CHINESE car makers, for decades the absorbent pupils of Western car manufacturing technologies and techniques, have now turned into the teachers.

Reports in the business media are saying that Geely is turning the pace, cost discipline and engineering scale that Chinese car makers developed at light speed to disrupt the global automotive establishment are now bundling this expertise into a services product of its own and offering legacy manufacturers a ‘shortcut’ to next-generation of vehicle development as it simultaneously accelerates its expansion overseas. 

The strategy represents a striking reversal of the joint-venture model that shaped China’s automotive industry for decades.

Where Western, Japanese, and Korean manufacturers once supplied platforms, engines and engineering know-how to Chinese partners in return for access to the world’s largest vehicle market, Geely is increasingly selling those capabilities back to the legacy automotive manufacturers.

Automotive News Europe describes the emerging arrangement as a “reverse joint venture” and Geely intends to monetise its knowhow. 

Geely is not alone. Stellantis is drawing heavily on its partnership with Leapmotor, while Volkswagen Group is leveraging its relationship with XPeng as European manufacturers seek ways of developing software-defined and electrified vehicles at something approaching the pace of their Chinese competitors. 

But Geely is taking the concept considerably further.

At the centre of its push is the External Collaboration Research Institute, established in 2021 and now supporting more than 100 projects for around a dozen clients including Renault and Waymo.

The operation gives partners access to some 800 engineers, modular vehicle platforms, artificial intelligence-powered electrical architectures, battery technologies, semiconductors, and highly integrated manufacturing systems.

More importantly, Geely says it can provide the product-development processes behind so-called “China Speed” – the accelerated development cadence allowing Chinese manufacturers to bring new vehicles and technologies to market significantly faster, and often at considerably lower cost, than long-established rivals.

External Collaboration Research Institute president Aileen Wang said Geely’s advantage was not simply its engineering headcount, but the combination of technical capability, cost control, and speed forged in one of the world’s most intensely competitive automotive markets. 

“Our advantage is not simply about the number of engineers,” she said. “The quality of our engineering, together with cost discipline and efficiency, is also a key strength.”

For global car makers struggling with lengthy development cycles, cumbersome engineering structures, and the spiralling expense of software-defined vehicles, the proposition is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Reverse JV takes shape

Geely’s collaboration model spans complete vehicle development, engineering services, technology licensing, and technical consulting, with capabilities extending from product planning, styling, and engineering through to finance, supply, manufacturing, and sales.

Its partners can tap Geely vehicle architectures and modular manufacturing methods, including systems already used across the Zeekr electrified vehicle range, as well as its in-house EV battery technology, AI-based electrical systems, and semiconductors.

The scale of the offering reflects years of investment by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which controls Geely, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, and Proton, among other automotive interests.

The wider group sold 4.1 million vehicles in 2025, making it the world’s eighth-largest automotive manufacturer by volume and putting it ahead of Honda and Nissan.

That scale has created an abundance of engineering and research capability Geely now intends to monetise. 

Ms Wang said the company had accumulated a broad base of technology, experience and expertise that could be offered to manufacturers unable – or increasingly unwilling – to recreate the same systems internally. 

The institute expects demand to grow rapidly and plans to increase its workforce from 800 engineers today to 2000 by 2030 while doubling the number of projects under management. 

Its expanding relationship with Renault illustrates how the model works.

The two companies already collaborate through Horse Powertrain, the combustion and hybrid powertrain business backed by Geely, Renault, and Saudi Aramco.

Horse draws upon Geely’s New Energy Test Centre, commissioned in 2020 with 400 employees and 32 engine test chambers covering petrol, hybrid, methanol, ethanol, and hydrogen powertrains, as well as two, four, and all-wheel-drive systems. 

The institute also coordinates Geely and Renault projects in South Korea and Brazil.

In South Korea, the companies are building hybrids based on Geely architecture through Renault’s underutilised manufacturing base, including the third-generation Renault Koleos for the domestic market and export to the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

In Brazil, Renault is using Geely’s GEA new-energy architecture to expand its range of zero- and low-emission vehicles, while Geely gains access to Renault’s manufacturing footprint and distribution network as a lower-risk route into South America. 

The arrangement captures the logic behind Geely’s strategy.

Its partners gain technology, engineering capacity and faster development while Geely gains manufacturing capacity, knowledge of local regulations and consumer preferences, and access to established distribution channels without carrying the full cost of greenfield expansion.

Geely says that exchange of information is an important part of the arrangement.

Working with international partners gives the Chinese group greater insight into regional regulatory requirements, localisation trends and overseas sales systems while exposing its engineers to different cultures and product expectations.

The partnerships are therefore not simply consultancy contracts. Each provides Geely with knowledge that can improve its own products and make the company more effective as it expands beyond China. 

Ford is now following a similar path.

In July, Ford and Geely agreed to establish a joint venture around Ford’s Valencia manufacturing operation in Spain, with the relationship expected to support a new member of the Bronco family, a jointly developed multi-energy crossover and two Geely-branded SUVs. 

