Taizhou, Zhejiang is the birthplace of Geely. On August 8, 1998, the first Geely car "Haoqing" was produced at the Linhai base in Taizhou, marking the beginning of Geely's journey into the household car market.
26 years later, Geely returned to Taizhou to release a new car - Geely Galaxy Starship 7 EM-i (hereinafter referred to as "Starship 7"). At the press conference, Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, stood on the platform of Starship 7 via video.
From passion to the Galaxy Starship 7, Geely is particularly committed to quality. "- CEO of Geely Automobile Group
Gan Jiayue said that he gave an example on site. At the beginning of car manufacturing, when faced with a car that was actually produced but did not pass the test, Li Shufu chose to use an excavator to crush the new car. "This establishes Geely's belief in producing high-quality cars
In Geely's view, the Starship 7 launched this time is a benchmark model for the segmented market, not only in terms of quality, but also in the five major areas of safety, energy efficiency, space, intelligent experience, and driving control.
Starship 7 is the first electric hybrid SUV developed by Geely Galaxy based on the GEA new energy exclusive architecture. It has a fuel consumption of 3.75L per 100 kilometers and a comprehensive range of 1420km. Its limited time price is 99800 to 132800 yuan. At the same time as starting pre-sales, Geely stated that it will simultaneously launch mass production vehicles at its Taizhou Linhai manufacturing base, making sufficient preparations for "delivery upon listing".
The Galaxy E5 and Xingyuan, which were launched in August and October this year, contributed to the main sales of the Galaxy brand this year. According to official data released by Geely, the Galaxy E5 delivered over 60000 units in 119 days, while Geely Xingyuan delivered over 30000 units in 49 days. After the hot sales of Galaxy E5 and Star Wish, Geely hopes that Starship 7 can once again become a hit.
Regarding the brand planning for the future of Galaxy, Gan Jiayue told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that by 2025, the Galaxy series will have at least four new products, namely two SUVs and two sedans, launched.
One 'hot product' talks about luck, N 'hot products' talk about system
Taizhou is the place where Geely's "car making dream" began.
26 years ago, the first Geely car Haoqing was produced at the Linhai base in Taizhou. Geely has undergone two major strategic adjustments along the way, from producing its first car offline to becoming China's first privately-owned automobile enterprise, and then to long-term positioning among the top five independent automakers.
In 2007, Geely issued the "Ningbo Declaration", proposing to "fight against technology, quality, brand, service, and corporate ethics". Afterwards, Geely embarked on a brand expansion process and completed the acquisition of brands such as Volvo and Lotus, ushering in a decade of vigorous progress for Geely. By 2019, Geely had reached a sales peak of 1.5 million vehicles and was awarded the title of "Autonomous Brother".
As of now, Geely Automobile Group has 11 brands including Geely, Lynk&Co, Ruilan, Proton, Volvo, Polestar, Polestar, Lotus, Smart, London Electric Vehicle (LEVC), and Radar.
In September of this year, Geely shifted from expansion to focus. From the actions of Geely Group, it can be seen that Geely has embarked on the path of brand integration. Li Shufu announced the "Taizhou Declaration" at the Taizhou Auto Show, announcing that Geely has entered a new stage of strategic transformation, focusing on "strategic focus, strategic integration, strategic synergy, strategic stability, and strategic talent" for the future group.
The Galaxy brand is the first step in Geely's integration strategy, while the Starship 7 is the first new car released in Taizhou after the release of the Taizhou Declaration.
Why choose the Galaxy brand, which has been established for less than two years? Within the Geely brand, Geely Galaxy is the first Geely mid to high end new energy brand established after the "Blue Geely Action". Gan Jiayue believes that during the landing period of Geely's new energy transformation, the positioning of the mid to high end Galaxy is still Geely's reliance for upward mobility. Galaxy has launched six models in less than two years, achieving a cumulative sales volume of over 500000 units after the brand was launched.
Galaxy has also experienced a period of sales growth. According to data disclosed by Geely, in 2023, the Geely Galaxy brand delivered a total of 83500 Galaxy L7 and Galaxy L6 vehicles. After more than a year of mediocre sales, the Galaxy brand did not experience a sales boom until the launch of the Galaxy E5 in August this year.
The Galaxy E5 is positioned in the A-class pure electric SUV market, benchmarking against the BYD Yuan Plus. Geely has used this car as a "price killer". As of the end of November, the cumulative sales of Galaxy E5 have exceeded 60000 units. Another sales driver is Geely Xingyuan, which is an A0 level pure electric sedan launched by Geely in October this year. Within 65 days of its launch, the delivery volume has exceeded 40000 units. Two cars drove the Galaxy series to achieve sales of over 420000 units in the first 11 months of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 74%.
From the 100000 to 200000 yuan range covered by L7, L6, and E8, to the launch of Xingyuan bringing down the price range of the Galaxy brand to the 70000 yuan range, Geely looks forward to the continued volume growth of Galaxy bringing economies of scale. E5 and our wishes have all achieved our goals, "said Gan Jiayue.
Starting from the Galaxy E5 in the second half of this year, Geely aims to create our own popular products in every segmented market. When defining our products, we aim to set a benchmark in this market segment for each product we develop.
With the experience of creating explosive models, at this press conference, the Galaxy Starship 7 was recognized by Geely as a model that combines the "five benchmarks" (safety, energy efficiency, space, intelligent experience, and driving control), hoping to create another explosive model.
For a car manufacturer, it is also possible to create a popular product, "Gan Jiayue told reporters." But to create a second and third product that continues to be popular, the technical system, quality system, and underlying channel management system are very important for successfully creating a popular product
After the release of the Taizhou Declaration, "Geely's current business is centered around the whole vehicle business," Geely CEO Gan Jiayue told 21st Century Business Herald reporters.
