Renault creates its thermal engine joint venture with the Chinese company Geely

Renault and the Chinese giant Geely announced on Friday the official launch of their joint venture dedicated to thermal engines, Horse.

Following approval from the “competent authorities”, the partners announced, in a press release, the creation of “Horse Powertrain Limited”, whose headquarters are located in London, United Kingdom, and of which they each own 50%.

Horse will design, produce and sell engines, transmissions or batteries for thermal and hybrid cars, which still account for almost all sales outside Europe and China.

The general management of Horse has been entrusted to Matías Giannini, former member of the Continental group, while the presidency of the Board of Directors is carried out by Daniel Li, general director of Geely Holding.

Horse has around 19,000 employees in 17 production centers and 5 research centers, with an expected annual turnover of 15 billion euros. Renault and Geely transferred the intellectual property of their engines to it.

With this project, the Renault Group (106,000 employees) and Geely (130,000 employees) will benefit from an immediate effect of scale and better market coverage,” the partners underline.

Nissan Horse Customer

This partnership follows the collapse of the Renault Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi. Now each one works on their own projects, sharing technologies or building vehicles for others, case by case. And Nissan and Mitsubishi are among Horse’s first customers.

For Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault, “this partnership with a leading company like Geely will allow us to create a new player with the capabilities, know-how and knowledge necessary to develop technologies in thermal engines with very low emissions and very economical. . hybrids, essential for the future”.

The company also plans to focus on alternative fuels such as green methanol, ethanol and hydrogen.

At the same time, Renault is developing in the electrical sector through its subsidiary Ampere and its Renault and Alpine brands, while Geely has brands and joint ventures such as Volvo, Zeekr, Smart, Polestar and Lotus.