Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) announced today that aggregate sales across its automotive brands – Geely Auto, Geometry, LYNK & CO, Zeekr, Volvo Cars, PROTON, Lotus, LEVC, and Farizon Commercial Vehicle – grew 5% year-on-year to exceed 2.2 million units in 2021, a new record for the Group. For the fourth consecutive year, Geely Holding recorded more than 2 million units in aggregate sales.
The Path to a Sustainable Future
In a market environment disrupted by supply constraints around the world, Geely Holding portfolio of automotive brands showed resilient growth. The Group’s growth was led by its brand’s rapidly expanding global presence and sales of new electrified vehicles. With a greater focus placed on sustainability and green mobility, sales of electrified and clean alternative fuel passenger and commercial vehicles grew more than 70% YoY, exceeding 330,000 units and accounting for over 15% of Group aggregate sales.
Geely Holding regards sales of low-emission vehicles as part of its sustainability strategy, in which it supports the global consensus on reaching peak carbon and achieving carbon neutrality. In 2021, Geely Holding pledged to make every effort to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% by 2025 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. In manufacturing, Geely Holding has aimed to achieve carbon neutral production with “zero waste water, zero landfill waste, and zero production waste.” Through sharing its expertise and industrial technologies, Geely Holding also hopes to help suppliers reduce waste and emissions as well.
In new mobility services, Geely Holding welcomed the reduction of 468,000 tons of carbon emissions achieved by CaoCao Mobility, the green-ride hailing provider in which it is a major shareholder. CaoCao operates a fleet of zero-emission vehicles in 62 cities serving more than 100 million customers in China. CaoCao Mobility has pledged to become completely carbon neutral in its operations by 2023.
The Group’s sustainability strategy also saw Geely Technology Group establish around 100 battery swapping stations across China that can safely swap batteries in less than a minute. By 2025, at least 5,000 swapping stations will be deployed across 100 cities. CaoCao Mobility has already become a leading user of the battery swapping service in 2021, proving the technology’s maturity.
Numbers by the Brands
Geely Auto’s Hong Kong-listed holding company (HK.0175), which includes Lynk & Co, Geometry, and Zeekr, reported 2021 sales of 1,328,029 units, an approximately 1% YoY increase. Over the 12 months, Geely Auto retained its position as the best-selling Chinese brand for the fifth consecutive year. Geely Auto’s return to growth was led by its expansion overseas and new energy vehicle sales. Exports to overseas markets increased 58% YoY to 115,008 units. In the new energy vehicle segment (including BEVs, PHEVs, and HEVs) the company saw a 47% YoY increase to 100,126 units.
Lynk & Co, Geely Auto Group’s premium brand, celebrated its fifth anniversary with new milestones. In 2021, Lynk & Co has delivered 220,516 vehicles to its users, an increase of 26% YoY. Since its inception, the brand has delivered more than 600,000 vehicles to its users, setting new records for growth among global automotive brands. In Europe, Lynk & Co continues to expand with seven permanent Lynk & Co Clubs in the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, and Germany as well as many more pop-up experience centers. In 2021, the brand announced its plans to accelerate its global expansion by entering new markets in the Gulf and Asia-Pacific, starting with Kuwait in November. Aligning with Geely Holding’s greater focus on sustainability and greener mobility, Lynk & Co started offering hybrid powertrain options on all its models.
Geometry, Geely Auto Group’s standalone mass market pure electric brand launched its most affordable electric vehicle ever in 2021, the city crossover EX3 priced just below 60,000 RMB, to offer affordable, green mobility to the masses. (app. USD$9,300). Following the footstep of the mainstream Geely Auto brand, Geometry also begun its global expansion in 2021. Sales of its sub-compact SUV, the Geometry C has begun in Israel and Eastern European markets. To satisfy the high global demand for Geometry’s affordable efficient BEVs, the brand plans to accelerate its global expansion as well as launch five new models starting in 2022. Monthly orders for the brand’s electric vehicles have exceeded 10,000 for last two months in 2021.
Zeekr, Geely’s global electric mobility technology solutions brand was launched in 2021 along with its first premium pure electric model, the Zeekr 001. By the end of 2021, 6,007 premium Zeekr 001s have been delivered to users. The brand has also signed an agreement with Waymo to jointly collaborate on the development of a new pure electric vehicle for deployment as part of the Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing fleet in the United States.
PROTON Cars, of which Geely Auto Group controls 49.9% in partnership with DRB-HICOM, recorded its third consecutive year of growth with a 4.5% YoY increase in sales and raising its market share. The Malaysian national brand continued to strengthen its hold on second place while closing the gap to the top of the sales rankings in a challenging market. In 2021, the brand’s success was supported by its improving quality, service dedication, and premium brand experience.
Lotus Cars finished the year by turning a new chapter in its long history. In 2021, sales at the iconic British brand rose 24%, the brand’s best performance in a decade. The brand’s impressive performance has been driven by rising excitement about the its transformation to a new era. In the past year, Lotus unveiled its first new model in over two decades, the brand’s final traditional gasoline powered model, the Lotus Emira. The future of the brand is electric and Lotus has unveiled plans for a whole new line-up of electric models in 2022.
Volvo Cars reached a new milestone in its history when it publicly listed on the Stockholm Nasdaq Exchange in late 2021, opening the brand to Swedish and global investors for the first time in over two decades. For the full-year, Volvo saw its unit sales increase by more than 5% to over 698,693 vehicles. The brand’s growth came primarily through sales of its electrified Recharge models, which grew by 63.9% in 2021. The increasing popularity of Volvo’s electrified models is an encouraging sign of the brand’s commitment to becoming fully electric by 2030.
Polestar, in its second year of producing and delivering its mass-production Polestar 2 model, has shown impressive growth. In 2021, Polestar met its target of selling 29,000 vehicles globally, an increase of 185% YoY. By 2025, the brand expects its sales to increase ten-fold to 290,000 vehicles. In the past year, the brand has announced several new upcoming models including its first SUV, the Polestar 3, and plans to start production in America. The brand’s global footprint has nearly doubled to 19 markets in 2021. In 2022 Polestar plans to continue its rapid market expansion, including Hong Kong, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Israel, UAE, and Kuwait.
Farizon, the commercial vehicle brand under Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group, achieved exponential growth over 2021 with its new diversified new energy product portfolio. The brand saw its sales increased by more than 759% with over 42,000 vehicles sold. In several market segments in China, the brand has become the market leader including the new energy light truck and heavy truck segment, where it achieved market shares of more than 20% and 10% respectively. In the past year, the brand also raised the bar in the commercial vehicle industry with the unveiling of its next generation smart new energy semi-truck, the Homtruck.
LEVC continues its transformation from being a primarily British supplier of ranged extended electric commercial taxis and vans to a global exporter in 2022. The historic maker of London Taxis has expanded its global dealer network to 21 markets around the world including China, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium. LEVC aims to transform from 90% domestic sales to 60% export sales by 2024
Outlook 2022
Geely Holding anticipates continued solid demand in 2022 across its brands, mobility services and technology operations as disruption linked to the coronavirus pandemic and supply-chain shortages begin to ease. Geely Holding aggregate sales in 2022 is expected to exceed 2.5 million vehicles, backed by strong growth in electrified vehicles and brand expansions into new markets.
Among the Geely Holding’s subsidiaries, Geely Automobile Group (HK.0175) has set a sales target of 1.65 million units for 2022, an increase of 24%. Zeekr is planning to deliver 70,000 electric Zeekr 001s, more than ten times the number it had in its first year. Polestar has also set a high target of 65,000 electric vehicles, a nearly 125% increase.
SOURCE: Geely
