by Gilles Guillaume and Marie Mannes

PARIS/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Geely will bring no less than eight engine and transmission plants in China, and one in Sweden, to its future combustion and hybrid engine joint venture with Renault and Saudi Aramco, two sources told Reuters close to the file.

The JV, answering to the code names “Horse” at Renault and “Rubik” at Geely, wants to become by the end of the year a leading supplier for the automotive industry with a workforce of 19,000 people, a figure annual turnover of 15 billion euros and production of five million internal combustion engines and hybrid systems per year.

Renault has already said that the “Horse project” will have a total of 17 factories, including eight of the diamond group located in Latin America, Europe and Turkey.

Two sources told Reuters that of the nine factories coming from Geely and Aurobay – the thermal engine entity created in 2021 by the Chinese group and its subsidiary Volvo Cars – eight will be based in China and one in Skovde, in Sweden.

The future JV will also have five R&D (Research & Development) centers, three from Renault (Latin America and Europe) and two from Geely-Aurobay. These will be located in Hangzhou Bay in China and Gothenburg in Sweden, the sources added.

“It shows that the footprint is very complementary and overall balanced,” said one.

A spokesperson for Geely Europe was unable to comment immediately.

Geely brings to the entity all of its conventional engine and gearbox plants, but not its electric vehicle engine and technology sites. In the case of Renault, the battery electric will also remain separate from Horse and will constitute the heart of the future “Ampère” entity.

By joining forces in combustion, Renault and Geely hope to achieve scale gains at a time when the race for electrification requires ever greater investment. Saudi Aramco will bring its expertise in synthetic fuels and hydrogen to the JV.

(Gilles Guillaume and Marie Mannes, edited by Kate Entringer)

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