Who made the fastest rise in the world automotive industry in the last 10 years? Answer: Li Shufu, nicknamed 'Chinese Henry Ford'

Staying in the USA for many years and learning automotive, the young Chinese name later returned to China and founded Geely, the country's first private automotive company, in 1986. Let's also mention that he founded Geely at the age of 23 to produce refrigerators. Geely entered the automobile business in 1997. Geely Automobile is the first private venture to be certified as an automaker in China. The company is China's largest private automotive company. Geely's main products are; automobiles, motorcycles, engines, and transmissions. Geely has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2004.

The founder of the company, Li Shufu, has carried out many operations to bring his company to the present. After graduating from high school in 1982, he bought a camera and started making money taking pictures of people. His business went so well that he opened a photography studio. In 1984, he saw that the production of refrigerator parts was a very valuable business. He closed the studio and went into the refrigerator business. In 1991, Li Shufu had the idea of ​​making a car.

In 1992, it started to produce scooters, motorcycles and accessories under the name of Geely. In 1994, it became a leader in the production of scooters. Total sales volume reached 60,000 units in 1995 and 200,000 units in 1996. In May 1996, Geely Group Co.Ltd. was established and the automobile breakthrough began. Li Shufu loves Mercedes cars and wants to build a Chinese Mercedes. That's why Mercedes takes apart a car and redesigns it by adding or removing parts according to their wishes. But he can never start the car because of the sanctions in China. In 1997, he entered the automotive industry, this time with the conditions approved by the Chinese bureaucracy.

Fast-paced Geely bought Volvo from Ford for $1.8 billion in 2010. With the acquisition of Volvo, the cars produced by Geely began to develop. The new infrastructure, technology and designs developed for Volvo started to support Geely as well.

Shufu, which later bought a $3.3 billion stake in truck manufacturer AB Volvo, acquired a majority stake in sports car manufacturer Lotus and a 49.9 percent stake in Malaysian Proton, respectively. Shufu also owns LEVC, England's iconic black cab car manufacturer.

Shufu made a big surprise in the sector by buying 10 percent of German Daimler's shares for 9 billion dollars in February 2018. Allegedly, Geely's budget for acquisitions in 2017 exceeded $12.5 billion. Li Shufu also met with Fiat's Agnelli family and heir John Elkan in 2017 and offered $22 billion for FCA. But Fiat found this too low and the negotiations were cut off.