With its strong market performance, Geely won the first annual sales volume of Chinese brands without suspense.
On January 6, Geely announced its December sales figures, and its sales volume of 158,700 units in a single month not only created the best monthly results in Geely's history, but also helped Geely win the first place in Chinese brand passenger car sales for five consecutive years.
At the same time, with the annual sales of 1328029 vehicles in 2021, Geely surpassed SAIC Volkswagen in one fell swoop and won the third place in the industry's annual sales volume, setting a record for the highest ranking in the history of Chinese brands.
Even compared with runner-up SAIC-GM, Geely is not spared, and in the case of the same market share, it is only a slight gap of 3538 vehicles.
Behind the proud sales, it is not luck, but strength and system.
After years of development, Geely has built a strong and efficient million vehicle system in R&D, manufacturing, marketing, channels, services and other fields. It is also the empowerment of this system that makes Geely occupy the top position of Chinese brands and become the best growing Chinese brand in recent years.
Slow philosophy
For the automotive industry, 2021 is the beginning of hellish difficulty, on the one hand, the epidemic is raging, on the other hand, the core is fermented, and the superposition of the two is to double the pressure on many car companies.
In this context, even if there is still a gap of 200,000 vehicles in the annual sales target of 1.53 million vehicles set at the beginning of the year, Geely's performance is still remarkable.
After all, in 2021, too many car companies cannot reach the sales target set at the beginning of the year, and too many car companies fall into a difficult situation of negative growth or even high negative growth.
If we take a deep look at Geely's 2021, we will have the feeling that Geely seems to be deliberately "slowing down" the pace of progress.
Note that this "slowness" is not slowness in efficiency or speed, but "slowness" in strategy.
In this era where speed is king, many car companies are always in a hurry. Launch a model today, and I hope to occupy the champion of the market segment tomorrow. This year set a sales strategy, eager to reach the top of the industry next year.
Sometimes, blindly seeking speed, but falling down. Down-to-earth, though it seems slower, doesn't make a mistake with each step and eventually prevails.
We all know that 2021 is the year when Geely's "Technology Geely 4.0 Era" is fully launched, that is to say, the entire 2021 is more like a transitional year for Geely.
The focus of work in the transition year is not to promote the new, but to renew, not to seek speed, but to seek stability.
This year, especially for traditional fuel vehicles, Geely will complete the product renewal by adding special models, mid-term modifications, and replacing 21 of the 24 models on sale.
Even in the last month of 2021, Geely launched a new Emgrand L based on the BMA architecture. In this way, this also makes the coverage rate of Geely Huan's new products reach 87.5%.
In sync with the rhythm of product renewal, Geely's sales strategy has been adjusted.
In terms of sales strategy in 2021, Geely has reduced low-value products such as Envision and increased the proportion of sales of high-brand premium models such as Lynk & Co and China Star Series, thus realizing the transformation from quantity to quality.
The advantage of Geely's doing this is that it can fully benchmark the new requirements of 4.0 at the product level, further consolidating the foundation of the product matrix.
As for the cost, it is that the launch of new models is a little slower, there is less noise at the market and user level, and it will also make the annual sales target a little slower.
The "slowness" of this strategy also allows Geely's sales structure to change in a higher-end, healthier direction.
The data best illustrates this trend, with the higher brand value-added Lynk & Co and The China Star series reaching sales of 220,000 and 210,000 units respectively in 2021, which together account for about one-third of Geely's total annual sales.
The continuous optimization of the sales structure and the continuous upward brand competition have become one of the biggest highlights of Geely's sales volume in 2021.
Among them, the Lynk & Co brand sold more than 220,000 vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 26% year-on-year, and ushered in a critical moment when the cumulative sales exceeded 600,000 vehicles on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the brand in 2021.
As for the China Star series, it includes three products, Xingyue L, Xingyue and Xingrui, all of which were born on the latest CMA platform and entered the hinterland of the joint venture in terms of price.
In December last year, the sales volume of the China Star series reached about 29,000 units, and the development momentum and explosive effect should not be underestimated.
At present, Xingrui is relatively stable, and there is still a large vacancy in the cumulative order volume of Xingyue L. In 2022, the China Star series is bound to have better market performance.
Whether it is the adjustment of the pace of product promotion or the adjustment of sales strategy, it will somewhat slow down the achievement of Geely's annual sales.
However, although it is a little slower, but a little more stable, this will further consolidate the foundation of Geely's upward movement and further expand Geely's future growth space.
Slow is fast, and Gilly took this truth to the extreme.
Transformation is fast
2021 seems to be a year of transformation, and the air is full of the smell of "transformation".
How can you maintain professional competence while keeping up with rapidly changing consumer demand? How to stabilize the basic disk of fuel vehicles while quickly gaining a foothold in the new energy track?
This is probably a problem that all auto giants are facing and thinking about, although each solution is different, but the transformation is already on the way.
The business logic that seems to be respected and practiced only by IT giants such as Apple, Google, Huawei, etc., is like a seed that has been brought from the wind and took root in the traditional industry of automobiles.
All user-centric and user-oriented development strategies have been established in a very small number of rapidly responding auto giants, such as Geely.
In June 2021, Geely's first user brand of Chinese automobiles, "We", was officially released.
"We" are completely operated by users, geely builds a platform, creating a multi-dimensional car living space of "everyone plays together, everyone builds cars together".
Just 5 months later, Geely's goal of being more specific and efficient echoed with the user brand "we".
