China Star series will sell more than 200,000 units in 2021 (Image source: Geely Automobile)
China Star, Lynk & Co and Extreme Kr help Geely achieve brand upwards, and the profit structure is diversified
In 2021, Geely Automobile sold a total of 1.328 million models of its various brands, winning the annual sales championship of Chinese brand passenger cars for the fifth consecutive time.
Different from previous years, driven by product structure optimization and profitability improvement, Geely Automobile's overall average bicycle revenue increased to 87672 yuan, an increase of 9.0% year-on-year, and the brand premium ability became more and more obvious.
From the perspective of models, the Geely brand CMA high-end series "China Star" series will sell more than 200,000 units in 2021, and the cumulative sales of Lynk & Co will exceed 650,000 units on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the brand. Among them, the average weighted transaction price of Lynk & Co products reached 165,000 yuan, which established a foothold in the core area of the mainstream market. Since its delivery in October 2021, the first model of the pure electric brand Extreme Kr 001, which was just established in April last year, has delivered 12,453 units in four months, with an average order price of 335,000 yuan, and is expected to hit the sales target of 70,000 units this year.
High-end R&D to help technology output has contributed to the diversification of Geely Automobile's profit structure: in 2021, the net profit of the joint venture company (Lynk & Co and J&Z Financial) increased by 42%, of which the net profit of Lynk & Co increased by 37% and the net profit of G&G Financial increased by 45%. Other revenues such as technical services and licensing profits continued to grow, up 245.3% year-on-year, of which licensing revenue has become a new profit growth point for the company.
5.5 billion yuan of R&D investment to promote the intelligent and electrification process of Geely Automobile
In 2021, Geely Automobile's new energy and electrification models sold more than 100,000 units, of which geometric sales increased by 145.3%, the market share of the A-class pure electricity market was 7.43%, and ranked third in the sales list. In 2022, Geometry has set a sales target of 160,000 units, which is another great challenge. The first geometric new model based on the Haohan platform will be launched on the market next year, and the new cars that follow will also use the Haohan platform to shorten the development cycle.
In Geely Automobile's pure electric product planning, it also includes a variety of high-performance and high-intelligence pure electric models built by Geely and Lynk & Co brands based on the vast architecture in the next two years, and the product matrix of this multi-level model will help Geely further accelerate in the field of new energy pure electric models, narrow the gap with other brands and achieve catch-up.
In the field of power exchange, Ruilan Automobile, a joint venture jointly funded by Geely and Lifan, has a complete research, production, supply and marketing system, and launched the first intelligent power replacement car Maple Leaf 60S in February this year, and will also launch a new flagship replacement SUV model this year, hoping to fully open the private user market. In addition to the C-end market, Ruilan Automobile will also focus on the concept of "low operating costs" and "the most energy-saving" for the online travel market to enhance the travel experience of the B-end market. In the planning of Ruilan Automobile, the exclusive power exchange architecture covering the wheelbase range of 2700mm to 3100mm can ensure that its future product matrix includes cars, SUVs, MPVs and even logistics vehicles and light trucks, which can meet the needs of different markets. In terms of the layout of the substation, Ruilan Automobile will take Chongqing as the center, radiate the power exchange network to the whole country, and achieve the goal of operating more than 5,000 ultra-fast substations in more than 100 core cities around the world in 2025.
In the field of intelligent networking, Geely Automobile will focus on strengthening software self-research and accelerating the realization of a new generation of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit applications. In terms of smart cockpit, the "new generation of smart cockpit" technology based on 7Nm chip will be displayed this year and will be the first to be installed on the new smart SUV. In terms of autonomous driving, Extreme Kr and Mobileye have deepened their cooperation and will launch the world's first all-electric vehicle with L4 autonomous driving capability in 2024. As the official partner of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, Geely will provide 1,800 passenger cars for the Hangzhou Asian Games connection service and land a 6V5R intelligent driving system (NOA)
Six new cars will be available in the next three years, and Extreme Kr will welcome five major OTAs this year
Geely's 2021 financial report coincided with the first anniversary of the establishment of the Extreme Kr brand, since the start of delivery on October 23, 2021, a total of 6,000 units were delivered last year, and as of the end of February this year, 12,453 units have been delivered, becoming the fastest brand in the high-end intelligent electric industry with a cumulative delivery of more than 10,000 units.
