Geely has taken the second place in the new energy vehicle market. Is Li Shufu really Elon Musk's toughest rival?

Geely's sales explosion in June has caught the industry's attention.

With an impressive cumulative sales volume of 204,940 units in the first half of the year, Geely Xingyuan not only won the championship in the sales of all - category models but also refreshed the industry record with an astonishing speed of "selling one vehicle per minute".

However, Geely's performance in the first half of the year exceeded market expectations. In addition to the A0 - class pure - electric car Xingyuan, which is priced from only 65,800 yuan and has triggered a profound change in the value benchmark, other sub - brands also performed well. Geely's sales volume in the first half of the year reached 1.409 million units, a year - on - year increase of 47%. Facing the gratifying sales volume, Geely even increased its annual target from 2.71 million units to 3 million units.

What really shocked the industry was the growth rate of Geely's new energy vehicles. In May, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 59% (138,021 units), and in June, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 122,367 units, accounting for 52%. In the first half of this year, the cumulative sales volume of Geely's new energy vehicle models reached 725,200 units, a year - on - year surge of 126%. According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), from January to June 2025, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China reached 6.937 million units, a year - on - year increase of 40.3%, accounting for 44.3% of the total sales volume of new vehicles in the same period. Geely's sales volume growth rate is higher than the industry average, and the proportion of new energy vehicles is also higher than the industry average.

Geely's excellent performance has also made it highly sought after in the capital market. As of the mid - session on July 23, Geely's stock price has risen by more than 30% this year, ranking among the top in the automotive sector. Its latest market value is HK$190.4 billion.

Geely is Tesla's Fierce Rival

Previously, the industry always thought that Tesla's fierce rival in the domestic market was a leading automaker, but currently, Geely is Tesla's real rival.

In the first half of the year, Geely's new energy vehicles ranked second with a sales volume of 725,000 units, a year - on - year surge of 126.5%, and the gap with the top - ranked brand has further narrowed. Currently, Geely Galaxy has become the core driving force for the sales of the family's new energy vehicles. Its A0 - class pure - electric model, Geely Xingyuan, has exceeded 30,000 units in sales for several consecutive months. In the first half of the year, Lynk & Co and Zeekr contributed 86,000 units and 91,000 units respectively, among which Zeekr 007 and 7X have become the pillar models.

June was a watershed. Geely's sales volume reached 236,036 units. Although its overall sales volume was still lower than that of the leading automakers, its year - on - year growth rate reached 42%, higher than that of the leading automakers. In the first half of the year, Chery ranked third in the sales volume of new energy vehicles, with 359,400 units sold in the first six months. From January to June 2025, Chery Group's cumulative automobile sales reached 1,260,124 units, a year - on - year increase of 14.5%, and it refreshed the historical record by exceeding one million units in five months.

Another domestic brand, Changan, had an overall sales volume of 367,521 units in the first half of the year, and the sales volume of its new energy vehicles was 122,000 units. Among the top five domestic brands, Great Wall's sales volume in the first half of the year was 569,800 units, a year - on - year increase of 1.81%. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 160,400 units, accounting for 28.2% of the total sales volume, an increase of about 10 percentage points compared with the same period last year. However, the sales volume of its main brands decreased instead of increasing. The sales volume of Great Wall's Tank brand's new energy vehicles was 103,700 units, a year - on - year decrease of 10.67%, and the sales volume of the ORA brand was 13,900 units, a year - on - year decrease of 56.19%. Great Wall's total sales volume of new energy vehicles is only 7% of the top - ranked brand, and it has become a laggard among the top five domestic brands.

Whether in terms of total sales volume or the sales volume of new energy vehicles, Geely firmly holds the second place.

Geely's strategy is actually quite simple, which is to "learn from the leading automakers". This can be seen from the models launched by Geely. Almost all of Geely's models are benchmarked against the leading brands, taking away many customers.

In 2024, Geely's annual R & D expenses were 10.4 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 18%; the R & D ratio was about 4.3%. Although Geely's R & D investment is less than one - fifth of that of the leading automakers, its net profit margin has exceeded them by 1.64 percentage points, and is 3.17 percentage points higher than that of Changan Automobile and 0.71 percentage points higher than that of Great Wall. Geely's net profit of 16.63 billion yuan is higher than Great Wall's 12.69 billion yuan and Changan's 7.321 billion yuan.

Is There a Hidden Battle between Geely and Chery?

Previously, there was not much conflict between Geely and Chery, but recently, Chery's executives "belittled" Geely, which may have caused a rift in the relationship between the two companies. "A lousy car", "It's very second - rate", "The sound system is lousy"... Yao Fei (ID: "Yao Yuanfang"), the deputy general manager of Chery Automobile's marketing department, recently made a series of remarks "belittling" Geely Galaxy Xingyao 8 in the "A9 Founder's Edition Owner Group" on Douyin, which not only caused many netizens to complain but also pushed the two leading domestic brands, Chery and Geely, to the forefront of the storm.

As a Chery salesperson, "belittling" Geely may be traceable. After all, Geely Galaxy Xingyao 8 is directly benchmarked against Chery Fengyun A9. Fengyun A9 is Chery Fengyun's first wide - body C - class long - range flagship sedan, priced at about 140,000 yuan, competing directly with Geely Galaxy Xingyao 8. Therefore, the remarks of Chery's executives are considered by the outside world as an escalation of the "rivalry" between competing products.

