One Chinese owner

Which one surprised you?

How much Geely and its founder Li Shufu hold: • Volvo Cars (Sweden): 78.9%. Geely bought it from Ford in 2010. • Polestar (Sweden): 60.5%, counting Li Shufu's own companies (SEC filing, Sep 2026). • Lotus (UK): about 53% of Lotus Technology. • Aston Martin (UK): about 14%. • Mercedes-Benz (Germany): 9.69%, held by Li Shufu personally.

Also: smart is a 50/50 joint venture between Geely and Mercedes. And another Chinese carmaker, BAIC, holds 9.98% of Mercedes. So two Chinese holders together own almost a fifth of it.

The man in the middle: Li Shufu owns 82.2% of Geely's parent company.

The catch: a stake is not control. Mercedes and Aston Martin run themselves; Geely is one big shareholder among several. Volvo, Polestar and Lotus are the ones Geely really controls.

You can't buy Geely's parent; it is private. The listed pieces are Geely Automobile (0175.HK), Volvo Cars, Polestar, Lotus Technology and Aston Martin.