Production of Geely EVs at the Valencia plant is scheduled to begin in 2028.

Mercedes-Benz is already tied closely to Geely through the 50:50 Smart joint venture, under which Geely developed the Electric Compact Architecture that will underpin the forthcoming Smart #2, which is to be manufactured in China for global markets.

Geely global business development director Steven Wei said interest was not limited to established car makers, with start-ups and would-be automotive investors also approaching the institute for turnkey assistance.

“Some startups want to get into the auto industry but don’t know how. So, they come to us for help,” he said.

Legacy technology gap widens

The willingness of established brands to outsource or share more engineering responsibility comes as the technology gap between traditional manufacturers and digital-native rivals continues to widen. 

Gartner’s 2026 Digital Automaker Index ranked Tesla first for digital readiness with a score of 82.7 per cent, up from 79.3 per cent a year earlier, ahead of Nio, Xiaomi, XPeng, Li Auto, and Rivian. 

The top six positions were unchanged from 2025.

More significantly, no traditional manufacturer ranked among the top three in any of Gartner’s nine assessment categories, covering areas including connectivity, vehicle architecture and artificial intelligence.

Mercedes-Benz was the highest-ranked European manufacturer, moving from 12th to 11th position, although its score was as low as 37.0 per cent under tougher assessment criteria.

BMW slipped one position to 14th despite revealing its technologically advanced Neue Klasse platform. 

At the other end of the table, Nissan fell from 20th to 23rd, while Mazda ranked last of the 24 manufacturers assessed with a score of 22.1 per cent. 

Gartner vice-president of research Pedro Pacheco said traditional manufacturers were improving, but not quickly enough to close the gap. 

“It’s not that they’re standing still. They’re moving forward, but not fast enough,” he commented. 

“Before it was about software and hardware, now comes AI.” 

Gartner made its index more demanding in 2026 by adding artificial intelligence as a standalone category and replacing several simple measures of whether a manufacturer possessed a technology with assessments of how widely that technology had actually been deployed.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important. 

Zonal electrical architecture, 5G connectivity, and over-the-air (OTA) software updates are no longer sufficient in isolation to demonstrate leadership. Gartner now gives greater weight to how extensively those capabilities are embedded across a manufacturer’s models and markets.

BMW’s lower ranking despite Neue Klasse illustrates the problem – developing an advanced architecture is one thing; deploying it broadly and rapidly enough to transform the business is another. 

Artificial intelligence is creating a further divide. 

Gartner rewards manufacturers that develop AI capability internally and reuse it across vehicles, autonomous driving systems, robotics and other applications. 

Tesla led the new AI category, followed by Xiaomi and XPeng.

Mr Pacheco said internal development was important because technology purchased from an external supplier was equally available to competitors, tending to push manufacturers towards technological parity rather than differentiation. 

“When you buy technology from a vendor then any of your competitors can do the same,” he said.

“But if you develop the technology in-house you have the chance of being better than the competition and differentiating yourself.”

It helps explain why Geely’s proposition has become strategically attractive. 

For a traditional manufacturer, buying access to a Chinese partner’s architectures, development processes and AI capability potentially cuts years from the time required to close technology gaps.

However, it also raises a longer-term question for the automotive industry – how much core engineering expertise can established manufacturers outsource before weakening the capabilities they ultimately need to differentiate their own products?

Geely’s pitch is built around a more immediate pressure – speed.

Global manufacturers face rapidly changing customer expectations, stricter emissions requirements, the transition to electrified powertrains, and intense price competition from Chinese manufacturers. 

For companies carrying high fixed costs and lengthy product-development processes, bringing vehicles to market more quickly is no longer simply an efficiency measure. It is becoming fundamental to survival. 

Gartner warned that organisational structures were also slowing the transformation of established manufacturers, creating what Mr Pacheco described as a “vicious circle”. 

Slow decision-making delays technology adoption, which allows faster rivals to move further ahead and makes it more difficult for traditional manufacturers to attract the talent and investment required to catch up.

In that environment, buying a shortcut to “China Speed” becomes considerably more appealing.

Overseas growth becomes priority

Geely’s collaborative model is equally important to its own international expansion.

New Geely Automobile chairperson An Conghui, who took over from founder Li Shufu on August 18, has set a target of one million vehicle exports in 2026, more than double the company’s 2025 tally. 

In the longer term, he wants overseas markets to account for two-thirds of Geely’s global sales. 

Geely exported 420,000 vehicles in 2025, including vehicles assembled overseas from knockdown kits, representing about 18 per cent of its 3.02 million annual sales.

For 2026, the company expects around 400,000 vehicles to go to Europe, with approximately half destined for Eastern Europe. 

A further 300,000 are targeted for South-East Asia, 200,000 for Latin America and Africa, and 100,000 for the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Automotive News Europe reports that Geely already has 12 overseas manufacturing plants, mostly assembling vehicles from Chinese-supplied kits, but said Mr An has made clear that conventional exports and wholly-owned factories are only part of the strategy.

