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GEELY - The Biggest Car Company You've Never Heard Of | Up To Speed - YouTube
Channel: Donut Media
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- Would it surprise you if I told you
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that you've never heard
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of one of the biggest car
companies in the world?
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(car engine revs)
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I'm talking about Geely.
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Now the badge might be only 30 years old,
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but in that time,
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they managed to sell millions of cars.
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Win an FIA manufactures cup
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and set a lap record at the Nurburgring.
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But how in the world,
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did they go from making
junky cars in the 90s
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to buying Volvo?
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And what made their founders so mad,
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that he drove a steamroller
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over an entire lot of cars?
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Hold on your sweaty bums
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cause we're about to find out.
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This is everything you need to know
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to get up to speed on Geely.
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(upbeat music)
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Chapter One, the legend of Lee.
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It all started back in 1963,
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in a small Chinese
village called Zhejiang.
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I'm gonna say a lot of words wrong here.
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I'm gonna do my best,
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but a lot of these are going
to be pronounced wrong.
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It all started back in 1963,
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in a small Chinese
village called Zhejiang.
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Where a young boy was born
by the name of Li Shufu.
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Li was an ambitious kid,
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and often said outrageous
things to make people laugh.
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Kinda like me.
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I can relate.
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Li would ride his bike around town,
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you know, normal kids stuff,
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take portraits of people
and sell them for money.
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Normal,it was a valuable first business
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for a young entrepreneur.
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And after that, he took up
recycling precious metals,
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which proved to be more
successful than photography.
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And by 1986, he was doing
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what most of us were
doing in our early 20s.
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Selling our hugely successful
metal recycling business,
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to start a refrigerator company.
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This man knows how to
make a more money baby.
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But by the end of the 80s,
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Li was bored with the
refrigerator business
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and donated it to the local government.
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You know, like you do.
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Sure he was making money but
he wanted something knew,
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something less competitive.
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He wanted a market he
could really scale up.
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I'm talking about the car market.
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Carbide you're factoring,
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is one of the most
competitive markets out there.
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Yeah, maybe in the US or Europe,
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but in the 90s, In China,
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the market was just starting up.
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A few foreign badges have been
able to sell cars in China,
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but there were no privately
owned car companies.
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The Chinese government owned
all of them at this point.
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They sold models that were designed,
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manufactured in China,
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but they also sold re badged foreign cars,
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which were considered exotics.
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And by exotics I mean,
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like second gen Passats.
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Which sold in China for 29 years,
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that's longer than Nolan's whole life.
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Needless to say many people thought,
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Li was riding the cuckoo train crazy Berg.
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He even went to a manufacturer
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who provided parts for
Shanghai Volkswagen.
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And was hoping to sign a contract,
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but when the man in
charge heard Lee's plan,
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the dude literally left the
room without saying a word.
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He ghosted him in person.
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That's cold man, that's ice cold.
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Now despite the overwhelming
odds against him,
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he remained undeterred
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and felt confident in his
ability to design a car.
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Li said, "cars are just
two couches on four wheels,
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"How hard can it be?"
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That is a literal quote from the dude,
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I wanna put that on a shirt.
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Cars are just two
couches with four wheels.
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Have truer words ever been smoking?
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I don't know.
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But since cars are proving difficult,
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Li went to the next best thing.
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He bought an old motorcycle factory,
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that was on the brink of bankruptcy
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and started producing his own motorcycles.
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Making it the first privately owned
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motorcycle company ever
in China's whole history.
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And China has a lot of history.
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I think there's a restaurant in China,
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that was established in the year four,
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I'm not making that up.
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The Year four.
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He named the company Geely,
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which roughly translates to propitious,
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which roughly translates to
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indicating a good chance of success.
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So propitious,now the
Avengers endgame here
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was not to keep making motorcycles
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but to produce the
opposite of a motorcycle.
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I'm talking about a luxury sedan.
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There's a problem though.
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No one in the factory
knew how to make one.
