New Blue Oceans: Geely Brazil Venture Shows China’s Brand Power
October 2025: A Record-Shattering Month
Geely Auto leaped to a historic high this past October, surpassing 300,000 units in monthly sales. This achievement, marked by a 14.2% month-over-month and a robust 36.8% year-over-year growth, set a new company record.
This performance is no anomaly. Throughout the first ten months of 2025, Geely has consistently demonstrated high-volume sales and rapid growth. Ranking second in sales volume among China’s top automakers, Geely’s growth rate of 56.2% significantly outpaces its top-ten peers by 40-60 percentage points and exceeds the industry average by 48 points, cementing its position as the fastest-growing major automaker in the domestic market.
By the end of October, Geely had already fulfilled 83% of its annual sales target of 3 million vehicles. Given the current sales momentum, achieving the full-year goal within the remaining two months appears almost certain.
As consistent high growth becomes the norm, so too does the expectation for a more sophisticated understanding of Geely’s strategy. The company does not disappoint, revealing a unique hallmark: equilibrium, specifically, the equilibrium of high-quality development.
The Art of Balanced Portfolios: Powertrain and Market Strategy
From January to October, Geely delivered a total of 2.14 million vehicles. A closer look reveals a strategic pivot: sales of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles accounted for 884,000 units (41.3%), while new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached 1.256 million units (58.7%). This shift demonstrates Geely’s remarkable ability to move in lockstep with the broader market’s transition toward electrification.
Geely’s surgical precision in managing its diverse technology roadmap underscores its position as the most balanced player in the global automotive arena. This balanced approach provides a critical strategic advantage, especially in a new era of market-driven competition.
The recent removal of NEVs from China’s strategic industry list signals the imminent end of over a decade of substantial subsidies. Concurrently, the release of the “Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 3.0” emphasizes a future without policy mandates for any single technology. In this fully market-driven environment, Geely’s balanced portfolio allows it to navigate the transition with unparalleled composure and agility.
Global Footprint: A Multi-Polar Strategy
This technological comprehensiveness fuels Geely’s expansion beyond China. The company boasts one of the most balanced global footprints in the industry, characterized by three core dimensions.
First, it maintains a balanced presence across both mature and emerging markets, avoiding over-reliance on any single region. By year-end, Geely will have established over 1,100 overseas outlets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. In October alone, overseas exports hit 41,568 units, a 23% year-over-year increase, bringing the year-to-date total to over 330,000 units.
Second, Geely employs a uniquely flexible and efficient “ecosystem win-win” model. Instead of relying solely on heavy-asset investments, Geely leverages strategic partnerships, such as the acquisition of Proton for Southeast Asian market access and the joint venture with Renault to target South Korea and Brazil. Critically, these partnerships often involve Geely supplying core technologies like the SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) and GEA (Global Electric Architecture) platforms, accelerating its global reach while sharing risk and resources. This strategy enables a qualitative leap from simply “exporting products” to “exporting technology.”
Third, Geely has achieved a strategic upgrade in localization. While others talk about localizing supply chains, Geely has already built a comprehensive global system encompassing “Five Design Centers, Five Engineering R&D Centers, Five Testing Regions, Five Energy Technology Forms, and Five AI Ecosystems.” This infrastructure makes Geely arguably the only Chinese automaker capable of true “one-country-one-policy” operations.
In the UK, Geely leverages its foundation from the early acquisition of LEVC (London Electric Vehicle Company), expanding from public service into the private consumer market. In Europe, the plan is to launch 15 new models within five years, covering luxury, premium, and mainstream segments. In Malaysia, the “Big Dipper” strategy around Proton focuses on seven key elements, including talent and supply chain development. For Geely, exporting products is just the beginning; true, lasting success comes from integrating into the fabric of global automotive R&D, manufacturing, and local culture—a crucial step toward building a century-old global enterprise.
A Cohesive Brand Architecture: The Foundation of Stability
The logic behind Geely’s equilibrium is now clear. A balanced technology portfolio ensures steady success at home. This domestic strength provides the launchpad for a uniquely tailored global expansion. This balanced global presence, in turn, reveals the blueprint for a sustainable, century-old company.
This is akin to flying a kite: the higher it soars, the more important it is to keep a firm grip on the string. For Geely, that “string” is the synergistic progress of its three core brands, representing a balanced market coverage system.
Following a strategic reshuffle in 2024, Geely’s portfolio is now centered on three pillars: Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr.
The Geely brand, spearheaded by the Galaxy series, is the primary driver of volume and NEV penetration. The Galaxy series achieved the one-million-unit annual sales milestone in just ten months, a record pace within Geely and the industry. However, the brand’s strength isn’t limited to Galaxy. Its ICE series, notably the “China Star” lineup, sold 118,021 units in October alone, with cumulative sales exceeding 1.02 million units year-to-date. The premium “China Star • High-end Series” (including Xingrui, Xingrui L, and Xingyue L) sold 33,958 units in October, with YTD sales over 360,000 units.
The global premium brand, Lynk & Co, hit a record high in October with 40,213 units sold, up 29% year-over-year. NEVs constituted 72.1% of its sales (28,983 units). Year-to-date, Lynk & Co sales surpassed 280,000 units, a 24% increase. Notably, the flagship six-seat SUV, the Lynk & Co 09, sold over 7,000 units in October, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 40,000 units since its launch six months ago, securing a top-three position in the premium full-size hybrid SUV segment.
The global luxury tech brand, Zeekr, delivered 21,423 units in October, a 17% month-over-month increase, bringing its YTD total to 165,000 units. The brand also refreshed key models in Q4: the new Zeekr 001, featuring a standard 900V architecture, garnered over 10,000 orders quickly after its October 11 launch, and the refreshed Zeekr 7X, also with a full 900V system, strengthened its competitive edge upon its October 28 debut.
This three-brand strategy thrives for three reasons:
- Powerful Synergy over Internal Competition: The brands form a seamless ladder from mass-market (Geely Galaxy/China Star) to premium (Lynk & Co) to luxury (Zeekr), precisely targeting different consumer tiers.
- Shared Technology, Tailored Application: The powerful technological backbone of Geely Holding Group (SEAArchitecture, GEA, etc.) supports all three brands. Each brand then applies and packages these technologies according to its unique positioning, maximizing R&D efficiency and diversifying the consumer experience.
- A Premiumizing Mix: The growing contribution from mid-to-high-end models and high-value brands is a key indicator of healthy, balanced development. Sales from Geely’s mid-to-high-end models, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr collectively account for nearly 40% of total volume YTD—another record-breaking aspect.
This strategic synergy not only enhances financial performance but, more importantly, constructs Geely’s deepest “moat” against intense industry competition. This moat manifests concretely: Geely holds a leading position in China, the world’s largest auto market, while simultaneously flourishing globally. It possesses a brand matrix serving all consumer tiers while having the capability to export core technologies to established international OEMs. It embraces the NEV wave while executing a flexible, pragmatic global localization strategy.
It is certain that throughout 2025 and for the next three to five years—and likely beyond—Geely will maintain an equilibrium that sets it apart from the competition, turning strategic balance into a sustainable competitive advantage.