Geely introduced that the Starship 7 released this time integrates Geely Group's technologies in multiple fields such as hybrid technology, battery technology, and intelligence. It is built on the GEA new energy exclusive architecture and is equipped with Geely's self-developed Aegis short blade battery, the all-new generation Thor EM-i super hybrid technology, and Flyme Auto intelligent cockpit. At the same time, its chassis has also been tuned by the Lotus engineering team.
Whether it's creating a benchmark or a bestseller, we need to face competition from our peers. For the Galaxy brand, which has always been breaking through the most competitive price range, the competition in the A-class hybrid SUV market where the Starship 7 is located is not small. In the A-class segmented market, the sales volume of BYD Song Pro DM-i in the first half of this year was 120700 units, ranking first in the A-class plug-in hybrid SUV market.
The biggest advantage of Starship 7 is its price. It sets the limited time price at 99800 yuan, which is 13000 yuan cheaper than the starting price of the 2025 BYD Song Pro DM-i and 25900 yuan lower than the starting price of the A-class hybrid SUV Galaxy L7 launched last year. Compared to being perceived by the market as directly entering BYD Song's "ruling area".
Has Geely's transformation reached its' harvest period '?
While Geely has risen to become the "top independent player" by relying on gasoline powered vehicles, its competitors are secretly accumulating strength in the field of new energy. In 2021, BYD's sales of new energy vehicles reached 603800 units, a year-on-year increase of 218.3%. In the same year, Geely's new energy sales were 100000 vehicles, with a new energy penetration rate of only 6.7%.
Geely also sensed a crisis. In 2021, Li Shufu reiterated the "Two Blue Geely" action plan, and Geely entered a period of new energy transformation. Among them, the Blue Geely Action Plan focuses on energy-saving and new energy vehicles, including hybrid electric vehicles and small displacement energy-saving vehicles; Plan 2 focuses on pure electric intelligent vehicles. In October of the same year, Geely proposed the "Intelligent Geely 2025" strategy, with the goal of launching over 25 new intelligent new energy products under Geely Automobile Group's brands within five years, leading Chinese brands into the era of intelligent terminals.
Nowadays, with slogans put into action, Geely's technology ecosystem centered around intelligent energy, autonomous driving, intelligent networking, and intelligent cockpit is gradually being established. From a technical perspective, we have been doing some layout and development work, and now it should be the harvest period, "Li Chuanhai, director of the Central Research Institute of Geely Automobile, told 21st Century Business Herald reporters.
In November of this year, the penetration rate of Geely's new energy reached 49.6%, which is about 6.5 times higher than three years ago. According to official data released by Geely, the cumulative sales of Geely cars from January to November this year have reached 1966512 units, a year-on-year increase of about 31%, exceeding the original sales target of 1.9 million units and currently hitting the target of 2 million units.
In recent years, we have been practicing the 'one network, three systems', among which the most important is the intelligent energy system. Taking the intelligent energy system as an example, Geely has completed the self-developed Shendun short knife battery and equipped it with Geely Galaxy's exclusive electric drive and hybrid architecture. The Galaxy brand is undertaking the implementation of this technology. Regarding the technological highlights of the Starship 7 released this time, Li Chuanhai stated that Geely's early deployment of computing power and algorithms in the field of artificial intelligence "has been fully applied on the Galaxy Starship 7".
With the support of technology, the sales of the Galaxy brand reached an explosive period in the second half of this year. In October, the sales of the Galaxy brand reached 63500 units, a year-on-year increase of over 83%; In November, its sales reached 75200 units, a year-on-year increase of 121%. Specifically regarding the Galaxy brand, we believe that the potential energy of the Galaxy should continue to be maintained, and the speed of the Galaxy will also continue to be maintained.
For the future of the Galaxy brand, Geely is looking forward to welcoming the product year of 2025. The plan for the Geely Galaxy brand next year is very clear. Currently, there is no segmented market for product layout, and corresponding products will gradually be introduced to the market. Therefore, there will be at least four new products in the Galaxy series to be launched to the market next year, including two SUVs and two sedans.
In terms of sales channels, "we will continue to expand Galaxy's sales network next year. We have already established A and B networks this year. On this basis, we may continue to expand. Geely will have comprehensive distribution in fourth tier, fifth tier, sixth tier cities, and even county-level cities," said Gan Jiayue.
At the financial report conference of Geely Automobile in August this year, Gui Shengyue, CEO of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, believed that with the joint improvement of scale effect and intelligent technology, the situation of turning losses into profits in the new energy sector will soon come. He stated that in the first half of 2024, the proportion of new energy sales of Geely Automobile will significantly increase, and fuel vehicles will return to the first place among domestic brands. He has seen the dawn of Geely Automobile's renewed glory.
But it is obvious to all that even though Geely is about to enter the "harvest period" internally, it still needs to go through the adjustment period brought by brand integration and face the internal friction caused by the overlap of model positioning and brand positioning.
In addition to the merger of Geometry into Galaxy and the merger of Extreme Krypton and Lynk&Co, within the Galaxy brand, the Starship 7 and Galaxy L7, which are also positioned as A-class hybrid SUVs, have price ranges of 103800 to 136800 yuan and 125700 to 160700 yuan, respectively, leaving room for overlap.
Fan Junyi stated that the Galaxy L7 and Starship 7 will form the "twin stars" of hybrid SUVs in the Galaxy, sold through different channels and targeted at different segments of the population. "When it comes to performance, people will choose the L7; but for ultimate energy efficiency, they will choose the Starship 7