China's Geely sets out to become a force in electric cars

The result: a flurry of tie-ups unveiled last month that lay bare Geely's intention to position itself as the go-to contract manufacturer for electric vehicles in China and beyond - assembly services that will also offer up its engineering and development expertise.

HANGZHOU, China/SHANGHAI: Like many others in his industry, Geely Chairman Li Shifu has been irked by skyrocketing valuations for electric car manufacturers such as Tesla Inc and Nio Inc, sources at the Chinese automaker say.

Getting Geely, which owns Volvo Cars and 9.7% of Daimler AG, to a place where it too may claim a sizeable chunk of China's burgeoning electric car market and burnish its share price at the same time, has preoccupied Li for much of the past year, they added.