At noon on March 23, Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Automobile") (0175. HK) released its 2021 financial report.
According to the financial report, in 2021, Geely Automobile achieved revenue of 101.6 billion yuan, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders after deducting share payment of 6.06 billion yuan, an increase of 9.4% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders of 4.85 billion yuan; and net profit of 4.35 billion yuan.
Cash flow management was robust, with total cash reaching RMB28 billion, a record high, and net cash reaching RMB20.8 billion. In addition, the Company proposes to pay a dividend of HK$0.21 per share, representing a dividend payout ratio of 35.3%, an increase of 5.8 percentage points over 2020.
Solid financial performance led geely automobile to rise more than 6% in the afternoon. As of the close of trading on March 23, Geely Automobile closed at HK$12.18 per share, up 3.4%.
For five consecutive years, it has won the top spot in The sales of Chinese brand passenger cars
In 2021, under the continuous turmoil of the global epidemic, the shortage of automotive chips, the price increase of upstream raw materials and other unfavorable factors, Geely Automobile achieved a total sales volume of 1.328 million units in the whole year, and the data of the National Passenger Vehicle Association showed that Geely Automobile won the annual sales champion of Chinese brand passenger cars for five consecutive years.
Under the heavy pressure, it is a test of the system strength of car companies. Geely Automobile has strengthened communication and cooperation with suppliers through multiple initiatives, and has made a lot of efforts in adopting domestic chips through agile management. At the same time, Geely makes full use of global supply chain management, cooperates with Volvo and other brands to integrate resources, better mobilize global resources, and overcome difficulties.
It is worth noting that Geely leads the Chinese brand passenger car, not only in terms of sales, but also further reflects the high quality of development.
With the optimization of product structure and the improvement of profitability, in 2021, the overall average bicycle revenue of Geely Automobile (including the Lynk & Co brand) was 87672 yuan, an increase of 9.0% year-on-year, and the premium ability of many of its brands was highlighted, and high value helped the brand to continue to rise.
According to the data, the total sales of the Geely brand CMA high-end series "China Star" series exceeded 200,000 vehicles last year, realizing the upward development and value leap of the Geely brand.
In 2021, the Lynk & Co brand achieved total vehicle sales of 220,500 units, an increase of about 26% year-on-year. This is the first time that Lynk & Co has broken through the mark of 200,000 vehicles per year, and the average weighted transaction price of Lynk & Co products has reached 165,000 yuan, successfully standing in the core area of the mainstream market and creating a new value height for China's high-end car brands.
In addition, in 2021, the delivery volume of Lynk & Co 01 HEV and Lynk & Co 01 PHEV exported to the European market will be 11,602 units, creating a model for Chinese high-end brands to go overseas. The innovative "subscription system" business model has been highly recognized by European users to solve their travel needs. This is the first time that a Chinese brand passenger car has entered the mainstream European automotive market, competing head-on with foreign brands such as Volkswagen and Peugeot Citroen.
In terms of electrification transformation, in 2021, Geely Automobile's total sales of new energy and electrified models (including hybrid, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric) were 100,100 units, an increase of about 47% year-on-year.
Pure electric brand geometric growth of 145.3%, in the A-class pure electricity market share of 7.43%, ranking third.
In addition, Geely Automobile launched a new smart high-end electric brand Krypton Automobile in early 2021, and the brand's first new car ZEEKR 001 was launched in October 2021, with a total of 6,007 units delivered throughout the year. With a cumulative delivery of 12,453 units in four months and an average order price of CNY 335,000, we are confident of achieving our sales target of 70,000 units this year. It is understood that in the next three years, Extreme Kr will launch 6 new products.
Diversified layout accelerates transformation
As one of the first traditional car companies in China to announce the transformation to a technology-based enterprise, 2021 is a key opening year for the comprehensive transformation of Geely Automobile, and the year of Geely's technological transformation and the acceleration of the development of intelligent electric vehicles.
