This article is reproduced from the autocarweekly WeChat public account.
Author: Jiang Xiaohua
In December 2021, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the Chinese auto market reached an unexpected 20%, which was much faster than the industry’s expectations. This became the most eye-catching material on the management meeting tables of all major car companies at the beginning of the new year.
Although lithium battery giants saw a sharp decline in the capital market before and after the Spring Festival, the market’s consensus on the accelerated promotion of new energy vehicles remains very consistent in the physical industry. The market penetration rate of new energy vehicles will continue to climb at a faster-than-expected pace. The so-called industry transformation critical point, which was originally widely predicted within the industry, has also been significantly advanced from 2025.
The “number one” Chinese auto company, Geely, has been somewhat slow and concerning in terms of its data and actions in the field of new energy vehicles in the past few years. After all, the speed is the key to success, and this is the mainstream perspective.
But has Geely, whose goal is to “make Geely cars go all over the world,” really not kept up with the trend of new energy? In 2022, Geely Automotive Group CEO Gan Jiayue answered this question with an impassioned and sincere New Year’s greeting. And 2022 is also the year that Geely has set for the outbreak of new energy vehicles.
First of all, we need to clarify that the electrification of automobiles is not just an adjustment of product lines or a transformation of product systems for a mature and large-scale automotive enterprise. It is a real industry transformation that drives enterprise transformation. If done well, there is unlimited potential, but if not done well, it will lead to a dead end.
This involves almost all areas of a large-scale enterprise with tens of thousands of employees.
Therefore, if we focus only on the sales figures of “We Xiaoli” to determine the life and death of these newcomers in the industry, then the transformation of large car companies is definitely not just about sales data and product quantity.
Gan Jiayue’s New Year’s greeting is entitled “Releasing the Brilliance of Every Geely Person,” which first sets a tone – Geely Automobile is already in the new energy change, which has put forward a clear requirement for enterprise technologicalization and prepared the entire enterprise.
After completing the rigorous planning of Intelligent Geely 2025, the set-up of 350 million shares of Geely Automobile equity incentives, and preparing for the leading global technology of the Thunder Power, Geely Automobile has prepared for the technologicalization of the enterprise system and basic technology.In the view of GAC Group, with these preparations, the automotive industry full of changes and surprises is the most anticipated spring for GAC. And every member of GAC can find their own stage to shine in this spring.
Furthermore, electrification and intelligence are two intertwined and inseparable major trends. Electrified vehicles without sufficient intelligence evolution cannot represent the future of new energy vehicles.
In the past three years, GAC has achieved the most effective and determined intelligence preparation among large domestic automakers. GAC has broken the industry misconception that fuel vehicles cannot be highly intelligent, and overturned the established standards in the core area of the automobile market with the Chinese Star series products. GAC quickly extended its intelligence accomplishment to most of its models and realized the capability of collecting and analyzing big data in the fuel-vehicle-dominated market.
While exploring breakthroughs, GAC quickly combined its intelligence accomplishments with automobile technology and formed a structured system, applying its structured advantages to the new path of product intelligence in the era of user products, which has established an advantage that other companies may find it difficult to achieve in the most concentrated area of product intelligence applications.
After these attempts and preparations, GAC has established a complete strategy for the intelligent GAC 2025.
Third, it is the establishment of the integrated development trend of open cooperation and endogenous breakthrough of core technology in enterprises.
Although the overall change caused by the new energy revolution in the automotive industry may have no end in sight, the specific changes in the connotation and extension of the whole industry have begun to emerge. The most influential aspect of these changes is the breaking of traditional boundaries and diversified cooperation among industry participants.
GAC, which has successfully completed the most magnificent international acquisition case in the history of the automotive industry, has an obvious advantage in open cooperation with its open-mindedness and experience. In terms of open cooperation, GAC is the one that most eagerly pursues cutting-edge technology, the layout of the traffic industry, and the willingness to try new things and make changes. Its multi-dimensional cooperation forms and innovation level are also the highest.
At the same time, GAC also emphasizes the necessity of its personal involvement in becoming the creator and master of the most important core technology of the new era. By independently developing its intelligent architecture, chips, big data systems and so on, GAC not only fully mobilizes its human resources, enterprise system and strategic direction in promoting core technology self-developed, but also supplements the shortcomings of automobile companies in intelligence and big data by entering the mobile phone industry and other ways, from the root.## GanJiaYue nurtures its own scientists and kindles the creative passion of every Geely employee. Scientists mold the foundation and soul of a technology enterprise, while shining Geely employees must shine in the core area of market competition, user application. GanJiaYue even suggested that this year’s ShuFu Award should be given to the Geely employees who have outstanding achievements in user application.
In terms of new energy layout, Geely’s idea is a sustainable new energy route, avoiding the surge of new energy competition that cannot truly solve user pain points from the beginning.
In January 2022, Geely Automotive completed the sales of 146,380 new vehicles, achieving both face and substance with the sales growth of more than 25,000 high-value Chinese Star series products.
In addition, in January, Geely Automotive completed the sales of 17,928 new energy products, accounting for 12.2% of the total sales. The sales volume of pure electric vehicles surged by 641% year-on-year.
In the Intelligent Geely 2025 Strategy released last year, Geely Automotive will launch new energy plug-in hybrid products that can travel up to 200 km on pure electric power in large scale this year, which is one of the core achievements of Revel’s dynamic technology at this stage.
With the release of these high-quality products that can be powered by electricity or gasoline, for both urban and distant driving, Geely’s new energy roadmap will be completely rolled out. This hybrid technology has significant advantages in multiple areas compared to the hybrid pioneer Toyota and it can be predicted that the sales proportion of Geely’s new energy products will basically catch up with the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the high-speed developing vehicle industry this year.
During the entire Intelligent Geely 2025 strategy cycle, Geely New Energy will rapidly rise with systemic advantages.
As GanJiaYue said, Geely has always insisted on liberating the mind and seeking truth from facts during its thirty years of development. In the face of an unprecedented industry change, further liberation of the mind and seeking truth from facts are necessary.
Liberating the mind is not reckless, but it is to inspire courage and creativity. Seeking truth from facts means to both develop from its own advantages and lead the times. Being daring to persist with thinking liberation and seeking truth from facts is the spiritual basis for the practice of Geely Automotive’s “Greatness through Joy” brand concept.
Daring to do also means daring not to do. Geely’s choice in the current new energy reversal is to fully understand the development laws of new things, bravely take the lead and make daring choices without envy from others.
In early 2022, it is clear that many enterprises, whether in the whole vehicle industry or in the industrial chain, have already gained the first pot of gold in the new energy vehicle revolution, and perhaps they have also leveraged their own strengths to elevate themselves to a new level. However, judging solely from the market, Geely seems to be lagging behind.
But looking beyond the disorder of the nascent new industry, it is easy to see that Geely has solidly laid out its strategy in multiple dimensions that conform to the rules of industry transformation. A systematic, pain-point oriented approach in enterprise technologization, product intelligentization, and open collaboration without boundaries is what really meets the expectations of the era for an emerging mobility company.
This is the answer sheet that Geely has given in the first stage of the new energy revolution, and it represents the spring that has been vigorously described by Ganyaue for all Geely employees.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.