Geely restructures, Zeekr to take control of Lynk & Co. in major overhaul

China's Geely Group in a shake up has put the premium electric vehicle (EV) brand Zeekr in charge of another sibling brand Lynk & Co. There is also the first major step in Geely's ongoing downsising and cost cutting efforts to break with its past as an acquisitive automotive land-grabbing machine.

In restructuring, Geely Holding has separated internal functional departments and company groups into 12 automotive brands, including Volvo Cars, to increase efficiency and decrease cost. Group Chairman Eric Li also said the group needs “deep integration” inside its portfolio to improve performance while avoiding duplication. He also encouraged brands to properly position to the market in order to avoid internal competition.

Zeekr and Lynk will join hands under the new plan, creating a new entity dedicated to developing new energy vehicles (NEVs), targeting one million units in annual vehicle sales, up from 339,000 units in 2023. The integration will be overseen by Zeekr CEO Andy An as Geely aims to cut down on redundancies in research and development (R&D), sales and marketing.

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Zeekr will purchase a 30pc stake from Volvo Cars, a 20pc stake from Geely Holding. With this, the stake of Zeekr in Lynk & Co. will increase to 51 percent by Geely Auto, remaining the rest shares. Lynk & Co is valued at around 18 billion yuan (USD 2.5 billion) in the transaction, which will close mid 2025.

Zeekr and Lynk will enter into a deeper cooperation centered on further technology and platform sharing. Both have similar architecture for their electric models already, and pooling R&D resources could cut costs to 10-20% compared to them separately, An said. Zeekr will also take advantage of Lynk’s presense in lower tier cities.

Zeekr, which launched in 2021, has seen rapid growth, selling nearly 143,000 cars in the first three quarters of 2024, a jump of 81% year-on-year. In contrast, Lynk & Co. sold about 195,600 vehicles over the same period, marking a 40% increase from 2023.

The announcement sent Volvo’s shares up 3.5%, reflecting positive market sentiment. The deal is part of Geely’s broader push to reshape its future in the fast-evolving global EV market.