Text |Zhang Kun
design|Li Zhengwei
On February 16, Geely’s new mid-to-high-end series name "Galaxy" for the era of new energy vehicles was officially announced. From the name point of view, this name still has a strong "Li’s romance".
Those who are familiar with Li Shufu know that he has a strong "cosmic feeling" and his love for "stars" is beyond words:
As early as the beginning of the last century, Li Shufu said internally that the journey of Geely Automobile was the sea of stars; and on the flight back to China after Geely’s successful acquisition of Volvo in 2010, Li Shufu said to the full moon starry sky that perfection is the pursuit of the Chinese people, and then there is the Volvo that returns the tiger to the mountain; in the era of Geely 3.0 boutique car building, the naming of models such as Xingyue and Xingrui is also full of this color; even in the naming of many companies within Geely, the interstellar era, time and space, Taoyu… also reflect this romantic color.
In ancient times, people used to call the Milky Way standing on the dome the Xinghan, which was regarded as the most romantic and beautiful thing in the world. Therefore, Cao Cao sighed: "The Xinghan is brilliant, if it comes out of it".
Winning the firmament, wanting to compete with the heavens, this is the romance hidden in the bones of the Chinese people. In the name of the Milky Way, it shows a deeper expectation of Geely.
The famous philosopher Socrates once said that most of the success in the world is due to the inevitable results of accidental causes. If you pick the fruits from the wisdom of the sages, they can be roughly summarized into six words: time, place, and people.
For the current automotive industry, it is an era of rapid change that has left many people feeling unfamiliar.
In 2022, BYD rose to prominence, historically surpassing North and South Volkswagen to become the highest-selling enterprise in the Chinese auto market. The market share of Japanese and Korean models, which have always been known for their economy and durability, has contracted across the board, and the share of self-owned brand passenger cars will account for half of the country in 2022;
At the beginning of New Year’s Day, Barbarian Tesla’s incredible crazy price cuts set off a wave of new energy vehicle brand price fights, with countless brands involved.
After the Spring Festival, the world’s largest automobile company, Toyota, announced the largest personnel adjustment in recent years. The failure of Bz made it impossible for everyone to see where the world’s largest automaker by sales was headed.
Not long ago, the European Parliament passed a historic resolution by a narrow margin – 2035 ban on the sale of fuel vehicles. You know, Europe is the cradle of the world’s automobiles, and has accumulated a huge industrial chain cluster around the upstream and downstream of fuel vehicles;
The sales of traditional luxury brands BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi no longer made great progress, and the Japanese luxury car Lexus, which had always emphasized tonality, saw a decline for the first time. In contrast, the sales of Extreme Krypton, NIO, and Li Auto grew rapidly, and the new pattern of the luxury car market and the all-electric market has changed…
The world has changed, and so have the cars of the world.
There are black swans above and gray rhinos below. For most car companies, the days of smooth sailing and high clouds are gone, not to mention trying to eat all over the world through a novel routine.
Big waves require big changes.
In 2021, Geely officially established the extreme krypton car to face the high-end competition, and announced that it officially sounded the horn of competition for electric vehicles from a higher level. As of now, the cumulative sales of extreme krypton have exceeded 80,000 units.
If you look back, Geely’s journey on the track of new energy vehicles has not been smooth sailing. As early as 2016, Geely proposed the Blue Geely Action and launched a new Geometry brand within the Geely system. But whether it is the Geometry brand or Geely’s own new energy products, they have not achieved the corresponding expected goals in the market.
Looking back today, the core of Geometry’s success or failure may be the right time, the right place and the right person. The new energy vehicle products of the year were far less acceptable than today’s users, and Geometry’s actions at critical moments also deviated from the original planned track…
So in 2023, is Geely ready to embrace the smart electric era?
In terms of sales volume, Geely’s new energy vehicles achieved double growth in sales volume and penetration rate in 2022. The cumulative sales volume of its new energy products reached 328,727 units, and the annual new energy penetration rate was about 23%, which tripled compared with 2021. And the monthly new energy penetration rate exceeded 30% many times.
From a technical point of view, Geely has built an electrification system with multiple technical paths such as pure electricity, hybrid, power exchange and methanol. In particular, Raytheon Power and related electrification technologies have been widely recognized by consumers in the market.
From the perspective of organizational structure, Geely has undergone a series of talent echelon construction, especially under the demonstration of Extreme Krypton First, and has reached a high degree of recognition for the future of new energy vehicles.
……
Obviously, regardless of the sales volume of Geely’s new energy vehicles or the current Geely system’s understanding of new energy vehicles, the Galaxy starting in 2023 is more confident than the previous brand.
On the one hand, Geely has opened up the full link of new energy vehicles and accumulated a lot of technical experience by virtue of its layout in new energy vehicles over the past period of time. On the other hand, under the premise of scale, the Galaxy brand can participate in the market competition at the lowest cost.
These are the confidence that the Milky Way can break out of the confinement.
The current is the best time for Geely, but it is also the most painful time. But the real warrior is the ability to dare to innovate at the top of the critical moment. In the face of the surging tide of smart cars in the world, Geely must go to great lengths and have no way out.
According to some data, the future Galaxy series will have three power forms: pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and extended-range hybrid, and adopt a new design language and intelligent configuration, emphasizing direct user connection in operation. In addition, Geely’s "heaven and earth integration" intelligent security ecology is clearly visible, which is provided by the "sky eye" satellite, the "super brain" intelligent computing center provides computing power support and the super intelligent end point that is freely linked to intelligent things.
This means that in terms of the full set of playing methods, Galaxy is not limited to the past auspicious. With the positioning of the mid-to-high-end series, compared with new forces and friends, the sense of value should be increased, and the imagination space and expectations should be increased. However, due to the current data, we have not yet been able to fully and specifically analyze Galaxy’s playing methods and paths.
Looking back, during the months when the Galaxy project was revealed, some people believed it, some people questioned it, and some people were half-convinced. Between reason and emotion, most people did not dare to prematurely judge this ambitious plan. But what is certain is that Geely has enough imagination for his career.
There are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the times.
In order to become a century-old store with a long-lasting foundation, enterprises cannot only think about making money, but must also correctly understand and have the courage to undertake the mission entrusted by the times, fully integrate and continuously strengthen their own capabilities and advantages, do the right things, important things, do what they can, and maintain innovation at all times.
