Renault and Geely Plan Car Production JV in BrazilRenault and Geely Plan Car Production JV in Brazil

Renault plans to announce an agreement with Chinese auto giant Geely to expand the pair’s commercial collaboration to include the car market in Brazil.

The automakers already run an internal-combustion-engine joint venture in South Korea, set up in 2024, and are selling cars produced at the venture’s factory.

Now they hope to expand their vehicle production partnership into Brazil and are working on a preliminary deal that they aim to outline later this month, industry sources are telling Reuters news agency.

Renault already owns an extensive dealer network in Brazil and Geely could use the infrastructure to assemble and market its own branded, China-made knocked-down vehicle kits in the country as early as this year.

Geely’s JV with Renault in Korea currently focuses on a single Renault-branded model, the Grand Koleos, built on Geely's platform and manufactured in a Renault-controlled plant in Busan.

The new deal would see Geely taking a minority stake in Renault’s Brazilian subsidiary using its Curitiba plant to assemble vehicles there.

The move would help take up production capacity slack at the plant and help the French automaker reduce its reliance on its domestic European market.

The potential deal also would help expand Geely’s export reach beyond Europe to offset the effect of European Union tariffs and fierce price wars among rival manufacturers in its home Chinese market.

Sources say technical details of JV in Brazil are still being considered and Geely could set up its multi-energy platform in the Renault plant to manufacture gasoline, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. Neither Renault nor Geely have commented on the claims.