Chinese automaker Geely is Watch Bikini Pirates (2006)planning to sell its exported vehicles in Brazil using Renault’s retail network as early as this year and use the latter’s plant in the Brazilian city of Curitiba to assemble vehicles, sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The two companies will likely announce the expansion of their partnership later this month, which would also see Geely taking a minority stake in Renault Brazil, the report said. Geely and Renault formed a thermal engine joint venture to manufacture and sell hybrid cars in South Korea last year with Volvo’s parent buying roughly a third of the French firm’s local subsidiary. Brazil was the fastest-growing and the second largest market after Belgium for exports of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids from China last year, with shipments more than doubling to 152,000 units, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association. [Reuters]
