THE RETURN OF GEELY

Geely cars were being sold in the Philippines a few years after 2011, but the business did not last long. Now it is making a comeback via Sojitz Corporation, which acquired the Philippine distributorship of Chinese carmaker Geely Auto in July 2019.

Geely Auto is part of the Zheijang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) which is listed on the Fortune Global 500, and has under its wing Volvo and Polestar, Lotus, Proton and London Cab, among other brands. In 2018, ZGH sold over 2.15 million cars globally.

Sojitz Corp. has been active in the PH auto industry since the 1960s, with local distributorships such as Fuso trucks and a number of distributorships worldwide. The Yuchengco Group has been a business partner of Sofitz for the last 50 years, and will also invest in the new Geely distributorship.

On September 25, 2019, Sofitz G Auto Philippines (SGAP) relaunched the Geely brand at glittering ceremonies at the Grand Hyatt in Bonifacio Global City.

At the same time, SGAP introduced the Geely Coolray compact crossover as its first offering. The turbocharged, 174 hp Coolray has Level 2 and Level 3 Autonomous Driving technology, and major components developed in partnership with Volvo, such as the BMA platform. Its SRP starts at P978,000.