Chinese car giant Geely is buying a major stake in Volvo Trucks, seemingly intent on becoming a global automotive superpower.

Geely Auto Group is one of the biggest carmakers in the enormous Chinese market and last year sold 1.27 million cars.

It already owns Volvo Cars and last year became a major shareholder in the Lotus and Proton car companies, bought the London Taxi Company and set up a commercial-vehicle unit in its home market.

It also recently launched its own new global brand, Lynk & Co, which will make internet-connected cars, targeting young urban customers, it bought US flying-car startup Terrafugia and late last year committed over $US750million to develop Polestar, a new premium electric-car brand owned by Volvo.

And within days of Geely announcing that it's acquiring an 8.2% financial stake in Volvo Trucks, for around $US3.24billion, a German media report claimed it was also pursuing a sizeable stake in Daimler.

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said that Daimler had turned down an offer from Geely in November to take a stake of up to 5% percent via a discounted share placement. Daimler said Geely was welcome to buy shares on the open market.

The newspaper suggested that Geely's interest in a Daimler stake is tied to its desire to establish an electric car joint venture in China.

The Volvo Trucks investment could similarly help in the development of its new Yuan Cheng commercial vehicle division in China.

The commercial vehicle market in China grew 15% last year, easily outstripping the growth rates of the car market.

Industry analysts point out that Geely has invested heavily in autonomous driving technology with Volvo cars and could explore technology sharing in autonomous and electric vehicles across its widespread automotive interests – including Volvo Trucks, Yuan Cheng and Volvo cars.