Previously, Yin Tongyue, the chairman of Chery, had repeatedly called on automakers to stop the involution and compete fairly. This time, the "belittling" remarks of Chery's executives directly "slapped him in the face", and Geely naturally could not accept it. Soon, Yang Xueliang, the senior vice - president of Geely, posted on the social platform, saying, "We have communicated with Chery's senior management about the controversy caused by the remarks of individual employees. Chery has shown an honest and responsible attitude, and this matter has been properly resolved and is over. We should look forward together and jointly promote Chinese automobile brands to become bigger and stronger and go global!" Subsequently, Chery punished Yao Fei by suspending all his work.

Yin Tongyue has repeatedly emphasized that "downward" involution - style competition has no future. Chery hopes to change "involution" into "expansion". Through a multi - brand strategy, it forms brand positioning with distinct characteristics, "going left and right" to open up new markets and expand more segmented and differentiated market opportunities.

In the first six months, Chery's new energy vehicle sales volume was 359,400 units, a year - on - year increase of 98.6%. Both its scale and growth rate ranked among the top in the industry. Among them, the sales volume in June reached 71,582 units, a year - on - year increase of 59.6%. From January to June 2025, Chery Group's cumulative automobile sales reached 1,260,124 units, a year - on - year increase of 14.5%, and it refreshed the historical record by exceeding one million units in five months.

Compared with Geely's 52% sales volume proportion of new energy vehicles, Chery's new energy vehicle sales volume proportion is only 28.5%, but it has increased significantly compared with last year. At the same time, Chery is developing both the export and domestic markets. The overseas market contributed 550,000 units in sales volume, and new energy has become the main growth driver. It has maintained the first place in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 22 consecutive years, and the proportion of new energy exports is gradually increasing. In the domestic market, it expands user coverage through the layout of the iCAR ecosystem.

It is worth mentioning that Chery's annual new energy vehicle sales volume in 2024 was 580,000 units, and it completed 62% of last year's total in only half a year this year. Its growth rate far exceeds the industry average. Geely's sales volume far exceeds Chery's, but the growth rate of its new energy vehicles is lower than that of Chery. It is foreseeable that the healthy competition between Geely and Chery is far from over.

Geely Needs to Learn from Chery in Going Global

Some people think that the 100,000 - yuan market in the Chinese automobile industry has already entered a fierce competition.

Different automakers adopt different strategies. Leading automakers, Changan, Chery and other automakers have intensively launched low - priced models for the market below 100,000 yuan, trying to replicate the strategy of exchanging price for volume in 2024. Geely's Galaxy series has aggressively followed up, leading to a price war at the beginning of the year. In the context of severe "involution" in the domestic market, the overseas market has become the biggest growth point.

Chery is a champion in exports and has ranked first in the export of domestic automobile brands for 22 consecutive years. In 2024, Chery's export volume was 1.1446 million units, accounting for 44% of its total sales volume that year. In the first half of 2025, Chery exported 550,000 vehicles. On average, one Chery vehicle is exported every 29 seconds. On average, one out of every five Chinese cars going abroad is "made by Chery".

Chery's overseas development strategy has evolved over the years. From 2001 to 2013, it mainly relied on the low - price strategy to enter the Middle East and Latin American markets. From 2014 to 2019, it began to establish local factories in Brazil, Russia and other places to directly assemble and produce cars locally. It became one of the earliest Chinese automobile export enterprises.

After 2020, Chery entered the stage of technology output. In the European market, it revived the old Spanish brand EBRO through a joint - venture form and openly shared its hybrid technology patents.

Different from Chery's success in the overseas market, Geely's overseas market has not met expectations. In the first half of the year, Geely's overseas sales volume was 184,000 units, a year - on - year decline of 6.7%, and the overseas sales volume accounted for 13%.

As of 2024, Geely's global service network covered more than 900 outlets in more than 80 countries. It has launched its high - end main models in key markets such as Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. Its Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands are stabilizing the European market and accelerating the development of the Hong Kong, Macao and Asia - Pacific markets, and are also outputting charging networks. Geely's overseas market is mainly in Europe. Currently, Geely has solved the transportation capacity bottleneck. Its self - operated ro - ro ships reduce the logistics cost by 50% and avoid the high - price rent of international fleets. At the same time, through multi - brand collaboration, Zeekr and Lynk & Co share overseas channels and focus on the high - end European market. Geely's strategy is clear: focus on the domestic segmented market and seize market share with "precise benchmarking + cost - effectiveness".

Currently, Geely's overseas sales volume is lower than Chery's. Geely still needs to learn more from Chery in going global.

Geely has firmly held the second place in the new energy field. However, its overseas growth has not fully emerged. While other automakers such as Chery are making great achievements in the overseas market, Geely needs to strengthen its efforts in going global. Even though Geely currently ranks second, the competitors behind are eyeing it covetously, and it is far from being able to relax.

Both Chery and Geely are excellent Chinese automobile manufacturing enterprises. The market welcomes the healthy competition between enterprises. Led by these leading Chinese automakers, Chinese automobile manufacturing has become a shining business card going global.

This article is from the WeChat public account "BT Finance", author: B Mengxiao. Reposted by 36Kr with permission.