Geely’s pure EV sales surge 520% YOY in first half of 2022

Chinese automobile major Geely, headquartered in the Hangzhou area of Zhejiang, enjoyed a significant surge in its EV sales in the first half of 2022. According to stats released by the Chinese manufacturer, the electric segment, especially BEVs, kept on growing at an unprecedented rate despite various market challenges.

Sales of pure electric vehicles surged 520 per cent year-over-year (YOY). Representing fastest-growth, the BEV segment accounted for sales of 85,820 EVs during the January through June period of 2022, significantly up from 13,851 units in the corresponding period of 2021.

The rising EV demand is evident in Geely’s first half of 2022 earnings, as BEVs made up 69% of the automaker’s new electric vehicle sales. Like most automakers, Geely is feeling the impact of higher material costs. Also, COVID-19 lockdowns in China contributed to a drop in overall sales volume.

It is worth-mentioning here that Geely is not a fully electric brand, but it is aggressively growing its share in the EV market. It has two electric divisions, viz. Geometry and Zeekr. Geometry is its mass-market EV unit, while Zeekr is its premium intelligent EV line. Geely is also a part of a 50/50 joint venture (JV) with Lifan, which offers battery swap products and services.

On top of that, Geely’s Zeekr is part of the Sustainable, Experience & Architecture (SEA) ecosystem along with Volvo, Jidu, Lotus and Polestar. The ecosystem has been designed to cover the entire auto market segment with a pure electrical modular architecture. The companies involved in the ecosystem are thus trying to create an open-source EV-dedicated platform for scaling production.

Zeekr delivered more than 30,000 EVs to customers during the first half of this year, with deliveries of Zeekr 001 reaching 24,032 units, up 22 per cent of Geely’s total BEV sales.

Export sales of the company jumped 5.8 per cent, allowing overall revenue to climb 23.1 per cent year-over-year. At the end of June 2022, the company had RMB 37.5 million (approximately $5.5 million) in cash and equivalents. Geely’s EV sales are expected to continue to grow in the future as the company is pushing ahead with its expansion plans. It has set a goal to enter the highly-lucrative market of North America after 2022, and launch at least five new BEV models by the end of 2025.