Geely has agreed to acquire part of Ford’s Almussafes plant in Valencia, Spain, and plans to build one of its own models there, with possible production of a Ford vehicle as well.
Spanish trade publication La Tribuna de Automoción, citing unnamed industry sources, reported that Geely has reached an agreement to purchase the Body 3 assembly hall at the Almussafes site.
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The reported agreement would enable Geely to set up vehicle manufacturing operations independently, without sharing a supply chain with Ford.
The move follows wider negotiations involving Geely over shared vehicle technologies, which Reuters first reported in February.
The Body 3 complex was originally built for production based on Ford’s CD4 platform and assembled the Mondeo, Galaxy and S-Max models following the closure of Ford’s Genk plant in Belgium in 2014.
It is currently inactive, with Ford’s Kuga model primarily produced through the Body 2 lines.
Geely intends to produce a multi-energy vehicle internally codenamed “135” in Valencia using its Global Intelligent Electric Architecture (GEA) modular platform.
The vehicle is expected to be offered in self-charging hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric variants.
The sources said discussions are also under way regarding the possible production of a Ford vehicle based on the same GEA platform.
Geely has already contacted suppliers in the Valencia region regarding production of the vehicle, and approval for the project is at an advanced stage.
La Tribuna de Automoción added that the model under consideration could be the Geely EX2, which would be marketed in Europe as the E2.
The compact SUV is 4.13m long and features a 114hp electric motor and a 39.4kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, with a WLTP range of up to 325km.
