English: Place: Liping, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province

Chinese name: 吉利帝豪GS (jílì dìháo GS) Year of launch: 2016

Today Geely is China's largest independent carmaker and one of the most well-known since it took control over Swedish carmaker Volvo in 2010. With recent launches including the Borui, Boyue, Emgrand GS and Emgrand GL, not to mention the 'premium' Lynk & Co 01 and 03 models, and after buying a controlling stake in Proton and Lotus, Geely shows it is the Chinese carmaker to watch. Geely was founded by Li Shifu in 1986 as a refrigerator maker with money borrowed from family and car production started in 1998. In 2013 Li Shifu was the 63rd richest person in mainland China.

Geely Automobile started in 1998 with copies of the popular Xiali by Tianjin-FAW, a licensed copy of the Daihatsu Charade G100.

A new era started in late 2014 (market launch: April 2015) when Geely launched the Borui, styled by former Volvo-designer Peter Horbury. Sales are surprisingly good for a big sedan in a market where demand for sedans has flagged significantly in favour of SUVs. It sold 32,562 units in 2015 and 51,828 units in 2016. Since the launch of the Borui, Geely launched three other all-new models: the Boyue SUV, Emgrand GL compact midsize sedan and my personal favourite, the Emgrand GS, a crossover-ish hatchback. Sales of Geely have revived in the last few years and currently it's the second best-selling and one of the fastest growing brands on the Chinese market.

Source: carsalesbase.com/china-car-sales-data/geely/geely-emgrand...