Geely, on a tear, still has three tough battles to fight

In 2025, Geely presented an impressive report card. Its sales volume exceeded 3 million, revenue reached a new high of 345.2 billion yuan, and the core net profit increased significantly by 36%. The high - end transformation and brand integration showed initial results. However, it also exposed the fragility behind the expansion, with only a slight increase of 0.2% in net profit, a nearly 8% decline in the average price per vehicle, and a slowdown in export growth.

In the same year, Geely completed the "crucial leap" of privatizing Zeekr and integrating Lynk & Co. Geely began to transform from a "manufacturing - driven" to a "technology - driven" company. In the first two months of 2026, Geely overtook BYD in domestic sales. However, Geely still has three tough battles to fight: continuous high - end transformation, intelligent development, and export expansion.

The "Sweet Burden" of New Energy Transformation

Geely, which has been developing both fuel - powered and new energy vehicles, finally achieved a breakthrough in the new energy field.

In 2025, Geely's sales volume exceeded 3.02 million, a year - on - year increase of 39%, surpassing 3 million for the first time. It is worth noting that while the fuel - powered vehicle market remained stable, the new energy transformation witnessed explosive growth. The annual sales volume of new energy vehicles reached 1.688 million, a year - on - year increase of 90%, and the penetration rate exceeded 50% for the first time.

Especially in the fourth quarter of 2025, Geely's new energy vehicle penetration rate increased from 58% in the third quarter to 61%. After more than 10 years of transformation, Geely has now entered the development stage dominated by new energy vehicles.

Sales report. Photo / Brand official

If we look at the brands separately, Geely Galaxy sold 1.24 million vehicles annually, becoming the fastest - growing new energy brand in China to reach the one - million - sales mark. It is the absolute main force of Geely's new energy vehicles and the biggest contributor to Geely's sales exceeding 3 million. Geely Galaxy's vehicle model matrix is precisely targeted at BYD's mainstream best - selling models. In particular, the monthly average sales volume of Geely Xingyuan exceeded 40,000 for seven consecutive months, ranking first in all categories.

Zeekr's annual sales volume exceeded 224,000, Lynk & Co. sold 350,000 vehicles, and the annual sales volume of fuel - powered vehicles represented by the "China Star" series exceeded 1.21 million. Gui Shengyue, the CEO and Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, said at the performance press conference: "In the long run, automobile companies with a multi - energy co - existence model will definitely be the most valuable."

The sales growth drove up the revenue. Geely's annual total revenue reached 345.2 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25%, setting a new historical record.

The strategy of "trading price for volume" to seize the market has, to some extent, damaged Geely's profits. The net profit attributable to the parent company almost remained stagnant. In 2025, this figure only increased slightly by 0.2% year - on - year to 16.85 billion yuan. The gross profit margin only increased slightly by 0.1 percentage point from 16.5% in 2024 to 16.6%.

However, behind this, the slight increase in the net profit attributable to the parent company is not simply the result of "trading price for volume" but is affected by the fluctuations in non - recurring gains and losses. It should be noted that in 2024, Geely recognized a one - time gain of about 9.3 billion yuan (mainly from the sale of equity in subsidiaries and joint - venture companies), which pushed up the base for that period. If we exclude non - core factors such as the exchange gain of 2.43 billion yuan, the asset impairment loss of 30 million yuan, and the disposal gain of 40 million yuan in this year, Geely's core net profit attributable to the parent company in 2025 actually reached 14.41 billion yuan, a significant increase of 36% compared with 10.61 billion yuan in the same period of 2024.

Geely Galaxy New Energy Strategy Release and Global Premiere of Galaxy L7. Photo / Brand official

Another important factor affecting profits is the cost side. R & D expenses, distribution and sales expenses, and administrative expenses have all increased to varying degrees. In particular, the total R & D investment reached 21.9 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 8.3%. A large amount of R & D costs were included in the current period in advance, which reduced the book profit.

In 2025, the expensing ratio of R & D expenses increased from 31% in 2024 to 36%, and reached 43% in the fourth quarter. The R & D expenses increased to 5.9 billion yuan. In response to this "self - reducing profit" operation, Geely's CFO, Dai Yong, said at the performance press conference that this is to meet the needs of investors and make the company's profits more high - quality. He also revealed that the R & D expensing ratio in 2026 will remain above 40%. This means that Geely is sacrificing short - term book profits to build a more solid and sustainable profit foundation in the long run.

Under the dual pressure of price war and strategic investment, Geely still achieved improvements in multiple data in 2025. This report card gave Gui Shengyue full confidence. He said frankly: "Two years ago, I predicted that the sales volume would reach a new high. Now, not only have we achieved this, but we have also achieved a historic breakthrough in core profits." At the same time, he also said that in the long run, in addition to the record - high sales volume, it is very likely that the core net profit attributable to the parent company will reach a new high at every future performance press conference.

High - end Transformation Drives Geely's Transition to a Technology - Driven Company

Facing the price storm that swept the auto market in 2025, why was Geely able to maintain and slightly increase its gross profit margin?

The answer lies in the successful high - end transformation. "The launch of high - end products" is regarded as one of the core factors to resist price war and maintain gross profit growth. Geely also pointed out in its financial report: "Driven by the significant increase in the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the mainstream market, the Group benefited from economies of scale, the cost - effectiveness of the new energy architecture, and the launch of high - end products. Even in the face of fierce price competition in the industry, the gross profit still increased by 25% year - on - year."

