Geely badges its first export hybrid SUV the Monjaro EM-i, launching first in Egypt

Geely said on Wednesday it had chosen Monjaro EM-i as the badge for the first hybrid D-segment SUV it has built for export, with the rollout starting in Egypt at the end of the month. The name nods to Kilimanjaro while the EM-i tag marks the hybrid powertrain. The car sits on the company's GEA Evo underpinnings and is the first of its overseas models to offer electric four-wheel drive.

Beneath the new name is a familiar car: outside China this is the Xingyue L, already on sale from Russia and the Middle East through to Australia and several Latin American countries, in petrol and hybrid form, and the EM-i simply broadens what buyers abroad can order. At home the Xingyue L has been a mainstay, passing a million cumulative sales on 25 July, which Geely calls a first for a premium petrol SUV from a Chinese marque.

The launch leans into a widening gap between Geely's two markets. Shipments overseas jumped more than two and a half times in the first half to 474,228 vehicles and set a July record of 106,663, while sales inside China fell 22.6% to 948,730 over the same six months. Africa and Latin America, Egypt among them, have been flagged as a priority region worth roughly 200,000 sales.

At its interim briefing on 17 August the company raised its full-year export goal to 920,000 vehicles from 640,000 and set its sights on a million sales abroad. It also reported record first-half revenue of 173.6 billion yuan (about $25.6 billion), up 15% on the year.