Geely is set to open a manufacturing plant in Vietnam as part of its localised manufacturing plans in several markets, the carmaker announced during a presentation at the Indonesian debut of the Geely EX5 electric SUV.
Vietnam is one of several regions that will form Geely’s localised manufacturing plans, which include Indonesia, with the new manufacturing plant in Bekasi, West Jawa where CKD production for the Indonesian market will begin in the second quarter of this year.
Other markets with localised manufacturing plans in the pipeline are Central Asia and Africa, according to the presentation by Geely Auto deputy general manager Evin Ye.
For Vietnam, Geely signed a joint venture agreement in September 2024 with Tasco Auto and the Thai Binh Economic Zones Management Board, as well as a distribution agreement for the Geely brand in the country. The agreement with Tasco Auto is for a manufacturing facility estimated to cost $168 million (RM747 million) with an annual production capacity of 75,000 units, the Vietnam Investment Review reported.
The agreement will also see Tasco and Geely collaborate to draw more investors into completing the supply chain for components and spare parts, to invest in the construction of an automotive research and development centre for Southeast Asia, establish a university for automotive technical training, and to invest in the production of vehicle-human connectivity-oriented smartphones in the Tien Hai Economic Zone.
Output from this manufacturing facility is to serve the domestic Vietnamese market, as well as left-hand-drive export markets. Construction of this plant is expected to break ground in the first half of this year, with the first customer vehicles from this plant to be delivered in early 2026, the report added.
This means that the 200-unit production run of the Geely Coolray in left-hand-drive form for Vietnam is merely a stopgap measure, before production of the crossover for that market shifts to localised assembly in Vietnam. Yesterday, images posted to the Proton X50 Community Malaysia Facebook page showed a vehicle transporter trailer loaded with Geely Coolray-badged models heading to Port Klang.
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Protong kena kencing…heehee
Dah sah hang tak tahu apa2 pasal strategi…hahaha
Last time said proton export to all south east asia? Now what
Yeee, we’re like the Vauxhall within Opel now
End of the day, Proton not enough money to pump into Vietnam to expand fast enough… Geely can’t wait and took over.
Proton fans must be disappointed, Dr Lee Chun Rong promised proton back in 2017 to be hub manufacturer for geely left hand drive but instead geely saw proton to incompetent so they do it themself.
At this point, DRB Hicom need to buy their shares back before proton won’t produce anything expect for local cars market
I still remember it’s between PSG or geely and proton believe geely is better because they own Volvo and we all knew proton higher up is Conti cars fans.
Third competitor is Suzuki and looks how Suzuki success in India.
Suzuki only wanted Proton’s plants for CKD operations and was never serious to expand Proton globally because they already have plants in Indonesia.
Funny that you mentioned Maruti Suzuki as comparison. Proton’s critics despise government intervention yet you mention Maruti that became successful mainly from the help of Indian government.
Geely slowly shifting from Tanjong Malim…which is just a local hub since Protong sales is dwindling…the marriage with DRB is showing cracks.Divorce is on the cards.
Even they can’t stand our 3 Cyl engine where all of their export market move to 4cyl engine for the X50 and others.