Geely Deeply Trapped in Low-Price Volume Dilemma, Gan Jiayue Faces Pressure to Chase Domestic Sales Champion Goal

July 6, Geely Galaxy TT unveiled to the public. The car is positioned as a C-segment pure electric sports sedan, further enriching Geely Galaxy's product matrix. After launch, it will face strong rivals like Xiaomi SU7, XPeng P7+, and AITO Z7.

Geely brand persists with fuel and new energy dual-track development, Galaxy is the core sales pillar of its new energy segment. In the first half of 2026, Geely Galaxy cumulative sales reached 519,800 new vehicles, accounting for 47.2% of Geely brand's total sales and 36.5% of Geely Automobile Group's total sales. However, sales growth for Geely Galaxy this year is sluggish, with month-over-month sales dropping year-on-year for the first five months, until sales stabilized and recovered in June.

Guided price 64,800-94,800 CNY A0-class compact car Geely Star Wish is the main sales contributor for Geely Galaxy, June sales reached 50,900 units, cumulative sales in the first half reached 249,400 units, accounting for nearly half of Geely Automobile Group's sales during the period.

At the March 2025 performance briefing, Geely Holdings CEO Gu Shengyue, Geely Automobile Group CEO Gan Jiayue stated to the media that in 2026, Geely Automobile Group aims to achieve domestic sales number one. Gu Shengyue also said, "In the foreseeable future, in addition to sales setting a new historical high, it is highly probable that for every future performance briefing, our (Geely Automobile Group) core net profit attributable to parent company will also set a new historical high."

In Q1 2026, Geely Automobile Group narrowly defeated BYD (700,500 units) with a sales figure of 709,400 units, becoming the domestic automaker sales champion. Group revenue also increased from 72.692 billion CNY in the same period last year to 83.776 billion CNY, achieving 15% year-on-year growth; core net profit attributable to parent company also saw a 31% year-on-year increase.

However, since March, BYD has entered a dense new product release period and also released second-generation Blade Battery and fast charging technology, regaining the initiative. In the first half of the year, BYD returned to the throne of "Domestic Top Automaker" with 1.8085 million units sales, while Geely Automobile Group ranked second with 1.4230 million units sales sales. Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr brands sold 1.1004 million, 144,200 and 178,400 units respectively. Among the three brands, only Zeekr brand achieved year-on-year sales growth.

Equally noteworthy alongside sales growth is the product structure. Management once stated outright that an excessively high sales proportion of entry-level models leading to declining profitability is a "weakness the group needs to overcome urgently".

Currently, the automaker has not disclosed the first-half 2026 report, and specific revenue composition was also not disclosed in the Q1 report, so it is impossible to calculate the changes in per-vehicle revenue and per-vehicle profitability. However, how Geely Automobile Group will balance scale growth and profitability improvement while relying on entry-level models to support the overall sales volume remains a management challenge that requires continued attention.

 Geely Galaxy Hard to Escape Low-Price Volume Dilemma

In 2025, Geely Galaxy ushered in a comprehensive "explosion", with multiple star models performing brightly. Geely Star Wish broke 40,000 units in sales for 7 consecutive months, Galaxy M9 reached nearly 40,000 units in cumulative sales less than 4 months since officially launching in September, becoming a dark horse in the C-segment hybrid SUV market.

However, due to relatively dense new car releases and some price overlaps, customer sources were dispersed among internal models, significantly increasing the difficulty of cultivating Geely brand models that maintain consistent high volume.

Sales of Galaxy M9 (Photo/Yiche)

According to data released by Yiche, since the beginning of this year, Galaxy M9's monthly retail sales have declined significantly compared to the initial sales period. In January and February, the model still maintained sales levels of over 6,000 and 5,000 units respectively, but in March it dropped directly to 3,773 units. In April and May, sales hovered around 3,000 units. Cumulative retail sales in the first 5 months were even lower than the Zeekr 9X at the 450,000 yuan level.

Facing intensifying industry competition, Geely brand launched a new round of dense new car release offensive to boost sales, with Geely Galaxy becoming the core main force for product release. In the first half of the year, Geely Galaxy has launched home sedan Galaxy A7 EV and 2026 version Galaxy A7 EM, hybrid SUV Galaxy M7 Voyager, hybrid sedan Galaxy Starlight 7 MAX, A0-class compact car all-new Geely Star Wish, light off-road SUV 2026 version Galaxy Cowboy, pure electric SUV Galaxy Starship 7 EV, and other new cars, focusing layout on 100,000 yuan price bracket.

