Ford Motor and China’s Geely Auto have agreed to establish a manufacturing joint venture in Spain, utilizing Ford’s underutilized Valencia plant to produce five vehicle models starting in 2028, pending regulatory approval, the companies announced on Thursday, July 23, 2026.
Ownership Structure and Production Timeline in Valencia
Under the terms of the agreement, Ford will hold a 66% stake in the newly formed joint venture, while Geely will control the remaining 34%. The companies anticipate that the venture will begin operations during the first half of 2027, setting the stage for full vehicle production to commence in 2028, according to CNBC. Until those production lines go live, the Valencia facility will continue manufacturing the Ford Kuga, according to a news release.
The partnership brings together five distinct vehicles to be built at the Almussafes plant. These include a new electric crossover for Ford, in addition to a new member of the Bronco family, plus two electric Geely SUVs, with production starting in 2028, the companies said. The first Geely electric SUV to be made in Valencia is the EX5, which is already being sold in Europe.
Economic Pressures and Plant Capacity Utilization
The joint venture arrives as legacy automakers such as Ford attempt to compete with Chinese carmakers that have quickly been expanding into new markets outside of China, a trend that follows months of reported talks between the two sides, as Reuters reported in February. Executives said that a long relationship dating back to Geely’s purchase of Volvo Cars from Ford in 2010 had helped those talks.
Multi-energy cars would be assembled at a factory in Almussafes, near Valencia, after the two companies set up a venture, with deliveries expected to begin in 2028, according to a statement by Geely on Thursday.
We have the ability to really load up the facility,
Ford’s European head Jim Baumbick told Reuters. That’s the goal.
Baumbick also confirmed this Thursday the alianza estratégica
with the giant Geely to produce jointly from the Valencian plant of Almussafes. In the presence of Geely Executive Vice President Victor Yang, both announced the creation, starting in 2027, of a joint venture to optimize the capacities of the factory and be able to produce five vehicles from there starting in 2028. Despite the strong entry of Geely into the new joint venture, Baumbick insisted: No vendemos activos individuales, invertimos en capacidad de fabricación.
Rising Chinese automakers race to use traditional carmakers’ underutilized factories and get ahead of European local-content rules.
Localization Strategy and Regulatory Pressures in Europe
Such cooperation with an automaker like Geely would likely not be possible in Ford’s home market, where a US Senate committee on Wednesday approved legislation to toughen a ban on Chinese automakers entering the US. Meanwhile, the global footprint of Geely’s brands continues to expand, with Geely Holding Group’s Lotus brand electric vehicles arriving in Canada next month under an agreement between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as China’s ambassador to Canada Wang Di told Reuters on Friday.
Geely EVs will be arriving in Canada next month and they will be holding a ceremony when the cars are delivered in Montreal,
Wang said, noting they will be the first Chinese-owned and manufactured vehicles for sale under an agreement allowing up to 49,000 Chinese EVs to enter Canada annually at a reduced tariff rate.
Sources: cnbc.com.