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So Li bought a Mercedes E 280,
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and started taking it apart.
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He studied and reassembled
it piece by piece,
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to fully understand the
precision of its engineering.
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Then he bought a different car a home key.
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To provide a chassi and
engine for his prototype.
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Creatively named Geeley number one,
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this car, how do you say?
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Um,
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was not very good.
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It looked bad, drove bad,
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broke down a bunch.
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And Li quickly realized
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that building a luxury
car, for his first car,
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might not have been the
least ambitious idea.
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So, Li turn his focused to making cars,
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that everyday Chinese
citizens could afford.
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I mean, just simply owning a car
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was seen as a luxury in China at the time
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and even the cheapest cars on the market.
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I'm talking Suzuki
altos Daihatsu Chirades,
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rap worths of $13,000.
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That's 24 K, in today's money.
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Li wanted to make these hatchbacks better,
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but more importantly,
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he wanted to sell them cheaper.
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So, like the Mercedes E 280.
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He bought a few Chirades,
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and took them apart piece by piece,
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and began to make them his own.
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Chapter two, a crushing defeat.
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On August 8 1998.
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The very first production Geely
model rolled off the line,
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the Haoqing which translates to ambition,
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featuring a 1.8 liter Toyota four banger,
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the same engine as the Chirade.
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It only made 83 teenage horsepowers.
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But for such a small hatch.
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It was pretty pretty pretty.
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Pretty good.
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Unfortunately, though.
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Pretty good.
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Didn't matter because no one bought them.
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Okay, they looked exactly
like that's of Chirades
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except the build quality was worse.
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The interior was full of hard plastic.
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The paint was terrible,
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and there were huge gaps in the panels,
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which let water into the cab.
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We had a huge premiere party
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and only one person showed up.
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He got so mad ,that he took a steamroller
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and drove over all 100
cars that he's made.
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That is a true story.
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That is some Enzo Ferrari type stuff.
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Down and out, but not down for the count.
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Li did what all of us would do.
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The dude started making
buses under the name Boeing.
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That's until the Boeing
called him and was like,
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hey man, you can't do that.
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So he quickly went back
to the name, Geely,
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and while going back,
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Li would turn to the drawing board,
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determined to make his dream.
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The Haoqing, finally a success.
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Debuting in 1999.
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The much improved new
Haoqing started selling.
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They're infinitely more reliable
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than the first generation
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and provided cheap means of
transportation to people,
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who in the past couldn't afford,
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a cheap means of transportation.
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Geely started turning a profit
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and before long,
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they bought a second factory
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and started producing a new model,
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the Meir which translates to
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♪Beautiful day ♪
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I don't like you too.
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Geely like you too,
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you are allowed to like him but I don't.
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Up until this point Geely,
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had been operating in a
gray area of Chinese law.
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Okay, they weren't fully allowed
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to produce cars as a private company.
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But everything changed in 2001.
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Six years after Post Malone was born
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when China joined the
World Trade Organization.
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Geely was now a fully
privately owned company.
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But during this time, Geely
got to work on building
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the first self developed sports car,
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in Chinese automotive history.
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It was called (foreign language)
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Which translates to
auspicious beauty Leopard.
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And a 1.5 liter Toyota Motor
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and a five speed manual gearbox,
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which seems like it could be a decent car.
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But again, it didn't matter.
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Toyota who'd been supplying Geely,
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decided to double the retail price
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of their engines making
it financially impossible
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to continue with the
develop of their sports car.
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So left with no other choice.
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Geely began developing
an engine of their own.
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Something similar to
the four cylinder design
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of the Toyota Effie.
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These little Geely econo boxes,
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sold like frickin hotcakes.
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And over the next decade,
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Geely became a ubiquitous brand.
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They were selling 140,000
cars a year and in 2009,
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Ford announced that they were selling
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the Volvo brand to Geely
for $1.5 billion with a b.
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This was huge news.
