According to the 2021 financial report data released by Geely Automobile on March 23, the company achieved revenue of 101.6 billion yuan, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year. This is since 2018, Geely Automobile's total revenue has once again exceeded 100 billion yuan.
Although the revenue is gratifying, Geely Automobile's net profit has declined: the net profit in 2021 was 4.35 billion yuan, down 21.9% year-on-year. Regarding the increase in revenue and no increase in profits, the explanation given by Geely Automobile is: chip shortage, raw material price increases, and research and development expenditure rise. According to the financial report, Geely Automobile's R&D investment in 2021 reached a total of 5.5 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1% year-on-year. In the past five years, Geely Automobile's total R&D investment totaled 25.6 billion yuan.
In fact, although Geely Automobile's net profit has declined, its earning power has not declined. In 2021, Geely Automobile's gross profit margin increased by 1.1 percentage points to 17.1%, achieving three consecutive years of increase. Cash flow was at an all-time high, with total cash reaching $28 billion and net cash reaching $20.8 billion. Among the corporate ratings, Geely Automobile was recognized by S&P as a "BBB-" issuer credit rating, and its outlook was upgraded to "stable".
In addition, there is another set of data with great gold content that deserves attention, that is, in 2021, Geely Automobile's technical licensing and R&D service revenue has reached 4.5 billion yuan, an increase of 245.3% year-on-year; of which the technology licensing revenue is 1.275 billion, an increase of 125% year-on-year. "Technology licensing has become a new profit growth point for Geely Automobile." Li Donghui, CEO of Geely Holding Group, vice chairman and executive director of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, said.
Models over 100,000 yuan accounted for 66% of the average price of bicycles increased by 9.0%
2021 can be said to be the year when the geely auto technology 4.0 era really landed. This year, Geely Automobile released the "Smart Geely 2025" plan, launched Raytheon Power, accelerated the import efficiency of CMA, SPA and SEA Haohan and other structures, and the electrification products of Power Technology also followed. With the successive landing of products in the technology 4.0 era, Geely Automobile's product structure has been significantly optimized, and the proportion of sales of high-end products has increased.
In 2021, Geely Automobile's total annual sales reached 1.328 million units, an increase of 0.6% year-on-year, and won the annual sales championship of Chinese brand passenger cars for five consecutive years. Among them, the annual sales of the "China Star" series exceeded 200,000 vehicles, accounting for 18.3%; the annual sales of Lynk & Co reached 220,000 units, an increase of 26% year-on-year, and the average sales revenue increased to 130,000 yuan; and the extreme Krypton 001 delivered 12,453 vehicles in four months, with an average order price of 335,000 yuan.
With the continuous efforts of high-end brands such as Lynk & Co and Ji Kr and the "China Star" high-end series, compared with 2020, geely Automobile's guidance price has increased to 66% of models with a price of more than 100,000 yuan.
Specifically, Geely Automobile's models with a guidance price of less than 100,000 yuan have dropped from 64% to 34%; the proportion of models with a guidance price of 100,000-150,000 yuan has increased from 25% to 44%; and the proportion of models with a guidance price of more than 150,000 yuan has risen from 11% to 22%.
With the optimization of product structure, Geely Automobile's bicycle sales revenue has increased significantly. According to the financial report, in 2021, the overall average bicycle sales revenue of Geely Automobile (including Lynk & Co) reached 87,672 yuan, an increase of 9.0% year-on-year. The brand premium ability is prominent, and the high value helps the brand to continue to rise.
The optimization of the product structure has brought a significant increase in the sales revenue of bicycles to Geely Automobile. The industry believes that this is an effective presentation of the improvement of the brand premium ability of Geely Technology in the 4.0 era, and it is also the first appearance of the results of geely automobile's high-end transformation. Gui Shengyue, CEO of Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd., also said at the performance conference that the product layout of Geely Automobile 4.0 era will gradually enter the harvest period.
Diversified development of profit structure Only selling technology in one year earned 1.275 billion yuan
In recent years, more and more auto companies have shown that they want to transform into technology companies. At this stage, Geely Automobile's innovation-driven technological transformation has achieved initial results and provided a reference for the transformation and development of other car companies.
An indispensable move in technological transformation is to increase investment in research and development. Including the aforementioned investment of 25.6 billion yuan in the past five years, Geely Automobile has invested more than 140 billion yuan in research and development in the past ten years, with more than 20,000 design and development personnel and 26,000 innovative patents. In 2021, Geely Holdings became the only car company in the TOP10 of the R&D investment of Chinese enterprises that year.
Under the support of continuously increasing investment in research and development, Geely's "big travel" layout has been strengthened, and a competitive hard-core technology ecosystem has been steadily built. Through new energy technology, internet of vehicles, autonomous driving, low-orbit satellites, in-vehicle chips, operating systems and other businesses, Geely Automobile is strengthening the technology ecosystem.
High-end research and development has helped technology output, which has contributed to the diversified development of Geely Automobile's profit structure. According to the financial report, in 2021, the net profit of the joint venture company (Lynk & Co and J&G Financial) increased by 42%, of which the net profit of Lynk & Co increased by 37% and the net profit of J&G Financial increased by 45%.
It is worth mentioning that technology licensing has become a new profit growth point for Geely Automobile. According to the financial report, in 2021, Geely Automobile's other revenues such as technology licensing and R&D services continued to grow, an increase of 245.3% year-on-year; direct revenue from technology licensing reached 1.275 billion yuan, an increase of 125% year-on-year.
From product output to technology output, it shows the technical capabilities of Geely Automobile, and also brings more possibilities to Geely Automobile, which is at the "critical point" of "intelligent travel technology enterprises". In the future, Geely Automobile's technical licensing and technical service revenue will maintain a stable growth trend, laying the foundation for Geely Automobile's leading position and brand influence in global technology. Li Donghui said.
Looking forward to 2022, it will continue to be a year of continuous export of Geely automobile technology and products. Geely Automobile will comprehensively promote the implementation of the smart Geely 2025 strategy and build Geely's leading system in the era of intelligent new energy vehicles; accelerate the comprehensive architecture car manufacturing efficiency of the technology Geely 4.0 era, increase the modular architecture model to 70%, and increase the proportion of China Star in the sales ratio of the Geely brand to 30%.
For example, Geely will continue to increase investment in research and development of new energy products, and make full efforts on pure electricity, super mix, alcohol-electric hybrid, power exchange and other tracks; it will focus on strengthening software self-research, accelerating the application of a new generation of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, and accelerating the process of intelligent networking. In the new car plan, Extreme Kr will launch a luxury pure electric MPV, the Geely brand will bring two new SUVs, and Geometry will also usher in a new SUV model. At the same time, Geely Automobile will also launch 5 Thor Hi · X hybrid, 3 Raytheon PHEV models and 1 methanol electric hybrid model.
Text/Wen Chong
Editor/Chen Zhengzhong