As of the end of February, 12,453 units of The Krypton 001 have been delivered (Source: Extreme Krypton)
In response to the question about what deficiencies exist in Extreme Kr, An Conghui admitted that there are deficiencies in product delivery and software, the former is affected by the lack of cores, supply assurance and the epidemic, and the latter needs greater improvement. However, An Conghui is also full of confidence in completing the delivery target of 70,000 units this year, in his view, the order of Extreme Kr has exceeded his expectations, the factory with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units also has the ability to mass-produce, and the supply of chips will also show a relatively large improvement this year. However, if you only rely on a model of Extreme Kr 001 to complete the goal, it will be slightly difficult, so this year there will be a new model of Extreme Kr 001 sports orientation on the market, and there will be an MPV model that has been expected by users for a long time.
For Extreme Kr, the urgent problem to be solved at the moment is the software problem. An Conghui stressed that in order to frankly face the problems existing in Extreme Kr, especially when Extreme Krypton's products are excellent in many aspects, the software still needs to be greatly improved.
In this regard, the countermeasures taken by Extreme Kr include increasing the number of software talents and the proportion of software talents in research and development personnel, as well as increasing capital investment in intelligence. At present, there are more than 3,800 R&D personnel in the team of more than 7,000 people in Extreme Kr, and the proportion of software-related R&D personnel has exceeded 60% of the total number of R&D teams. From these data, it can be reflected that Krypton has invested and taken specific actions in the field of intelligence.
When energy and resources are invested heavily in the right direction, it will inevitably bring results: On February 12, Extreme Kr's ZEEKR OS 1.1.1 version was released and fully OTA pushed, which has more than 20 new features, more than 200 improvements and involves 34 ECU units, fully reflecting the software development strength of Extreme Kr. At the scene of the financial report conference on March 23, An Conghui revealed that Extreme Kr has officially begun to push the official version of ZEEKR OS 2.0 on the same day. The upgrade involves 33 ECU units and adds 5 new functions, and 59 enhancements and optimizations for user feedback from ZEEKR OS 1.1.1.
Extreme Kr will usher in 5 major version upgrades this year (Image source: Extreme Krypton)
ZEEKR OS 2.0 adds the first ZAD Kr Intelligent Driver Assistance System features, including ACCQA adaptive cruise with queuing function, AEB forward collision mitigation, LDW lane departure warning and FCTA forward intersection arrival warning, as well as charging abnormality indication reminder function. Among them, the FCTA front intersection traffic warning function is a new feature added in the basic package of ZAD intelligent driver assistance system. In addition, in the official version of ZEEKR OS 2.0, in response to the suggestions of continuous feedback from users of the previous ZEEKR OS 1.1.1 version, Kr has optimized the functions in many aspects such as one-pedal experience, automatic door experience, driving mode memory, vehicle version display, video software playback settings, boot response, Bluetooth and voice experience, etc., further improving the convenience and comfort of users' cars. An Conghui said that including today's ZEEKR OS 2.0 version, Extreme Kr will have 5 major version OTA upgrades this year, as well as several small version experience optimizations, download and installation time will be further reduced, and the installation success rate will continue to improve.
In terms of ZAD Kr Intelligent Driver Assistance System, Extreme Kr will also push more safe and reliable functions. Among them, in order to ensure the integrity of the active safety function verification cycle, the ZAD intelligent driver assistance function for extreme Kr 001 will be upgraded in stages. The first phase will realize lane centering, active cruise control, and continuous improvement of cruise functions; the second phase will realize autonomous navigation and part of the parking assistance functions in high-speed and urban expressway scenarios; the third phase will continue to expand the pilot scenario and parking scenario to bring users a better driving experience.
An Conghui said: "Extreme Kr wants to become the benchmark enterprise with the strongest software capability and the best experience in the field of intelligent electric vehicles. ”
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media APP, and the author |.) Cui Zhiqiang, Editor | Cui Zhiqiang)