With the continuous improvement of domestic car manufacturing technology, it is obvious that more and more people are opening their own brands in the past two years. Among so many domestic brands, I believe that everyone is no stranger to Geely Automobile.
As the leader of domestic automobile brands, Geely Automobile has won the sales champion of its own brand for four consecutive years since 2017, which can be said that the results are quite illustrative.
But the situation in 2021 is somewhat different, on the one hand, the automotive field is facing a chip crisis, on the other hand, Great Wall Motors, Changan Automobile have star models sales soared, began to shake Geely Automobile's leading position.
Can Geely hold the top spot? So many years, is it technology or marketing? Let's take a look at it today.
It all starts with design
In this wine aroma is also afraid of the deep alley today, if a car does not have an eye-catching design, the sales will naturally not be ideal. Geely Automobile is also well aware of this truth.
In terms of automotive design, the team of international big names was decisively launched, and Steve Hiraf, who served as the design director of Audi, Bentley and other brands, became the vice president of global design of Geely Automobile Group.
The foreign tycoon who has been working in the field of automotive design for 30 years has served as a stylist in international auto giants such as Audi, Daimler, and Volkswagen, and became the design director of Bentley in 2015. Like the very well-known third-generation continental GT model is from his hand.
Rich experience coupled with industry status, Steve for Geely to go one step closer to the international brand, but also let domestic car fans through their own brands, enjoy the design style of international standards. Steve's joining undoubtedly shows geely's emphasis on design.
Engines, from imitation to autonomous
If design is the first element of attraction, then the engine is the soul of a car. Geely Automobile's engine development path is the epitome of many independent brands.
At the beginning, with the help of mature foreign power components, Geely chose Toyota's 8A series engine, which was the first choice for most local brands in China at that time. However, later, for various reasons, Toyota's engine could not be used.
Geely also began the road of independent research and development, at first it was natural to imitate the 8A engine, and then gradually had its own things. In 2006, the JL4G18 engine was the preferred all-aluminum cylinder block engine with CVVT technology in China at that time. In Chang'an, when the Great Wall was still buying foreign engines, Geely had begun to use its own research and development of engines.
Later, the 4G15 engine developed by Geely, that is, the 1.5L self-priming engine currently in Geely Emgrand, the long-term vision, has a maximum horsepower of 114 PS and a peak torque of 147 Nm in terms of data. Looking at the data is not outstanding, but the victory is stable and cost-effective.
Later, everyone was developing turbocharged engines, geely also developed 1.3T, 1.4T and 1.8T engines, it is worth mentioning the 1.8T engine, the first introduction of in-cylinder direct injection technology. Maximum horsepower 184PS, maximum torque 300 Nm. Nowadays, geely's more high-end model Boyue can be seen on Boyue.
Gearbox, self-developed 7DCT into an absolute workhorse
In terms of gearboxes, Geely was also one of the first car companies to start research and development, and in 2005, it had 4AT intellectual property rights, when other car companies still relied on buying ready-made joint venture gearboxes.
In 2009, Geely had a large-scale merger and acquisition, acquired the Australian DSI company, and made its own 6AT, and now Geely mainly uses DCT gearboxes. Among them, Geely Binyue uses a 6-speed wet dual-clutch transmission from Getrag, Germany.
The 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission is independently developed by Geely, and is currently widely used in Geely and Lynk & Co models, which can be said to be very mature.
Manipulation, the acquisition of Volvo into the biggest advantage
Geely's acquisition of Volvo was very helpful in its chassis control. The first known is the CMA architecture, which was jointly developed by Geely and Volvo in 2016. The biggest beneficiary is geely's Lynk & Co brand, which was later used on the Geely brand. For example, Xingrui, Xingyue.
In 2018, Geely hit the iron while it was hot and launched a BMA architecture slightly lower than the CMA architecture, which is currently used in Geely Binyue, Geely Binrui and other models.
In 2020, when new energy vehicles began to be valued by various car companies, Geely integrated resources to launch the SEA Haohan architecture, which took 4 years and 18 billion yuan to build a pure electric architecture, and will become the main force of Geely Automobile in the next few years.
From the above points, we can understand that Geely Automobile can dominate the list for 4 consecutive years, definitely not relying solely on marketing, but in the design, engine, gearbox, tuning and other aspects have poured their efforts.
In the final analysis, there is no eternal market, and there is no single car company forever. The most important thing is to continuously improve the competitiveness of products, maintain the reputation of consumers, and make the market more and more international, so that consumers can feel the genuine and value-for-money service. Let the development of independent brands be more conscientious and orderly. I believe that Geely Automobile can take on this mission.