Chinese Electric Trucks to Go on Sale in Korea Next Year

Geely, China's No. 1 car brand, will make a foray into the Korean electric vehicle (EV) market. The automaker plans to target the Korean market with one-ton small and 2.5-ton medium-sized electric trucks loaded with Korean batteries.

Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group, a subsidiary of Geely Holding, signed an agreement has signed an agreement with POSCO International and IT Engineering on sales of Geely electric trucks in the Korean market. These companies have agreed to jointly introduce Geely electric trucks to Korea and promote sales of the vehicles in overseas markets such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

Geely will provide the "e200" electric trucks series already sold in China, and IT Engineering will be in charge of improving them to obtain their Korean certificates. POSCO International officially imports and sells the e200 series in Korea. Afterwards, they will expand their markets to Southeast Asia and Africa by making good use of their well-organized overseas networks.

They will sell two types of electric trucks in Korea – one-ton and 2.5-ton electric trucks. About 140,000 one-ton trucks are sold a year in Korea and the Hyundai Porter and the Kia Bongo are dominating one-ton truck models in the market. The market for 2.5-ton trucks including 3.5-ton trucks is 10,000 units per year in Korea.

The participating companies in the agreement have judged Geely electric trucks competitive enough in Korea. Chinese automakers’ electric car technology has risen to the world-class level so their products feature strong price competitiveness through mass production backed by their big domestic market. In addition, if Geely electric trucks pass Korean certification tests, which are at the world's highest level in all aspects such as safety, quality and environmental effects, they can be sold well in Southeast Asia and Africa as well. In this case, POSCO International in charge of importing Geely electric trucks to Korea will use its global network to take the initiative in exporting them.

The pace of Chinese car brands' penetration of the Korean market has been accelerating recently. In the Gunsan Electric Vehicle Cluster in Korea in October, a Korean company began to make 50,000 electric vehicles for Future Mobility, a Chinese electric vehicle company invested in by Tencent through an entrusted production deal. In addition to enjoying the effects of entering the Korean electric car market, Chinese carmakers took advantage of the fact that cars produced in Korea are free from U.S. and European tariffs thanks to the Korea-US and Korea-EU Free Trade Agreements. Beijing Automobiles which already entered the Korea market is also brooding over when to launch their EV models in Korea.