Geely — History, Models and Everything You Need to Know

Li Shufu founded what would become Geely Holding Group in 1986, initially as a manufacturer of refrigerator components, before progressively expanding into motorcycle manufacturing during the 1990s. Li recognised the growing opportunity in China's emerging domestic automotive market and entered automobile production in 1997, beginning with relatively basic, affordable vehicles aimed squarely at the rapidly expanding base of first-time Chinese car buyers entering the market as the country's economy grew.

Geely's early automotive products were modest, but the company's ambition expanded dramatically over subsequent decades. Li Shufu pursued an audacious international acquisition strategy that few observers anticipated from a relatively young Chinese automaker, beginning with the acquisition of the historic London Taxi Company in 2006 and subsequently Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Company in 2010 for approximately $1.8 billion — the first major Chinese acquisition of a globally recognised premium car brand, and a landmark moment that signalled China's automotive industry ambitions extended well beyond domestic manufacturing into genuine international brand ownership.

Following the Volvo acquisition, Geely's international portfolio expanded substantially further. The company acquired a controlling stake in Lotus in 2017, took a significant stake in Malaysia's Proton, launched Polestar as a standalone electric performance brand jointly with Volvo, created the entirely new premium EV brand Zeekr in 2021, and acquired a substantial minority stake in Mercedes-Benz Group, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, making Geely one of the most internationally diversified automotive investment vehicles controlled by a single individual entrepreneur anywhere in the world.

Geely's 2010 acquisition of Volvo Cars deserves particular recognition as one of the most consequential transactions in modern automotive history, both for what it achieved commercially and for what it symbolised more broadly about shifting global automotive industry dynamics. Many Western commentators initially expressed skepticism that a relatively young Chinese automaker could successfully manage and grow an established Swedish premium brand with such deep safety engineering heritage. Those concerns proved largely unfounded — under Geely's ownership, Volvo has launched some of its most acclaimed and commercially successful models, expanded significantly in the crucial Chinese market, and pursued an aggressive and largely successful electrification strategy, demonstrating that Geely's stewardship genuinely respected and invested in Volvo's distinctive engineering culture rather than simply extracting value from the acquired brand.

Geely's defining characteristic among Chinese automotive groups is its distinctly investment-led, multi-brand acquisition strategy, contrasting with manufacturers that have grown primarily through organic domestic expansion and export of a single core brand. Li Shufu's willingness to acquire established international brands and, crucially, to invest in and genuinely respect their existing engineering cultures and heritage rather than simply imposing Chinese manufacturing cost discipline, has allowed Geely to build a portfolio of brands that retain genuine credibility with their original target markets while benefiting from shared platform technology, manufacturing scale and capital resources behind the scenes. The substantial Mercedes-Benz stake further demonstrates Geely's ambition to be understood as a genuinely global automotive investment force rather than simply a successful domestic Chinese manufacturer, positioning the company at the centre of some of the most significant ownership and technology relationships across the entire global automotive industry.