News from the home of IT on October 12: The State Administration for Market Regulation announced today the list of unconditional approvals for business concentration cases from September 21 to September 27, 2026, which includes the unconditional approval of Geely Holding's acquisition of a 34% stake in Ford Spain.
In July this year, Ford Motor Company and Geely Automobile Holdings Limited announced an agreement to establish a joint venture in Valencia, Spain. Through capacity sharing, the two parties will develop a variety of new energy vehicle products under the Ford and Geely brands for the European market.
After obtaining regulatory approval, the joint venture will officially commence operations in the first half of 2027, with the first new model to roll off the production line in 2028.
According to Ford, the Valencia plant has an annual production capacity of about 500,000 vehicles and is one of the largest and most technologically advanced automobile factories in Europe. After the establishment of the joint venture, the Valencia plant will become a shared advanced manufacturing center for both parties, significantly improving capacity utilization and product development efficiency, reducing development costs, while also creating more job opportunities for Spain's automotive industry and contributing to the sustainable development of the regional automotive sector.
According to the plan, the joint venture will continue to produce the Kuga model in the future, and is scheduled to launch a new member of the Ford Bronco Mustang family in 2028 – a rugged compact SUV. In addition, the joint venture will also introduce a brand-new Ford Crossover model. This model will be designed by Ford and jointly developed with Geely, and is also planned to go into production in 2028.
According to Reuters, this factory will also become Geely Automobile's first production plant in Europe. The first SUV to be produced at this plant will be the EX5 that has already been launched in Europe (Note from IT: this corresponds to Geely's E5 in China).
