Geely Automobile

Geely Automobile (simplified Chinese: 吉利汽车; traditional Chinese: 吉利汽車; pinyin: Jí Lì Qì Chē) (SEHK: 0175) is a Chinese automaker and is the first independent automobile manufacturer in the People's Republic of China. The parent company is Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集团).

Early years

Geely started in 1986 as a manufacturer of refrigerators, then moved to manufacturing decoration materials in 1989, and by 1992, motorcycle parts. In 1994, Geely began manufacturing motorcycles. By 1996, Geely had produced over 200,000 motorcycles and scooters. Automobile production started in 1998. Geely began exporting its first cars in 2003. Geely had its IPO in 2004. Geely's chairman and founder, Li Shufu, wants to sell two-thirds of the company's output overseas, though he is noncommitted as to when that could happen. In a March 2005 forum held in Beijing, he was quoted as saying:

We must make cars like people from Wenzhou make [a quarter of the world's] lighters. But developing a car industry is like growing one tree slowly to cover a whole forest.

Li relinquished the CEO title to Yue Guisheng in February 2006 to comply with Hong Kong Stock Exchange regulations. He remains chairman.