Geely’s Tramway: It began to set foot in new energy in 2005, and is accelerating its impact on high-end at this stage – yqqlm

The electric tide is coming! After more than 10 years of development, my country has become the world’s largest new energy vehicle market, with new car manufacturers and traditional car companies advancing hand in hand.

Where did the Chinese car companies that rely on the first-mover advantage start? Whether they can win in the turnaround of century-old car companies in Europe and the United States, and ultimately win the long-distance race for automobile electrification, the answer lies in each car company.

Che Dongxing launched the “Trolley Road” series of reports, systematically reviewing the exploration process, key achievements and milestone models of domestic mainstream car companies in the field of new energy in the past 10 years, and can also glimpse their industry position and next steps. Direction of development. This article is the seventh report of “Road to Tram”, which is about Geely Automobile.

Geely Automobile, as the first brother of the current domestic independent brand,It only really began to enter the automotive industry in the late 1990s..

In the first few years of entering the game, Geely quickly entered the market with its cost-effective low-end fuel vehicles, making its mark.

Different from other traditional car companies that started R&D on new energy vehicles early, Geely’s new energy business started not too early.

In 2005, Geely began to develop hybrid vehicles, but the new energy business was basically stranded in the following ten years. Because at this stage, Geely’s development focus is in the direction of fuel vehicles and has achieved outstanding results, so the development of new energy business is not fast.

It was not until 2015 that Geely officially decided to enter the new energy field in an all-round way, and it can be said that it is actually standing on the same starting line with many popular new car companies.

However, in the new energy business, Geely does not seem to have entered the fuel vehicle market as smoothly as it did at the beginning. Although Geely put forward the strategic goal of “Blue Geely” in 2015, and even shouted the slogan “New energy vehicle sales will account for 90% or more of the group’s total sales by 2020”, but unfortunately, it has not been realized. .

▲ Geely Auto Headquarters

Geely’s Geometry A, Geometry C, Emgrand EV and Emgrand GSe last yearAnnual sales of new energy vehicles reached 100,000 units, and the annual sales of an Euler of the Great Wall exceeded 130,000 units. And Tesla achieved sales of 70,000 units in December last year with only the Model 3 and Model Y.

It can be said that in the new energy market, Geely has not yet produced an explosive model with a stable monthly sales of over 10,000. For Geely, which is already the first brother of its own brand, such a result is unlikely to be achieved.

So how did Geely’s new energy business form the current situation? What efforts and attempts have it made in the field of new energy? This article will answer these questions by sorting out the achievements of new energy development of Geely Auto in the past ten years.

1. In 2005, it started to get involved in the early stage of new energy and mainly engaged in confusion

At the beginning of the new century, the entire new energy industry is still at the stage of crossing the river by feeling the stones, and Geely is no exception.

Geely, which only entered the auto industry in 1996, was the first private auto company in China at the time. Li Shufu said that “a car is just a sofa on four wheels”, and created Geely’s first car pride by dismantling and imitating it. With its ultra-low price, this low-end fuel vehicle that highly “learned” from Xiali helped Geely quickly open up the market.

In the next few years, Geely was eager to promote the market share of low-end fuel vehicles, and at the same time, the focus was still on the fuel vehicle business, but at the same time, Geely also carried out preliminary exploration of new energy business.

In 2005, Geely established a hybrid car research and development project teamAccording to reports, at that time Geely planned to put into production its first gasoline-electric hybrid car at the end of 2008, but then it was nowhere to be found.

Because during that time, Geely Group’s entire focus was on busy recruiting. From 2005 to 2009, Geely successfully cooperated with the British Manganese Bronze Group to jointly produce a British TX4 classic commercial vehicle with a retro appearance; acquired DSI, the world’s second largest automatic transmission company in Australia, and Volvo, a well-known Swedish car brand.

Throughout the more than 20 years of Geely Automobile, “buy, buy, buy” is almost a very obvious label on its body. Through continuous acquisitions and mergers at home and abroad, with the help of the resources of these well-known overseas enterprises, Geely’s own research and development strength is also continuously enhanced. This is not only true in the past fuel vehicle business, but also played a big role in the new energy business.