After experiencing month-on-month sales declines in the first five months of this year, June finally saw Geely Galaxy achieve a year-on-year sales increase. However, it is not difficult to find the underlying reason upon close inspection: popular models such as Galaxy Starlight 7 MAX, 2026 version Galaxy Cowboy, all-new Geely Star Wish, Galaxy Starship 7 EV, etc. began to launch successively from mid-to-late May and released their heat collectively in June. In other words, Geely brand has still failed to get rid of the situation of stacking sales with new cars.

Even if Star Wish itself has strong sales performance, it is difficult to completely help Geely brand withstand the downward pressure of the industry. With the intensification of competition within the A0-class market, a crowd of 100,000-150,000 yuan level models are continuously eroding the survival space of A0-class commuter cars with lower pricing, richer configurations, and longer range. Geely Star Wish not only has to bear the competitive pressure from BYD Seagull, Leapmotor A10, Wuling Bingo PLUS and other same-level models, but also cope with the traffic diversion that might come from Leapmotor C10, Changan Deepal S05, XPeng MONA L03, and other 100,000-150,000 yuan level models. In addition, this car may also face internal competition with models such as Galaxy Starship 7 EV.

However, Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands, positioned towards mid-to-high end, although have decent market performance, are not mainstream in the total sales proportion of Geely Automobile Group. If one wishes to stand again at the top position of domestic brand sales, Geely Automobile Group still needs to create more blockbuster models capable of sustained high volume sales for the Geely brand.

 Compensate Domestic Sales Gap with Overseas Increment?

According to data announced at the beginning of the year, in 2026, Geely Automobile Group's overall sales target is 3.45 million units, and export sales target is 640,000 units. Divided by brand, Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr brands bear sales tasks of 2.75 million, 400,000 and 300,000 units respectively. Therefore, in the first half of the year, Geely Automobile Group's overall sales target completion rate was 41.2%, with Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr brands achieving 43.2%, 36.1% and 59.5% respectively.

Overseas markets contributed the vast majority of increments for Geely Automobile Group. In the first half of the year, Geely Automobile Group accelerated global market expansion: Concentrated completion of brand landing in five European countries (Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) and reached cooperation with Switzerland's top dealer group, confirming entry into Swiss market in Q3; Deepened core markets in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, launched Lynk & Co 900, Coolray, Okavango L to expand product lineup; Landed localized capacity in Latin American market, completed Star Wish production in Brazil factory; In Middle East and Central Asia markets, Lynk & Co 900 landed in many Middle Eastern countries, Galaxy series models penetrated Central Asian market.

Latest data from CPCA shows that in June, domestic passenger car export volume (including CKD) increased by 82.3% year-on-year to 877,000 units, accounting for 37% of total passenger car manufacturer sales; among them, new energy vehicle exports accounted for 56.9% of total exports, an increase of 16 percentage points compared to the same period last year; domestic brand exports reached 763,000 units, an 86% year-on-year increase, with the entire industry maintaining high prosperity.

Against the backdrop of a generally strong industry export, in the first half of the year, Geely Automobile Group's export volume increased by 158% year-on-year to 474,200 units, with the half-year scale surpassing the total 2025 annual export volume. According to reports from "International Finance News" and Orient Securities research report information, thanks to the overseas market exceeding expected growth, the group subsequently raised export sales guidance twice internally, from 640,000 units to 750,000 units, and then to 900,000 units, indicating that the group's export target completion rate for the first half exceeded half.

However, it is worth noting that although the overseas sales target was significantly increased, Geely Automobile Group did not release information about increasing the overall sales target.

In 2025, Geely Automobile Group cumulative sales were 3.0246 million units, including 420,100 units export sales, equivalent to its domestic sales of about 2.6045 million units last year. According to the latest export indicators calculation, in 2026, the group needs to sell 2.55 million new vehicles domestically to achieve the overall target, which is even nearly 55,000 units less than last year's domestic sales.

According to CPCA data, in June, the A00 and A0-class economy EV market faced significant pressure. A00-class car wholesale sales were 77,000 units, down 50% year-on-year, down 11% month-on-month, accounting for 8% share of pure electric vehicles, down 11.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year; A0-class car wholesale sales were 314,000 units, accounting for 32% share of pure electric vehicles, up 9 percentage points year-on-year; A-class car wholesale sales were 236,000 units, accounting for 24% share of pure electric market, down 2.7 percentage points year-on-year.

Geely brand's new energy vehicles under the brand are mostly in the A00-A class market. Their domestic new energy sales trends are highly bound to the fluctuations of the aforementioned segmented markets. The structural adjustment of the economy EV market will also directly impact the brand's domestic market growth rhythm.