Geely to serve as trustee of Leopaard’s Changsha plant
Shanghai (ZXZC)- Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) is to serve as the trustee of Hunan Leopaard Motors Co.,Ltd. (Leopaard)'s Changsha plant, which will focus on producing and selling new energy vehicles (NEVs), the group announced on April 27 via its WeChat account.
Leveraging the advantages in products, technologies, management and market channels, Geely will help Leopaard enhance its overall competitiveness by introducing to the latter the NEV products and related technologies, and boosting the resource integration, according to a strategic cooperation agreement Geely Holding signed with Hunan Provincial Government and Changsha Municipal Government.
Moreover, the group stated it will continue to expand the collaboration with Hunan province in NEV area, as part of efforts to promote the transition and upgrade of local automobile industrial structure.
Leopaard is a subsidiary of Changfeng Group Co., Ltd., a Changsha-headquartered complete vehicle manufacturer founded in 1950. The company's main products are Leopaard brand SUVs and pickup trucks. It has four vehicle manufacturing bases located at Yongzhou, Chuzhou, Changsha and Jingmen.
In fact, the news about Geely's attempt to take over the Changsha plant was exposed in early January for the first time. However, Geely denied the rumor afterwards. At the moment, the report also disclosed that the Jingmen and Chuzhou plants would be transferred to local government and a new operator.
Saddled with the severer market competition, the pressure from the overall market downturn, the transformation to the China Ⅵ emission standard, and the coronavirus-caused hardship, Leopaard has been mired in the plight regarding both operation and sales. The newly-agreed assistance from Geely is expected to re-turbocharge its development.
According to Leopaard's official website, the automaker aims to produce or sell over 400,000 vehicles in 2020 with its annual revenue topping RMB40 billion and total profit of over RMB2 billion (photo source: Geely Holding's WeChat account).