13^th March 2018, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Geely Auto is ranked 18^th in Brand Finance’s 2018 report on the world’s most valuable automobile, auto component and tyre brands. The company rose by four spots from last year and is one of only two Chinese brands listed in the top 20.

Commenting on the report, David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said “The Chinese brands have achieved strong brand value growth thanks to their success in the domestic mass market, which is now the world’s largest. These home-grown brands will now look beyond their borders and are expected to acquire Western brands to leverage on their brand strength internationally.”

“These acquisitions and partnerships will also allow them to use their Chinese-focused brands to innovate low cost vehicles for their large local market. This is evident in recent weeks when Geely purchase a 9.7% stake in Daimler and seeks to work on electric cars with the German conglomerate,” he added.

Geely Auto’s strong growth came on the strength of the brand’s third generation models, all of which have become benchmark products in their respective segments. The brand’s valuation rose by 62% to US$6.0 billion, with a record annual sales increase of 63% to 1.247 million units in 2017. For 2018, Geely has set their annual sales volume target to 1.58 million units and under their “20200 Strategy,” Geely aims to reach 2 million units in annual sales by the year 2020.

Brand Finance is the world’s leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy. The brand values are calculated in league tables using the Royalty Relief approach, which is a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. This involves estimating the likely future revenues attributable to a brand and will hence determine the net economic benefit that a licensor would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.