China's Geely launches in UK, first model to be electric EX5 SUV
The automaker said in a statement that the EX5, which is still undergoing "intensive development work" to meet British car buyers' standards, will be the first in a "diverse range of high-quality, accessible vehicles tailored for the UK."
Geely joins a number of other Chinese brands that have already started sales in the UK, including BYD, Chery's Omoda and Jaecoo brands and Xpeng.
Britain is Europe's biggest market for electric vehicles and, unlike the European Union, has not imposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars.
Geely has already announced plans to launch the EX5 in a number of markets outside China, including Australia, Brazil and Poland.
The company's Volvo Cars, Lotus and Polestar units already sell cars in Britain.
Last year, Geely global sales rose 34 per cent to nearly 2.2 million vehicles.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
33 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Geoeconomics of trade: Djibouti, the Suez Canal, and the business logic of geography
Introduction: When the Map Shapes the Mandate In global affairs, maps do more than illustrate borders—they reveal strategic imperatives. A country's geography is not simply its physical terrain; it is the architecture of its constraints, its possibilities, and its vulnerabilities. While resources, institutions, and leadership matter, geography imposes structural conditions that no policymaker can escape. The truism "Geography is destiny" is not deterministic—but it is profoundly instructive. Geography Is Destiny: From Slogans to Strategy The phrase, often attributed to Napoleon and echoed by thinkers from Halford Mackinder to Robert Kaplan, encapsulates how natural features—mountains, rivers, chokepoints, deserts—can shape a nation's developmental path and geopolitical weight. Geography defines what a country must defend, who it must trade with, and how it might project power. In essence, geography offers both opportunity and entrapment. Two case studies—Djibouti and the Suez Canal—offer sharp illustrations of this truth. They are not economic superpowers in themselves, but they sit astride arteries through which the lifeblood of global trade flows. Their strategic value is not what they produce, but where they are. Djibouti: Geography as Leverage Djibouti, a small nation on the Horn of Africa, lacks arable land, natural resources, and a large domestic market. And yet, it punches far above its weight on the global stage. Why? Because it commands the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—a chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which roughly 10 per cent of global seaborne trade passes. More importantly, it serves as the maritime gateway between Europe and Asia, particularly for oil shipments and container cargo. This geographical positioning has transformed Djibouti into a global military hub, hosting bases for the U.S., France, China, and others. Each is vying for influence over this narrow corridor. Djibouti has used this to extract rents, attract foreign investment, and enhance its geopolitical relevance. It is geography turned into strategy. The Suez Canal: Control the Chokepoint, Shape the Century The Suez Canal is another potent example. Artificial, yes—but geopolitical in the extreme. Completed in 1869, the canal sliced through Egypt to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas, radically reducing travel time between Europe and Asia. Control over Suez has repeatedly shifted the global power balance: • In 1956, Egypt's nationalization of the canal by President Nasser triggered the Suez Crisis, a turning point in the decline of British and French imperial influence. • In 2021, the blockage of the canal by the Ever Given container ship—a black swan logistical event—froze $9 billion worth of trade per day, underscoring the fragility and significance of chokepoints in the modern economy. The Suez Canal does not merely move ships. It moves empires, markets, and military doctrines. Geopolitics: When Geography Meets Power Geopolitics is the study of how geography informs the behavior of states. It explains why Russia fears encirclement, why the U.S. prioritizes naval supremacy, and why China builds artificial islands in the South China Sea. Geography, in this context, is the stage upon which states act, and geopolitics is the script they follow in pursuit of survival, status, and security. Djibouti and Suez are prime examples of how static features—location, proximity, terrain—can make a place valuable, vulnerable, or volatile. Black Swan Events, Geopolitics & Geoeconomics: Fragility in the Fault Lines Black swan events—rare, unpredictable shocks—often expose the latent geopolitical and geoeconomic dependencies created by geography. The Ever Given was one such event. So was the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed just how vulnerable the world's supply chains are to localized disruptions. The Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are not just maritime shortcuts. They are single points of failure. A naval standoff, a pirate attack, a natural disaster—any one of these could ricochet across global markets in hours. Thus, geographic chokepoints become economic pressure points. In an age of interconnected commerce, geopolitics and geoeconomics have merged. Who controls the strait can influence shipping rates, insurance premiums,and commodity prices. The geography is permanent—but the shocks are episodic, and they test a state's resilience. Geostrategy and Geoeconomics: From Presence to Power Projection Geostrategy is how a nation translates its geography into power—militarily, diplomatically, and economically. It is not enough to possess a strategic location; one must know how to leverage it. • Djibouti has pursued a rentier geostrategy—offering land and logistics for global powers while investing in port infrastructure. • Egypt, under successive regimes, has used the Suez Canal as a fiscal lifeline, generating billions in toll revenue, while aligning itself with the interests of major powers to maintain canal security. Geoeconomics complements this by turning geography into a commercial and strategic asset. Both Djibouti and Egypt seek to monetize their location—through logistics, trade facilitation, and foreign investment. But this comes with dependency risks: the same foreign presence that brings stability can also invite entanglement. Today, the geoeconomic toolkit includes not only toll revenue or basing rights, but also: • Foreign debt diplomacy (as seen in Chinese Belt and Road projects), • Competing logistics corridors (like the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor vs. China's BRI), • And regional port competition (e.g., between Port Sudan, Berbera, and Djibouti itself). These instruments allow states to amplify the value of geography into policy leverage and economic influence—turning location into strategy, and infrastructure into influence. History and Geography: A Feedback Loop in Geopolitics History is not just context—it is an amplifier. Past events shape the strategic imagination of nations. Egypt's experience with colonial exploitation, followed by the nationalization of the Suez Canal, still informs its statecraft. Djibouti's colonial legacy and post-independence struggle for relevance explain its current foreign base diplomacy. Historical memory guides current alliances, threat perceptions, and even public sentiment. In geopolitics, the past doesn't just echo—it instructs. Conclusion: The Compass and the Clock To understand a nation's place in the world, you must look at both the compass and the clock—its geography and its history. Geography imposes structure; history provides narrative. Together, they shape geopolitics, condition geostrategy, and expose the world to black swan risks with outsize consequences. Djibouti and the Suez Canal are reminders that small places can have oversized impacts—not because of what they are, but because of where they are. Geography is not just destiny. It is design—and in the hands of those who understand it, it becomes destiny by design. ———————————————————— Economist Samirul Ariff Othman is an adjunct lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Petronas, international relations analyst and a senior consultant with Global Asia Consulting. The views in this OpEd piece are entirely his own.
