Overview
- Ford will formalise a deal to transfer the idle Body 3 assembly hall at its Almussafes plant to Geely, with a corporate announcement by Jim Baumbick and a plant event that includes Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez scheduled for Thursday.
- Assembling cars in the EU would let Geely treat the vehicles as locally made and avoid the additional China-origin battery‑EV duties that the European Commission imposed in 2024.
- Body 3 has been idle since 2023, is highly automated and has widely reported annual capacity estimates between roughly 300,000 and 400,000 cars, though final production and staffing plans have not been disclosed.
- Trade reporting says the model likely to be built is a compact EV sold in Europe as the E2/EX2 with about an 85 kW motor and a ~40 kWh LFP battery, but the vehicle and its production timetable remain unconfirmed by the companies.
- The deal follows months of talks and builds on Ford and Geely’s prior commercial history; it reflects a wider trend of Chinese automakers using underused European plants, especially in Spain, to speed market access and avoid import levies.