The Chinese owners of Volvo are reportedly planning to launch a new brand with models sharing their underpinnings with the Swedish models.
The first model of the new brand -which is codenamed ‘L’- is going to be a crossover based on the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) which was jointly developed by Geely and Volvo.
The report comes from Reuters, which says that Geely’s aim for the new ‘L’ brand is to compete with other Chinese-foreign ventures like GM-SAIC, allowing Volvo to focus on the premium part of the market and Geely in the more affordable segments.
The Chinese market is already seen as crowded, with presence from at least 12 foreign brands and more than 20 local car makers, many of them with multiple brands of their own.
In fact, this initiative is the opposite of what Geely said they would do two years ago, when they announced the elimination of three of their brands. According to sources, Geely will sell L-branded models through the company’s existing sales network, unlike what happened with previous brands.
The CMA platform has been previously reported as part of its plan to enter the European and US markets, once their new brand is well established in China.
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