Renault Will Develop New SUV Using Geely Platform, Southeast Asian Market Target To Latin America

Renault at Brussels Motor Show January 2025 introduced a prototype Renault Twingo electric. (Photo: Renault)

JAKARTA - One of the oldest car manufacturers in the world to have been established since 1898, Renault will develop a series of New Energy Vehicle (NEV) cars by utilizing Geely's advanced GEA platform, the model will later realize the Southeast Asia to Latin America market.

Quoting from the Carnewschina page, Wednesday, August 13, this collaboration marks a step forward for both automakers, and has the potential to be Geely's GEA platform's first external supply.

The new car model that Renault will be presenting will be available in the BEV and PHEV versions. Later the intended segment, namely the SUV, which is now increasingly in demand.

Reports from China's local media AutoPix, reveal Renault will develop its body independently, the architecture and chassis of vehicles as a whole will largely adopt the existing design of Geely's Galaxy brand, with the aim of reducing costs and accelerating development cycles.

The move underscores the increasingly close partnership between Renault and Geely, especially in the fast-growing overseas NEV market.

Previously, Geely's collaboration with brands such as Volvo, Smart, Polestar, and Jiyue was based on the CMA platform. The GEA platform is Geely's newest core architecture, which currently supports most of the models in the fast-growing Galaxy brand, including the newly launched Geely Galaxy A7.

Sources quoted by AutoPix show that although Renault's focus in Europe remains on small electric vehicles, the new SUV Geely developed will target other major Renault markets such as South Korea, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North Africa.

Renault has a strong brand and established dealer network in these areas, the resources Geely wants to exploit through this partnership.

The collaboration between Geely and Renault begins at the end of 2021. In 2022, Renault's factory in Korea confirmed it would produce a hybrid version of Koleos based on the CMA Geely platform, which was launched in 2024.

Since its launch in September last year, a model called Grand Koleos has earned more than 7,000 orders in just 15 days.

Thanks to the launch of Grand Koleos, according to data from Ofweek, Renault Korea's sales in June reached 5,013 units, an increase of 145.6 percent compared to the same period last year.