Rather than spending heavily to construct new plants, Geely intends to use underutilised capacity belonging to partner manufacturers, sharing established supply chains, workforces, and distribution channels.

“Collaborating to make full use of capacity, supply chains, human resources, and distribution channels at various parties is the only way to achieve fast, high-quality and low-risk growth in overseas markets,” he said.

That asset-light approach is already taking shape.An agreement signed with Renault in November 2025 will see Geely electric vehicles produced at Renault’s Brazilian plant, while the Ford deal will provide manufacturing capacity in Spain from 2028.

Volvo is also expected to begin producing Geely premium models in Europe from 2028, although details of the manufacturing arrangement have not been disclosed.

In Malaysia, Geely plans to lift annual production capacity at Proton from 200,000 to 500,000 vehicles, positioning the company as a manufacturing hub for South-East Asia. 

The overseas offensive is being accelerated by deteriorating market conditions in China.

Geely’s exports surged 158 per cent to more than 474,000 vehicles during the first half of 2026, while domestic deliveries fell 23 per cent to 948,000.

Global sales edged one per cent higher to 1.42 million vehicles, of which approximately 800,000 – or 56 per cent – were electrified models comprising battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. 

Intense price competition and declining domestic sales also weighed on earnings. 

Geely said first-half net income fell two per cent to 9.1 billion yuan (A$1.90b) despite revenue increasing 15 per cent to almost $US26 billion (A$36.4b). 

The figures underline why international scale has become so important.

Geely is no longer simply chasing exports. It is building an industrial network able to position engineering, manufacturing and products closer to overseas customers without reproducing China-scale investment in every market it enters.

Safety becomes export credential

Geely is also investing heavily in the less visible infrastructure required to strengthen its global credentials.

In May it opened what Guinness World Records has certified as the world’s largest comprehensive vehicle safety testing facility at Hangzhou Bay, near the company’s global R&D centre and Zeekr manufacturing operations. 

The 2.0-billion-yuan (A$416.6m) complex covers 81,930 square metres and includes a 293-metre indoor crash-test track – claimed to be the longest in the world – and a 12,709-square-metre arbitrary-angle collision zone capable of impact testing from zero to 180 degrees.

It also houses what Geely describes as the world’s largest wind tunnel adjustable for altitude and climate conditions, capable of simulating snow, rain, solar radiation, and wind speeds of up to 250km/h.

More than 60 crash-test dummies of various sizes and configurations are available, while dedicated laboratories cover advanced driver-assistance systems and vehicle cybersecurity alongside conventional collision testing.

Importantly, Geely says the facility will be available to external organisations, reinforcing the External Collaboration Research Institute’s position as a provider of shared engineering resources.

The investment comes as Chinese brands rapidly strengthen their results in independent safety testing. 

Of 32 new Chinese models submitted to Euro NCAP during 2025, 29 achieved the maximum five-star rating. All six Geely models assessed received five stars.

For Geely, safety performance is becoming part of the same internationalisation strategy as software, electrical architecture and manufacturing.

The company became the first Asian member of the International Automotive Task Force in 2021, giving it a greater role in the development of international automotive quality-system standards. 

Its new safety facility provides another avenue through which it hopes to influence future global standards rather than simply comply with those developed elsewhere. 

Structural shift in automotive power

Taken together, Geely’s engineering partnerships, overseas manufacturing agreements, safety investment, and export targets point to a deeper change in the balance of automotive power.

Chinese manufacturers were once dependent upon foreign partners for platforms, technology, and industrial expertise.

Increasingly, some of the world’s most established car makers are turning to Chinese groups for the platforms, software, batteries, artificial intelligence capability, and development systems required to remain competitive.

Geely’s advantage is that it can offer those capabilities while receiving something equally valuable in return – access to established manufacturing plants, regulatory expertise, recognised brands, and distribution networks outside China.

Automotive News Europe says that makes the emerging reverse-JV model far more significant than a conventional licensing arrangement.

It is becoming a mechanism through which Chinese automotive technology and development processes are embedded into global manufacturing infrastructure, often underneath or alongside long-established Western brands.

For Ford, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, and potentially others, the trade-off is straightforward.

Working with Geely can compress development cycles, reduce capital requirements, and put new vehicles into showrooms faster 

For Geely, those same partnerships provide a route to international scale without the immense cost – and increasing political sensitivity – associated with constructing Chinese-owned factories market by market.

Geely also gains something harder to quantify – the experience required to become a genuinely global manufacturer rather than merely a Chinese manufacturer selling globally.

And for the wider automotive industry, the trend marks another important change in direction.

For most of the past half-century, the technical benchmark for global vehicle development was set overwhelmingly in Detroit, Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, Munich, Tokyo, and Seoul.

Increasingly, it is being set in Hangzhou.