Ford and Geely Join Forces as Global Automotive Collaboration Enters a New Phase

Ford Motor Company and Geely Auto Group announced an agreement to establish a Europe-focused joint venture at Ford’s manufacturing facility in Valencia, Spain. Under the proposed ownership structure, Ford will hold a 66% stake and Geely Auto 34%. Subject to regulatory approvals, the joint venture is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2027, with the first new vehicles scheduled to roll off the production line in 2028.

The Valencia plant will continue to produce the Ford Kuga. The planned vehicle line-up will also include a new member of the Ford Bronco family, an all-new multi-energy crossover designed by Ford and jointly developed with Geely, and two Geely-branded electric SUVs.

The partnership extends beyond shared manufacturing capacity and localized production to include joint vehicle development. By combining their respective strengths in products, engineering, manufacturing and market insight, Ford and Geely aim to improve plant utilization and development efficiency while expanding the range of multi-energy vehicles available to European customers.

Automotive Partnerships Are Becoming More Integrated

As electrification, intelligent technologies and software-defined vehicle development continue to advance, the investment and complexity involved in bringing new vehicles to market are increasing. At the same time, differences in regulation, supply chains, manufacturing systems and customer expectations across regions are placing greater demands on automakers’ global capabilities.

Against this backdrop, collaboration in the global automotive industry is evolving. Partnerships that once focused primarily on individual technologies, vehicle architectures or manufacturing capacity are increasingly extending across product definition, engineering development, supply chains, manufacturing and localized operations.

This shift reflects a practical response to a more complex global market. Automakers must continue to protect their individual brand identities and product strengths while improving development efficiency, accelerating market responsiveness and making more effective use of global resources.

ECRI: Connecting Partner Requirements with Geely’s R&D Capabilities

Geely External Collaboration Research Institute, or ECRI, is an integral part of Geely’s R&D system and serves as an important platform through which Geely engages with global automotive partners on engineering and technology collaboration.

ECRI supports a range of collaboration models, including turnkey vehicle development, engineering services, technology licensing and technical consulting. Its capabilities span vehicle architectures, electrification, intelligent vehicle technologies, powertrains, engineering development, supply chains and manufacturing support.

Each partnership begins with the product strategy and market requirements of the partner. ECRI helps define the appropriate scope of collaboration and the corresponding technical approach, while bringing together the relevant R&D, engineering, supply chain and manufacturing capabilities within Geely. This enables cooperation to progress from initial requirements and technical alignment to engineering development and project delivery.

Automakers differ in brand positioning, technical standards, development processes and product responsibilities. ECRI therefore does not apply a fixed model to every partnership. Instead, it supports collaboration structures tailored to the objectives and requirements of each project, while respecting the partner’s brand independence and product ownership.

Through this approach, complex cross-company collaboration can be translated into clearly defined engineering programmes, appropriate allocation of resources and executable delivery plans.

Global Collaboration in Practice: Geely and Renault

Geely’s cooperation with Renault Group in markets including South Korea and Brazil provides further examples of how global automotive partnerships can be adapted to different regional and business requirements.

In South Korea, the two companies established a product collaboration based on Geely’s Compact Modular Architecture, or CMA. The programme combines Geely’s vehicle architecture and hybrid powertrain capabilities with Renault’s strengths in product design, customer experience and local manufacturing. It has led to vehicles including the Renault Grand Koleos.

In Brazil, the partnership has expanded to cover new-energy vehicle architectures, localized production and commercial resources. Renault is using Geely’s GEA new-energy architecture to extend its line-up of zero- and low-emission vehicles for the Brazilian market. Geely, meanwhile, is drawing on Renault’s industrial footprint and commercial network to accelerate the localized development of the Geely brand.

The partnerships in South Korea, Brazil and now Europe differ in ownership structure, product responsibilities and market objectives. Their underlying logic, however, is consistent: combining product, technology, engineering, manufacturing and local-market capabilities in ways that reflect the specific needs of each partner and region.

Global Collaboration, Shared Value

The global automotive industry is moving from relatively self-contained competition towards more open forms of collaboration. Such collaboration does not diminish the distinctions between brands. On the contrary, it allows each company to focus on the qualities that make its products distinctive while drawing on complementary capabilities where they can create greater efficiency and value.

Effective collaboration can reduce duplicated investment, improve development efficiency and accelerate responses to changing market requirements. More importantly, it can help partners bring relevant, competitive and differentiated products to customers in different regions.

Guided by the principle of “Global Collaboration, Shared Value,” ECRI will continue to connect Geely’s broad R&D and industrial capabilities with the product, brand and market strengths of global automotive partners—helping translate collaborative opportunities into vehicles, technologies and engineering programmes that can be successfully delivered.