In 2024, Geely announced that it was setting out to restructure its vehicle businesses in a bid to reduce redundancy and enhance the competitiveness of its brands, and one of the major moves of the “One Geely” initiative was the consolidation of Zeekr and Lynk & Co, with the process being completed in February last year.
The idea behind the integration is of course to ensure a better management of resources and lower operating costs, with the ambition being to have the group’s brands working towards integrating their office operations to create a cohesive international business team and a unified sales company. Aside from Europe, specific market operations will eventually follow a “one market, one strategy” approach, tailoring rules and strategies to align with local consumer preferences and market characteristics.
The policy is now starting to make its way to global markets. In Thailand, the automaker has set up a company that will oversee certain business aspects for the three brands it has in the country, Autolifethailand reports. Prior to this, Geely, Zeekr and Riddara operated independent of each other, with the latter duo being run by the parent company in China, and the Geely business managed through appointed official importer and distributor Thonburi Neustern.
On January 1, 2026, Geely’s new company, managed directly from China, became the unifying point. While the business aspect with Thonburi Neustern will remain unchanged, the parent company will become more involved in Thailand, focusing on branding management, after-sales service and product launch plans in the country, the news report revealed.
As part of the move, Zeekr Thailand will have its name changed to Geely Auto Thailand sometime in the second half of this year, and it was stated that there will be less product positioning duplication in the future, with Geely set to sell vehicles priced below one million Baht, and Zeekr retailing vehicles priced above one million Baht. No plans have been revealed for Riddara at this point.
Aside from the confirmation that Lynk & Co will not enter the Thai market due to overlapping products with Zeekr, the automaker also indicated that it is mulling plans to set up a car assembly plant in the country.
“There are several options for investing in a car assembly plant in Thailand, including investment by the parent company or outsourcing assembly to a local plant. The final decision will depend on the government’s policies in attracting investment to entrepreneurs,” said Alex Bao, MD for Southeast Asia, Zeekr Thailand. As part of the new direction, Bao will become the MD and GM of Geely Auto Thailand, where he will be responsible for the Geely and Zeekr brands in the country.
The mention of a Geely assembly plant, which would also presumably include Zeekr in the picture should it take shape, in Thailand does raise the question – yet again – about Proton’s role in the grand scheme of things, in this case its role as the right-hand drive production hub for the region.
Back in 2017, which probably sounds like a lifetime away now, the automaker had indicated that Proton would be its RHD assembly arm for the region. Never mind Indonesia, but the likelihood of a RHD Geely facility coming up right next door does sound like that intention is well and truly buried.
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In the end, Malaysian will always pay more for p1 who cant even compete internationally
SMH. Geely should just come in directly and replace Protooooon.
Enough with the fake promises of growing P1. Just merge P1 and Geely and be done with the wayang show.
p1 caused this. It was never reported on mainstream news, but p1 staff were caught being lazy and under performing. In the end Geely had no choice but dropped their dependency on p1 being the sole manufacturer of RHD vehicles in this emerging region.
To Geely, Proton is always just a “btw” thing. It’s a mother-in-law (Proton) that demanded to comes into the household when Geely wanted to marry LOTUS (the daughter).
Mainland Southeast Asia business strategy differ from Maritime Southeast Asia KEK
So Proton lost the deal to export to Thailand?
Hope that one day their cars in Malaysia will be using the name of Geely.
PMX failed to protect our independence and he even sold proton to geely and sold ECRL to china, sorry my mistake that was done by a different PM
It happened during tenancy of Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Get your facts straight, at least.
PM Najib is the only PM ever to be convicted of corruption
Even the P1 can’t sell in Thai. That’s the reason