Chinese automaker Geely has reached an agreement with Ford to manufacture vehicles on one of the assembly lines at the American company’s plant in Almussafes, near Valencia, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n
The facility has been operating well below capacity for several years. The new partnership will enable Geely to establish local production in Europe while reducing the impact of the European Union’s tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
Ford’s Almussafes plant has an annual production capacity of up to 450,000 vehicles, but in recent years it has been operating at less than a quarter of that capacity. The factory currently produces the Ford Kuga crossover, with a Geely model expected to join the production line soon.<\/p>\n
Geely has not yet officially disclosed which vehicle will be manufactured in Spain. However, media reports suggest it will be the new Geely EX2 electric hatchback, which was the best-selling new car in China last year.<\/p>\n
The Spanish government played a significant role in facilitating the agreement. Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez actively supported the negotiations as part of Spain’s strategy to attract new automotive manufacturers and strengthen its domestic automotive industry. Unlike Germany or Italy, Spain has relatively few national automotive brands and has therefore pursued a policy of welcoming foreign investment in the sector.<\/p>\n
Additional details of the agreement between Ford and Geely are expected to be announced in the coming days during Prime Minister S\u00e1nchez’s visit to the Valencia plant.<\/p>\n
Earlier reports also suggested that the partnership could benefit Ford. According to unofficial sources, the U.S. automaker is considering developing its own electric vehicle based on the same platform that will underpin the Geely EX2. However, these plans have not yet been officially confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":151987,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-151986","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/151986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=151986"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=151986"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=151986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}