Geely chairman Li Shufu starts satellite venture to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX
- The move makes Geely, owner of Volvo Cars, the first private company in China to build satellites
The Chinese owner of Volvo Cars announced it will become the country’s first private company to build satellites, as its billionaire chairman Li Shufu follows Elon Musk into space.
Li’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group started building a production-and-testing centre in Taizhou, a city in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, on Tuesday, the company said in a statement.
Hangzhou-based Geely plans to begin the launch of commercial low-orbit satellites by the end of this year, it said.
Li is betting his satellites will give Geely an edge in the burgeoning driverless car industry and provide more accurate navigation systems that can pinpoint locations by the centimetre, not metres.
The move also reflects the growing ambitions of one of the car industry’s most acquisitive tycoons – besides Volvo, Geely has bought Lotus Cars in Britain and become the biggest shareholder of Germany’s Daimler.