After the "Taizhou Declaration", Geely entered the "One Geely" stage. The integration of Zeekr and Lynk & Co. is also the largest and most far - reaching strategic integration action after the release of the declaration. It is not only a merger at the brand level but also a systematic reconstruction involving organization, R & D, supply chain, and channels.

Previously, there was some overlap between Zeekr and Lynk & Co. in terms of technology and market. Geely completed the privatization of Zeekr through acquisition and incorporated Lynk & Co. into Zeekr. Lynk & Co. changed from a joint - venture company to a subsidiary, with Zeekr holding 51% of the shares. During the integration, each brand cut more than 20% of the planned models, concentrated resources to create hit products, and improved the capacity utilization rate in aspects such as the intelligent team and supply chain integration.

Zeekr positions itself as a luxury technology brand with products priced above 300,000 yuan, while Lynk & Co. focuses on the mid - to high - end market of 150,000 to 350,000 yuan, with a trendy and sporty positioning.

Zeekr's annual sales volume exceeded 224,000 in 2025, a year - on - year increase of 1%. Although this growth rate may not seem high, its quality is very high.

The "quality" of this achievement is mainly reflected in the optimization of the product structure. In the fourth quarter, Zeekr delivered more than 80,000 vehicles in a single quarter. Among them, the flagship model Zeekr 9X, priced in the range of 465,900 to 599,900 yuan, contributed about 22,000 vehicles, accounting for nearly 30%.

Geely's new - generation Qianli Haohan assisted driving system. Photo / Brand official

Relying on technical advantages such as the full - stack 900V high - voltage architecture, three - motor megawatt electric drive, and Qianli Haohan intelligent driving solution, since November 2025, Zeekr 9X has exceeded the sales volume of Wenjie M9 in the large SUV segment priced above 500,000 yuan for three consecutive months, successfully breaking the original competitive landscape in this field. The large - scale delivery of high - priced and high - gross - profit models directly promoted the leap in Zeekr's brand profitability - its gross profit margin in the fourth quarter increased to 23%.

This structural improvement further spread upwards, helping Geely Automobile Group's overall gross profit margin in the fourth quarter climb to 16.9%, better than the annual average of 16.6%. The high - end transformation has improved the overall profitability of Geely. Huatai Securities pointed out that in addition to the contribution of high - end models, it also includes the release of the scale effect of the GEA architecture and the significant results of lean supply chain management.

Looking at the Lynk & Co. brand, its annual sales volume increased by 23%, and the proportion of new energy vehicles also increased to 65%. The weighted average transaction price of the Lynk & Co. brand exceeded 200,000 yuan, surpassing mainstream joint - venture brands. Among them, the weighted average transaction price of the Lynk & Co. EM - P intelligent hybrid family was as high as 254,200 yuan.

The management of Lynk & Co. once admitted that in the past few years, Lynk & Co. was in a "following" state in terms of intelligence and failed to take the lead. In 2025, Lynk & Co. fully entered the intelligent 2.0 era. Among them, the flagship model Lynk & Co. 900 became the first vehicle to be equipped with Zeekr's Haohan intelligent driving system and NVIDIA Thor chips. At the same time, intelligent cockpit systems such as LYNK Flyme Auto 2 were also installed on multiple main models such as Lynk & Co. 10EM - P, the new Lynk & Co. 07, and the new Lynk & Co. 08 on a large scale.

The integration of Zeekr and Lynk & Co. is the "crucial leap" for Geely to transform from a "manufacturing - driven" to a "technology - driven" company. Geely is no longer just a simple car - manufacturing company but is building an "intelligent mobility technology platform". Now, the market has begun to evaluate Geely from the perspective of technology stocks.

In 2026, There Are Still "Three Tough Battles" to Fight

Currently, Geely has set a relatively stable sales target of 3.45 million vehicles for 2026, a year - on - year increase of about 14% compared with 2025. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles is expected to reach 2.22 million, a year - on - year increase of 32%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will continue to increase to 64%.

In the first two months of this year, Geely's cumulative sales volume exceeded 470,000, surpassing BYD in the domestic market for two consecutive months and briefly taking the top spot in domestic sales.

Sales outlook for 2026. Photo / Brand official

Gan Jiayue, the CEO of Geely Automobile Group and Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, summarized the strategic focus for 2026 into three main lines: intelligence, product high - end transformation, and globalization. In his view, "When the three - electric technology gradually becomes homogeneous, the real gap between enterprises will come from comprehensive vehicle - manufacturing capabilities."

In terms of product high - end transformation, in 2025, affected by the large - scale popularization of volume - driving models such as the Galaxy series, Geely's average sales revenue per vehicle decreased by 7.9% year - on - year to 103,000 yuan. That is to say, although high - end models such as Zeekr 9X performed strongly in the early stage of their launch, the high - gross - profit contribution they brought was not enough to fully offset the downward pressure on the group's overall average price per vehicle caused by the price war in the mainstream market throughout the year.

Zeekr 9X. Photo / Brand official

However, with the increasing sales volume of high - end models such as Zeekr 9X, Geely's average price per vehicle in the fourth quarter has rebounded to 124,000 yuan, driving the gross profit margin in that quarter to climb to 16.9%. The management expects that, thanks to the hot pre - sales of Zeekr 8X, with more than 30,000 orders in less than 48 hours, and the continuous efforts of other high - end product matrices, the gross profit margin in the first quarter of 2026 is expected to continue to improve.

It is worth noting that in the price range of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, Zeekr 007 (with a guide price of 209,900 - 299,900 yuan), Lynk & Co. Z10 (with a guide price of 186,800 - 262,800 yuan), and Galaxy E8 (with a guide price of 149,800 - 198,80