The pickup truck business of Geely, China's largest private automaker, will be transformed into a premium, electric brand.

(Image credit: Geely)

Geely, China's largest private automaker, will transform its pickup business into a premium, electric brand aimed at rivaling US electric vehicle maker Rivian, local media cls.cn reported today.

Geely will release an all-electric pickup product in the second half of next year, with a high-end product to follow soon, according to the report.

Geely's pickup truck business has been spun off from Geely's commercial vehicle group to form an independent company that is in the internal incubation stage, the report said.

This could be part of Geely's plan to complete its aggressive sales volume in the coming years.

Geely unveiled its "Smart Geely 2025" strategy on October 31, aiming for total sales of 3.65 million vehicles by 2025, meaning an average of 10,000 vehicles sold per day.

The goal is for the entire Geely Group, including 650,000 units for and 3 million units for Geely Auto.

Geely wants Geely Auto to achieve 900,000 NEV sales by 2025, accounting for 30 percent of its total sales. If Zeekr sales are taken into account, Geely hopes to reach 40 percent by 2025.

As a comparison, Geely's cumulative sales exceed 1.32 million units in 2020, maintaining its position as the top-selling Chinese brand passenger car for four consecutive years.

Geely also hopes to increase its expansion in overseas markets, aiming to reach 600,000 units in overseas sales by 2025.

Rivian, which went public in the US on November 10, currently has a market capitalization of about $105 billion.

The company has said it has 55,400 reservations for its R1S SUV and R1T pickup, and they have a contract with Amazon to build 100,000 electric vans by 2030.

Geely aims to sell average of 10k vehicles per day by 2025