimated to be around USD 168 million. According to reports, Tasco is contributing 64 percent and Geely Group has 36 percent. The production facility is set to break ground by the first half of 2025 and start to roll out vehicles by early 2026.

The joint venture will initially assemble completely knocked down (CKD) vehicles under the Lynk & Co and Geely brands, with the potential to add other makes under the Geely Group in the future. With an initial production capacity of 75,000 vehicles per year, the facility will roll out products for the local market in Vietnam and export to other markets in the Southeast Asian region.

So what effect does this have on the Philippine market? Well, it effectively allows Geely and Lynk & Co to further expand their product offerings since vehicles made from Vietnam are not displacement-limited to benefit from the ASEAN free trade agreement or AFTA. As we can see, most Lynk & Co and Geely models present in the market that offer competitive prices have 1.5-liter engines, since those qualify for the benefits of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement.

Along with the production hub, Tasco and Geely are also working together to establish a parts supply chain, invest in a Southeast Asian R&D center, and build an automotive technology training center.