Geely Radar electric ute firms for Oz

The road for the Geely Radar electric ute to make it to Australia could soon become smoother – thanks to Volvo.

The Geely-owned Swedish luxury brand wants to play a bigger role in Australia’s EV expansion, which could include new models from brands such as Lynk & Co and Geely itself as China’s giant Geely Auto group plans its Aussie assault.

Fresh from announcing its own plans to only sell electric vehicles Down Under from 2026, Volvo Car Australia also has an eye on expanding more affordable end of the booming EV market.

Speaking at the launch of the all-new Volvo C40 Recharge compact electric crossover, Volvo’s Australian managing director Stephen Connor said he would instigate talks with parent company Geely Auto in an attempt to act as the local sales agent and distributor for vehicles such as the Geely Radar RD6 in Australia.

“What I would love to do is talk to our key counterparts [at Geely] and say to them we will be the sales company,” said Connor, highlighting the Radar as one of the key vehicles that could work locally.

“What I would love to do is to talk to our Geely counterparts and say to them we will be the sales company for you, for Radar – that could be a possibility.”

The Geely brand has an expanding family that also included the Geometry M6 and Emgrand GSe EV, as well as PHEVs including the Coolray, Boyue L and Tugella.

But it’s the Radar RD6 that Connor believes could be a big success locally.

“If you could bring an electric ute into the marketplace looking like that, built by Geely, it would absolutely fly off the boat,” he said.

Connor argues that Volvo already has the infrastructure in place that could be transposed to another brand rather than having to utilise specialist independent importers such as Ateco (which distributes Maserati, RAM, LDV and Renault) and Inchcape (which imports Subaru, Peugeot and Citroen).

“If that’s what they want to bring to Australia then we can absolutely help with back-office functions,” said Connor.

“We can do training – it’s the same [vehicle] platform [as some Volvos]… we can do technical support, we could do sales support, I’d love to offer them that.”

And it’s not just Geely in the frame for Volvo Car Australia.

When asked about youth-focused Chinese brand Lynk & Co – which has confirmed it intends to launch in Australia by 2025 – Connor gave a similar response.

“We would offer them the same, we would start that conversation with them,” he said.

Lynk & Co already produces the 09 electric SUV and has the Tesla-rivalling Zero in the works, among an expanding EV family.

However, there’s a long way to go until any deal is struck, with Connor admitting no discussions had taken place to date and that the vision is “a personal thing, it’s not a company strategy”.

If his vision becomes reality, Connor suggested the Volvo and Geely entities would operate independently, in much the same way that Polestar has piggybacked off some of Volvo Car Australia’s processes and back-end services, despite the brands viewing each other as competitors.

“They’re [Geely and Lynk & Co] different companies. It’s no different how we work and interact with Polestar. We treat each other as competitors,” he said.

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