Could Mercedes and Geely deepen their partnership after all?

This is the claim made by Bloomberg, citing several people familiar with the matter. The discussions reportedly focus on a potential collaboration for future models “coming after Mercedes’s current generation of electric vehicles.” However, these are described as ‘early talks’, and their outcome remains uncertain. The discussions could still collapse and result in no deeper cooperation.

Geely is already a shareholder of Mercedes-Benz, and the two companies jointly operate the Smart brand – though Geely now leads the partnership and is responsible for technology and production. So far, however, there has been no technical collaboration, meaning no Geely technology is currently used in Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

According to the Bloomberg report, deeper involvement from Geely could help Mercedes shorten development times and reduce costs in China. Local brands there typically enjoy advantages in cost efficiency (and thus pricing) as well as faster innovation cycles.

A Mercedes spokesperson told the news agency that the company is “is continually reviewing ways to make research and development faster, better and more efficient — both in China and globally.” However, the spokesperson once again denied discussions about shared platform usage – in early March, the Asian automotive and battery industry news portal 36kr, usually well-informed, reported that Mercedes-Benz was planning a new battery-electric vehicle platform based on a Geely architecture. The global architecture for compact electric cars was said to have the codename ‘Phoenix’, according to the report. Mercedes dismissed this information as ‘fabricated and untrue’.

A Geely spokesperson declined to comment on the recent Bloomberg report.

According to one insider, there are regular discussions between Mercedes and Geely’s top management. However, it remains unconfirmed whether these talks are solely about the existing Smart collaboration or potential further partnerships. That said, Mercedes would not be alone in seeking closer ties with China: last week, Bloomberg also reported that Stellantis is exploring collaborations with Chinese manufacturers for its European brands – specifically naming Xpeng and Xiaomi.

bloomberg.com (Paywall)