New Straits Times
33 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Ringgit opens higher vs US dollar ahead of BNM policy meeting
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened higher against the US dollar on Monday as investors adopt a cautious mode ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on July 9, 2025, amid growing expectations of a potential overnight policy rate (OPR) cut, said an analyst. At 8am, the local note rose to 4.2060/2320 against the greenback from Friday's close of 4.2180/2260. Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the OPR might be reduced by 25 basis points as heightened economic uncertainties could potentially affect the second half's growth momentum. "So there is a clear justification for BNM to support growth," Mohd Afzanizam told Bernama. He also noted that traders will also remain cautious vis-a-vis the greenback as investors and traders await clarity ahead of the United States (US) tariff pause deadline, which is also on July 9. "All eyes will be on the July 9, 2025 deadline with regards the US tariff which has been paused for 90 days since April 9 this year. "At the same time, OPEC+ members have agreed to increase their oil production by 548,000 barrels per day in August 2025, suggesting that oil producers are committed to restoring global oil supplies," he said. In light of the ongoing tariff uncertainty, Mohd Afzanizam said the ringgit is expected to trade cautiously between the RM4.22 and RM4.23 range today. "The ringgit appreciated by 0.3 per cent week-on-week against the US dollar last week, strengthening to as high as RM4.1980 on July 1," he added. At the opening, the ringgit was higher against a basket of major currencies. It firmed against the Japanese yen to 2.9115/9297 from 2.9225/9282, strengthened versus the British pound to 5.7412/7767 from 5.7601/7710, and appreciated against the euro to 4.9542/9849 from 4.9675/9770. The local note also advanced against most Asean currencies. It improved vis-à-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.3006/3213 from 3.3114/3182, strengthened against the Thai baht to 12.9823/13.0730 from 13.0302/0609, inched up against the Indonesian rupiah at 259.8/261.5 from 260.6/261.2, and rose against the Philippine peso to 7.45/7.50 from 7.47/7.49 previously.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
BoE's Taylor warns Bailey about neutral rate issue
LONDON: Bank of England (BoE) policymaker Alan Taylor says British officials cannot sidestep the question of where interest rates will settle, in a direct challenge to governor Andrew Bailey's approach. Taylor has been unusually frank about where he expects Britain's neutral rate – the level at which policy is neither stimulating nor weighing on the economy – to end up. Bailey and those close to him have repeatedly dodged questions on the issue, claiming there is too much uncertainty. But Taylor, an external rate-setter on the Monetary Policy Committee, warned last Friday that avoiding the question is 'hard, problematic, and in my view, counterproductive', as he repeated his calls for lower rates. 'While one could take a step by step, or meeting by meeting approach to guiding the interest rate, the question of the end point, the final resting place of interest rates, in a steady state can, in my view, never quite be fully sidestepped,' he said in remarks published ahead of a speech at the London School of Economics and Political Science later last Friday. Taylor said that this end point is of 'enormous interest and consequence to the economy, affecting financial markets, banks, firms, households, everyone'. It is in sharp contrast to Bailey who frequently bats away questions over the neutral rate, also known by economists as R-star. Earlier last week, Bailey refused to give his view, saying there is 'huge uncertainty' over its level. He said that judging the restrictiveness of policy at that moment is more important. In his speech, Taylor – one of the most dovish British rate-setters and a self-declared monetary policy 'activist' – said the BoE should cut rates as a form of 'insurance' against a 'deteriorating' economic backdrop, warning that history suggests it should be done sooner rather than later. 'A better risk management approach at this point is to cut and hold for longer later, rather than hold too much, and have to cut in a hurry later,' he said. He expects rates to normalise at around 2.75% if a slew of shocks to the economy and prices mostly dissipate. He said this means that, at 4.25%, there is still a 'long way to go' to get bank rate back to neutral. 'Unlike the period before 2008, it is very hard to simply look at the policy rate itself, take some kind of average or trend, and draw any firm conviction as to where the neutral level might be,' he said. Financial markets are pricing in two further quarter-point cuts this year, and another two or three more by the middle of next year. — Bloomberg
