Ford and Geely have signed a joint venture agreement to manufacture a multi-energy SUV at the Blue Oval’s factory in Valencia, Spain.
The deal will be finalised in 2027, with Ford owning 66% of the tie-up and the Chinese automotive giant 34%.
The joint venture will see Ford and Geely jointly develop a new multi-energy C-segment SUV, confirming that when the car launches in 2028, it will be available as an EV, a mild hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). The vehicle will be aimed at the European market.
Despite running on a shared platform, Ford Europe chief, Jim Baumbick, stressed that the car will not be an exercise in badge engineering and the two models will feel entirely different. A rendering of how the vehicle could appear is below.
“The Ford product will be a completely unique top hat; this is not a reskin,” he said. “We don’t do boring cars. This is a completely uniquely engineered, truly unmistakably Ford product that will be differentiated from Geely’s.”
Despite owning European brands Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus, the joint venture with Ford marks the first time that Geely has built a car in Europe. By doing so, it can circumnavigate costly EU tariffs on Chinese-manufactured EVs and advance with its ambitious European expansion plans.
In the UK alone, Geely is looking to expand its current line-up from three to 10 vehicles by 2029. By 2030, it aims to sell 100,000 cars here.
Geely is looking to build between a third and a half of all of its European models at the Valencia plant and has pledged to invest in the site’s supply chain ecosystem.
For Ford, access to Geely’s know-how of multi-energy strategies will help it regain footing in the highly competitive European market where it has lost significant ground over the last seven years. For reference, the all-electric Geely EX2 supermini is the best-selling car in China, and will go on sale next month in the UK for under £21,000.
Since 2019, new Ford registrations have dropped in Europe from over a million to just 426,459 last year. As part of its European comeback plan named ‘Ready Set Ford’, the US carmaker is set to re-introduce the much-loved Fiesta (render below) and Focus nameplates as part of a secondary tie-up with Renault.
The Ford Valencia site opened in 1976 and has long been a cornerstone in Dearborn’s European strategy. Over the years, it has produced several Ford’s most popular nameplates, including the Fiesta, the Escort, the Mondeo, the Ka, and the Focus. Since 2013, it has been responsible for manufacturing the Kuga SUV.
The plant is Ford’s largest outside of the US, employing over 8,000 staff and producing more than 500,000 vehicles annually.
