The car in question is expected to be a European version of the Geely EX2, sold in China as the Xingyuan,which is offered in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric configurations. Almussafes was once Ford\u2019s largest plant outside the US, with an annual capacity of up to 450,000 vehicles, but has been running well below a quarter of that since older models like the Mondeo and Galaxy were discontinued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ford has separately proposed laying off 1,622 workers at the site; whether these plans remain under discussion, having found use for some of its spare capacity, remains to be seen. The two automakers already have a well-established history: Geely bought Volvo Cars from Ford sixteen years ago. The move was among the first substantial acquisitions of a Western automotive brand by a Chinese automaker, although SAIC was arguably the first mover when it scooped up MG in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Geely, the gains are clear. Building locally lets it classify the cars as EU-made, dodging countervailing tariffs of 18.1% on top of the standard 10% import duty on Chinese-built electric vehicles (EVs), while reaching market years faster than a greenfield plant would allow. Establishing more European manufacturing presence\u2014granted, it also operates two plants in Sweden and Belgium via Volvo Cars\u2014would presumably also give it greater protection against likely-upcoming \u2018Made in Europe\u2019 content requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/geely-xingyuan.jpg\")
Geely is expected to produce the X2, also known as the Xingyuan, on the Spanish line<\/p>\n
To be sure, Ford\u2019s gains are just as direct: an idle line is a drain rather than an asset, and leasing it to Geely turns a restructuring cost into revenue while opening a route to co-developing cheaper hybrid and EV models using Geely\u2019s GEA architecture. Ford, and particularly its Chief Executive Jim Farley, has a long history of both sounding the alarm on Chinese competition, while also extolling the benefits of partnering with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Separate reporting emerged the same month the Ford-Geely tie-up first broke, indicating that the former also wanted to establish<\/a> a US joint venture with Xiaomi for EV development and production. Both parties vehemently denied this reporting and nothing has emerged in the intervening time.<\/p>\n The deal fits a wider pattern of Chinese automakers choosing to buy their way into existing European capacity\u2014particularly in Spain\u2014rather than outright building fresh plants, precisely because brownfield sites arrive with grid connections, permits and labour already in place. Chery and Spanish brand Ebro have already revived<\/a> a former Nissan factory in Barcelona that now employs more than 1,500 people; BAIC is preparing to build off-road vehicles under the Santana name in Andalusia; and Stellantis and CATL are building a \u20ac4.1bn (US$4.7bn) battery plant in Zaragoza due to open in 2028. Spain, lacking a domestic mass-market carmaker of its own, has positioned itself as the most willing host for this wave.<\/p>\n The same logic is now playing out with Geely\u2019s rivals: BYD is close to choosing a second European plant, weighing<\/a> Stellantis sites in Spain and France as it ramps production in Hungary and its Turkish project remains on hold. Meanwhile, Xpeng was, as of May, in talks<\/a> with Volkswagen over acquiring a factory outright, having outgrown its contract manufacturing deal with Magna Steyr in Graz, though its reliance on large-scale die-casting means it may still find building from scratch easier than retrofitting a legacy plant designed for combustion engines.<\/p>\n What the Almussafes deal really confirms is a change in Ford\u2019s role rather than just a change in ownership of one assembly line. Ford is not merely tolerating a Chinese rival\u2019s expansion into Europe; it is actively sharing its capacity with one, because an idle factory has become more valuable as someone else\u2019s asset than as its own. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ford’s willingness to host Geely reveals that excess European capacity is now a bargaining chip, not just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24158,10118,14001,17,16686],"class_list":["post-59443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-ford-motor-company","tag-geely","tag-intelligence","tag-spain","tag-stewart-burnett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}