In November, Geely released the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy, which Geely officially defined as the most competitive and respected Chinese auto brand by creating an intelligent travel experience that exceeds users' expectations, building a technology-led global automotive enterprise, and becoming the most competitive and respected Chinese auto brand.
The word "respected" with humanistic care not only brings different expectations to users, but also puts forward more requirements for Geely's transformation into a user-oriented enterprise.
Paying is rewarded, and Geely's user strategy is not just talk.
In 2021, Geely won many major awards such as the J.D. Power CSI After-sales Satisfaction Award, the China Quality Award Nomination Award and the China Automotive Service Golden Wrench Award.
These trophies and honors prove that in 2021, Geely has gained double recognition from the market and users in terms of user operation and maintenance, user service, etc.
In front of the "we" user brand, after there is a "respected" strategic vision, Geely this time turned around, can be described as speed, height, more temperature.
Obviously, there is no better way to sum up Geely's transformation work in 2021 than the word "speed".
In terms of transformation, Geely does not only pursue "only fast and not broken", but also implements the strategic transformation of users and new energy while responding quickly and making a large-scale layout.
At present, the trend of the new four modernizations of automobiles is already an irreversible trend, and the automobile industry is experiencing unprecedented changes in a century.
In the past 2021, despite the interference of unfavorable factors such as core shortage and epidemic, there are also positive factors such as the gradual acceleration of carbon neutrality targets, and in such a situation of repeated games, Geely's new energy blueprint is becoming clearer.
Among the traditional auto giants, Geely is one of the few car companies that has transformed rapidly.
According to the data, Geely's new energy and electrification products reached 18,813 vehicles in December, accumulating more than 100,000 vehicles in the whole year. Although in absolute quantity, Geely's new energy and electrification product sales have surpassed most of the new car-making forces, in fact, Geely's new energy transformation has just begun.
In Geely's view, the multi-pronged multi-pronged multi-dynamic path of the three major technical routes of fuel, hybrid and pure electricity is the optimal algorithm for achieving the goal of "double carbon".
In February 2021, two Blue Geely action plans were released. In the era of new energy, Geely is making two-handed preparations.
The first grasp is to focus on pure electric intelligent vehicles, form a new pure electric vehicle company, and participate in the competition of the intelligent pure electric vehicle market.
The second grasp is to focus on energy-saving and new energy vehicles. These include hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids, range-extended plug-in hybrids, and small-displacement energy-efficient vehicles. Among them, 90% are new energy hybrid vehicles, and about 10% are traditional energy-saving small-displacement vehicles.
In the field of pure electric intelligent vehicles, The Extreme Kr 001 based on the SEA Haohan architecture has proved Geely's great future.
Undoubtedly, Extreme Krypton extends the value of Chinese brands.
In October last year, the first model of TheKr 001 under the extreme krypton was officially delivered, with an average order price of more than 335,000 yuan, and became the fastest brand among the new forces to deliver 3,000 units in a single month.
If the SEA Haohan architecture is an important support for Geely's pure electric intelligent car field, then the LeiShenZhi Qing Hi released in October last year? The X Hybrid Technology brand has sounded Geely's clarion call for energy-saving and new energy vehicles.
As the core power brand of the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy, Lei ShenZhi Qing Hi? X Hybrid shoulders the heavy responsibility of promoting Geely's accelerated transformation to the new energy era.
With the blessing of the SEA's vast architecture, we have seen the "extreme krypton speed", and in the thunder god's intelligence, Hi? Under the empowerment of X hybrid technology, we also feel the user's understanding of Hoshikoshi L Thor Hi? Enthusiasm for the X-fuel hybrid version.
As soon as the pre-sale of the new car began, the 2022 pre-sale orders were sold out in 8 minutes and 21 seconds.
Within 8 months of the release of the two blue Geely action plans, Geely completed the transformation speed from route determination to product landing.
In fact, since entering 2021, Geely's electrification and intelligence have entered the fast lane of development, and one of the most conspicuous signs is that the circle of friends of Geely's car is getting bigger and bigger.
Here, in the vehicle business, Geely Automobile has reached strategic cooperation with Baidu, Foxconn, Tencent, Fu Neng and other industrial chain giants.
Over there, in the "science and technology ecosystem", Geely has also accelerated the vertical integration of the industrial chain.
The power battery project planned and built with an investment of 30 billion yuan, the three-electric system technology of Weirui Electric Vehicle Technology Company, the mobileye SuperVision assisted automatic driving system, the core engine technology 7nm process chip...
It is precisely because of the emphasis on the efficiency and speed of transformation that there was a decision to quickly transform into a user-oriented enterprise, and the release of two Blue Geely action plans.
It is precisely because of the emphasis on the efficiency and speed of transformation that there is a pole krypton speed and thunder god intelligence Hi? The rapid landing of the X hybrid technology brand has led to the expanding circle of friends of Geely's intelligent territory.
Throughout the history of the automobile industry, when the industry ushers in changes or turns, those car companies that have transformed rapidly, attached importance to user demands, continuously upgraded the industrial chain, and continuously expanded the circle of friends of car manufacturers can maintain their lead.
Obviously, in the era of change of the new four modernizations of automobiles and the great changes that have not occurred in a hundred years, Geely has been prepared.
In 2021, when the product structure, sales strategy, user strategy, and new energy strategy are ushering in a breakthrough, Geely has achieved annual sales of more than 1.32 million vehicles, becoming the annual sales crown of Chinese brands, which is both logical and natural.
And this is only a small step in the great journey of Geely. In 2022, Geely has targeted annual sales of 1.65 million vehicles, which is a challenging goal. In any case, a brand new Auspicious is already on the way.