Geely already has ties to America through Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus. Volvo’s Charleston factory could likely build far more vehicles locally. Industry experts see Zeekr as Geely’s most probable US entry point. It’s getting increasingly harder to ignore the fact that China is making some decent machinery now. Ford CEO Jim Farley famously drove a Chinese EV for six months and acknowledged that Chinese EV technology, quality, and costs are “far superior” to Western automakers. He also resolved to keep them out of the United States due to the massive competitive threat they posed. Read: BYD Got In America Through The Back Door, Now It Wants The Front One Too But just because you don’t see any big Chinese auto names dominating dealerships doesn’t mean that they aren’t present in the US in some capacity. Dig deeper under the surface, and you’ll find that BYD, CATL, and more have already established themselves in some capacity. And that includes Geely, which has an ownership stake in Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus, with smaller stakes in Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin. The Ownership Tentacles Run Deep Starting with everyone’s favorite makers of Swedish-aesthetic cars, Volvo, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (to give it its full name) holds a controlling interest in Volvo Cars, with about 80%, reports CNBC. Volvo has a factory in the United States, located near Charleston, South Carolina. This ostensibly gives them potential factory capacity in the United States for local production if required in the future, especially as the Charleston factory is is currently operating at less than 20% of its total capacity of 150,000 cars per year. Naturally, Volvo wants to increase its US-market footprint first, but manufacturing Chinese vehicles in that plant has not been ruled out by Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson, reports CNBC. And let’s not forget the extensive Volvo and Polestar dealer and service center network across the country, once again a useful piece of infrastructure for a potential entry by Geely. Then there’s Lotus. While it is a niche rather than volume seller, it has over forty sales and service centers around the US. These could also be leveraged for Geely model sales in the future. Zeekr On The Horizon? Geely, the holding company, also has Geely Auto, which, in addition to selling cars under its own name, has two other brands: Zeekr and Lynk & Co. Analysts seem to agree that the most likely fresh entry into the US for Geely would be made through Zeekr. Zeekr bills itself as a luxury brand and is already present in the US, albeit in a small capacity: Waymo recently started using its self-driving autonomous Ojai vehicles as taxis. Outside the US, Zeekr is already present in Western Europe, Australia, and Asia, where it offers a range of luxury electric cars, SUVs, and even MPVs that may resonate well with American buyers. And despite bipartisan support for keeping Chinese cars out of the US, President Trump has previously indicated he’d welcome Chinese manufacturers to set up shop in the US, provided they employ American labor.