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A company that 10 years before
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couldn't even sell one car.
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Was now buying one of the
most recognizable car brands
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in the world.
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Yeah, it's Seems like a bunch of luck,
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but what if I told you Li
had planned this all out
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from the very start?
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Chapter three, Sweden the deal.
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$1.5 billion hairs for a
legacy car company Volvo.
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and in truly fashion he let Volvo remain
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pretty much independent.
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And allow them to continue designing
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and producing their own
cars with minimal oversight.
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Sure, it would have
been more cost efficient
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to produce baubles in China,
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but Li kept the factories
in Sweden and Belgium open.
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Appeasing the homeys at Volvo,
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and all of their unions.
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In 2010,the deal is finalized
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and Geely started using Volvo technology
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to make their own cars much, much better.
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Not only were they able to upgrade
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the existing Gili econo boxes,
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but Li was finally able to
achieve his lifelong goal,
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of developing luxury cars,
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and it couldn't have
come in a better time.
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Chinese citizens were becoming wealthier.
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They wanted an affordable luxury car,
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that could give them as
the kids say, "clout."
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In 2015 Geely debute the Bo Rui.
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This large family sedan was
a cancelled Volvo concept
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that found new life with Geely.
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It features different trim levels
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and engine options
including a 1.8 liter turbo,
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3.5 liter V six and a hybrid engine
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capable of 261 horsepowers.
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I know that's not sports car territory,
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but as we've learned time and time again,
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it didn't matter,
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because Geely was,
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about to launch an all new
brand dedicated entirely
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to sports cars.
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Chapter four, a lynk to the future.
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In 2016, Geely launched Lynk & Co
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using the CMA platform designed by Volvo.
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They developed a front wheel drive 03,
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named after the year that I
graduated from high school.
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This feisty little compact comes with
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a few power training transmission options,
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including a two liter turbo ,
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four cylinder,
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makes 190 horsepowers
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but the hot version.
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The 03 plus, comes with a 254 horsepower.
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Turbocharged inline four
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made into a seven speed dual clutch
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with them fuckin paddle shifty boys.
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Geely wanted to prove
their sports car brand,
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on a global scale.
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So they entered an 03 into a race
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that Volvo was known for win.
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The touring Car championships.
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Using Volvo's connections,
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Geely contacted a race team,
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that have been working
with the Swedes since 2003.
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Cyan Racing, you may know them
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by what they used to be called,
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Polestar.
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(upbeat music)
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A little history on science.
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They want a bunch of
touring car championships
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in the late 90s through the early 2000s,
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with some of the sickest Volvo's ever.
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A super touring 850 and an S 40.
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Both with five cylinder motors
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which are right up there
with my personal face.
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And starting in 2018.
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They use the Lynk & Co
03 as their platform.
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The Cyan racing 03 TCR
makes 350 horsepowers
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And help Cyan win.
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The WTCR manufacturers cup in 2019.
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Making the first Chinese company
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to win an FIA sanctioned race.
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And in early 2019 Volvo
performance division,
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started working on a 528 horsepower
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per road car concept of the lynk 03.
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And I just wanna point out that,that
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this is an almost 600
horsepower four cylinder motor.
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Impressive, pretty impressive.
[750]
Now, it was this car driven by
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team driver Thed Bjork,
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which is a sick name.
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I don't even know Thed was a name.
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Well, all Thed did a lap
[759]
at the Nurburgring.
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In an insane seven minutes and 20 seconds.
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It broke both the lap record
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for fastest front wheel drive car
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and the Ford or production vehicle record.
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That's frickin nuts.
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And that's why we did this episode.
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You guys need to know who these guys are
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because their future is fast.
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We learned a lot researching this episode.
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I was fortunate after making new friend
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and talk to him.
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Shout to Lulu.
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- More power baby.
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- More power baby.
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- More power baby.
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- I think you're better.
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If you wanna learn more
about Chinese car culture,
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check out this episode of wheelhouse.
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I love you
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