Volvo’s production lines are gearing up to build China’s luxury fleet

18 August 2026

When Zhejiang Geely scooped up Volvo from Ford's bargain basement back in 2010, the automotive establishment assumed the Chinese industrial giant would simply siphon off Swedish safety patents and leave Gothenburg to build sensible estate cars. Sixteen years later, the ultimate irony of that acquisition is coming into sharp, electrifying focus. Far from being a passive custodian, Geely is preparing to turn Volvo's European assembly lines into the launchpad for its own ultra-luxury armada.

Li Shufu - the visionary founder who orchestrated Geely's global empire - stepped down as chairman of Geely Automobile to concentrate his fire on the overarching parent company, Geely Holding. Taking over the helm is An Conghui (known across the boardroom as Andy An), who wasted no time during the 2026 interim results conference, laying out a sweeping mandate: Volvo's manufacturing across Europe will become the operational bastion to build Geely's highest-end vehicles locally, with production kicking off in 2028.

Strategically, it is a masterstroke of tariff evasion and brand elevation. Geely Automobile portfolio ranges from the volume-oriented Geely Galaxy to the youthful, semi-premium Lynk & Co and the lavish Zeekr. To build them on the continent, Geely has three ready-made Volvo strongholds at its disposal: the historic Torslanda plant in Sweden, the high-capacity facility in Ghent, Belgium, and a brand-new, dedicated electric vehicle facility currently rising in Košice, Slovakia, which will start mass production in early 2027.

Add to that Geely's joint venture with Ford at the Valencia plant in Spain - responsible for manufacturing two Geely-branded models starting in 2028 - and the group suddenly has a serious European manufacturing footprint.

What kind of EVs will eventually roll off the Scandinavian-managed assembly lines? Insiders point to the group's flagships: the Lynk & Co 900, the Zeekr 8X, and the towering Zeekr 9X. If these assumptions are correct, European buyers are in for a real treat.

Stretching 206.3 inches in length, 79.9 inches across its broad shoulders, and standing 71.6 inches tall on a vast 124.8 inches wheelbase, the 9X is a proper land yacht. Tipping the scales at up to 6,261 lb (or 6,393 lb in loaded trim), it is bigger than the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV at 201.8 inches and makes the BMW iX at 195.5 inches look downright compact. The slightly more athletic Zeekr 8X is 200.8 inches long with a 120.8 inches wheelbase and a 5,864 lb curb weight, out-muscling the Porsche Cayenne at 194.1 inches and the Audi Q8 e-tron at 193.5 inches.

The specs verge on comic-book excess. The Zeekr 9X pairs a 2.0-liter turbocharged combustion engine with a tri-motor electric drive system, sending 1,381 horsepower (1,030 kW) and 1,040 lb-ft of torque directly to all four wheels. That is enough to propel a three-row, leather-swaddled lounge from zero to 62 mph in 3.1 seconds.

Inside, you get 42,000-diamond-cut lighting elements, dual Nvidia Thor computing chips pushing 1,400 TOPS, and a 32-speaker Naim audio system pumping out 3,868W of acoustic firepower - it is the very same audio outfit Bentley relies on. In China, pre-sales opened around £39,750, and even if European-built editions arrive priced between £64,000 and £77,000, that delivers a reality check to legacy German brands charging six figures for a fraction of the electric power.

Geely Holding Group earned seventh place among top global automakers in the first half of 2026, locking down a 4.6% global market share. Its premium badges chase prestige, but everyday workhorses are the ones providing financial stability. The superstar Geely EX2 (known locally as the Xingyuan) delivered 226,465 units between January and July 2026 - a surprising 9.1% year-over-year dip that didn't manage to dent its status as China's go-to urban commuter.

The raw assembly capacity and horsepower figures are only half the offensive, though. The real technological leap is in energy storage. Geely confirmed that it will start real-world pilot deployments of solid-state battery packs across its entire ecosystem in 2027 - a rollout touching Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Smart.

Geely claims its top-shelf solid-state battery will hit a 500 Wh/kg energy density at the whole-pack level. Compare that to the 250 Wh/kg cell density of Geely's liquid "Golden Brick" LFP units, and you are looking at a twofold leap, unlocking genuine diesel-rivaling endurance with single-charge ranges exceeding 620 miles.

Pulling off that chemical feat is owed to heavyweight backing from Dow Chemical, whose engineers developed specialized cell adhesives capable of enduring thermal extremes from -40°F to 248°F. CATL chairman Robin Zeng cautioned that solid-state development remains around Technology Readiness Level 4 (working primarily with partial-scale prototypes), but Geely and BYD are charging headlong into 2027 trial production. Geely clearly has no intention of waiting around in the laboratory while the market evolves.

Via