At the beginning of 2021, Geely Automobile released a new blue Geely action plan to accelerate the transformation to new energy; at the same time, Geely Automobile will accelerate the transformation of Geely to the intelligent era through a series of measures, and Geely Automobile has fully entered the "4.0 comprehensive architecture system car manufacturing era".
In the field of electrification, Geely Automobile's vast architecture, which has been researched and developed for many years, has attracted industry attention as soon as it was introduced. The hot sales of Extreme Kr 001 show the advantages of Geely Automobile in the research and development of electrification platform, combined with the improvement of traditional car manufacturing processes for many years, Extreme Kr 001 is expected to continue to win a place in the high-end intelligent electric market.
With the launch of more and more models based on the vast architecture, Geely Automobile is expected to form a scale advantage and gain more market share in the electric vehicle market.
In terms of intelligence, in October 2021, the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy was officially released, which continued to promote Geely's accelerated transformation to the era of the new four modernizations, built a full-stack self-developed ecosystem in the core technologies of new energy, automatic driving, intelligent networking, intelligent cockpit, etc., and built Geely into a technology-led global automobile enterprise.
Focusing on big travel, Geely Holdings continues to increase investment in research and development, and strengthens the technology ecosystem and builds a technology moat through the layout of new energy technology, internet of vehicles, automatic driving, low-orbit satellites, on-board chips, operating systems and other businesses.
In September 2021, Geely Automobile announced that it will lead the investment in the B round of Yijiatong Technology to further improve its layout in the fields of Internet of Vehicles, Intelligent Interconnection, In-vehicle Systems and Chips. The first domestic 7nm vehicle-grade intelligent cockpit chip "Dragon Eagle No. 1" tape-out developed by Core Qing Technology under Yijiatong was successful, breaking the monopoly position of international suppliers in this market and filling the gap in the field of mainland independent design of high-end intelligent cockpit platform main chips. At present, the "Dragon Eagle One" has been mass-produced, and popular models will be installed one after another.
In addition, in the field of automatic driving, Geely has also deepened cooperation with technology companies such as Waymo, mobileye, and Baidu, further improving its research and development capabilities in the field of automatic driving.
In the past 10 years, Geely Automobile has gradually caught up with international car companies and become the head of the Chinese brand passenger car market, which is inseparable from large-scale R&D investment. Facing the competition of the next automobile era, Geely Automobile still needs to work hard in research and development, and the emphasis on self-developed technology will quickly promote the development of Geely Automobile's comprehensive intelligent and electrified layout.
In 2021, Geely Automobile's R&D investment totaled 5.5 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1% year-on-year, and the total R&D investment in the past five years totaled 25.6 billion yuan. In 2022, Geely Automobile will continue to increase its investment in research and development in the field of new energy, and the outside world is also full of expectations for the road of electrification and intelligent transformation of Geely Automobile.
Looking forward to 2022, Geely Automobile will set its sales target at 1.65 million vehicles, will continue to optimize the product structure, and comprehensively transform to electrification and intelligence, and put eight Raytheon hybrid models on the market, opening a new pattern of new energy travel. The existing main vehicle power has been fully upgraded to enhance product competitiveness.
Since 2022, the global epidemic is still spreading, the pressure of tight chip supply and rising raw material prices still exists, and the development of the global automotive industry is full of uncertainties.
But opportunities often go hand in hand with challenges. In 2021, Geely Automobile has overcome many challenges and effectively guaranteed the safety of the supply chain, and its successful experience in the past will become the support for Geely Automobile to meet the changes.
At the same time, adhering to technological innovation, Geely Automobile will comprehensively promote the landing of the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy, increase investment in research and development of new energy products, enhance brand premium capabilities, and actively deploy to the field of intelligent electric vehicles. Facing 2025, in the era of great changes in the global automotive industry, Geely will continue to move forward with cars.