▲ Emgrand EC7

Although Geely’s first hybrid car was delayed in 2008, at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show, Geely finally exhibited a hybrid version of the Emgrand EC7. According to relevant reports, the basic parameters of the hybrid version of the Emgrand EC7 were basically the same as the fuel version. Just because the plug-in hybrid technology was adopted, the curb weight of the vehicle was much higher than that of the ordinary version. At the same time, due to rising costs,The price of the vehicle is also higher than that of the regular versionthe price is between 79,800 and 111,800.

The hybrid vehicle technology of that era was far inferior to the current one, and there was no advantage in price. In the end, this car did not make a lot of waves in the market.

In addition to launching hybrid models, Geely has also explored new energy-related industrial chains.

Through the acquisition of overseas companies such as Volvo, Geely’s vehicle R&D and manufacturing capabilities have been greatly improved. In 2011, with the help of Volvo’s resources, Geely invested in the research and development of the SPA independent platform, which basically meets the requirements of lightweight and electrification.

Most of Volvo’s XC90, S90, V90 and other products are based on this platform. It is reported that the 2011 XC90 has launched a plug-in hybrid version, which includes a power system consisting of a 2.0T dual-supercharged gasoline engine (turbo + supercharger) and a 60kW electric motor on the rear axle, which can be powered by pure electric power. The mode travels about 40 to 50 kilometers.

From this platform, it can actually be seen that Geely has had the idea of ​​​​laying out the new energy industry chain since then. But overall,Geely is still in the technology accumulation period at this stage.did not come up with representative new energy products.

2. Since 2015, the investment has been increased, and there have been small explosion models.

Unlike before 2010, the new energy industry was still in the stage of strategic deployment. After entering the 2010s, the entire new energy industry began to work in earnest. And Geely’s new energy road actually started at this stage.

In 2010, new energy vehicles were listed as one of the seven strategic emerging industries in China. In July of the same year, the Ministry of Finance and other four departments jointly issued the “Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Program of Subsidy for Private Purchase of New Energy Vehicles”, and decided to start the pilot work of subsidy for private purchase of new energy vehicles in five cities including Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei. It marks that my country has embarked on the road of exploration of “real money” to subsidize the development of the new energy vehicle industry.

But at that time, the domestic new energy vehicle market was still in its infancy. In 2010, the national sales of new energy vehicles was only 4,884 units.

▲ The State Council issued the “Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012-2020)”

In June 2012, the State Council issued the “Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012-2020)”,Clearly increase fiscal and tax policy support. The central government arranges funds to provide appropriate support for the implementation of energy-saving and new energy vehicle technology innovation projects; subsidies for demonstrations in the public service field and private purchase pilots; demonstration cities arrange certain funds, focusing on supporting the construction of charging facilities, the establishment of battery cascade utilization and recycling system, etc.

In 2014, the state proposed for the first time that “the development of new energy vehicles is the only way to become a powerful country in automobiles”.Explicitly give tax incentives to new energy vehicles, that is, exempt from vehicle purchase taxofficially pointed out the wind direction for the market.

It was also in this year that all kinds of new car-making forces sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. According to relevant statistics, the national sales of new energy vehicles this year were about 80,000, almost 15 times that of 2010.

The policy orientation has become so obvious, and Geely has finally taken action.

In 2015, Geely officially announced the “Blue Geely Action”, which is also Geely’s first “five-year plan” in the new energy business.

According to the “Blue Geely Action”, Geely plans to sell 90% or more of the Group’s total sales of new energy vehicles by 2020; at the same time successfully develop hydrogen and metal fuel cell electric vehicles; in new energy, smart vehicles and lightweight technologies occupy a leading position in the industry.

It is worth noting that in this strategy, Geely pointed out that 90% of its sales in 2020 will be new energy vehicles, of which 65% will be plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and 35% will be pure electric vehicles.

After the military order was issued, in the first period of time, Geely did launch its own pure electric products, and also extensively participated in the investment layout and cooperation of the new energy industry chain, but from the current point of view, the new energy market at that time was still far Immature – the public acceptance and infrastructure are very low, this goal is obviously difficult to achieve.

▲ Geely Emgrand EV 2015

In 2015, Geely launched a sedan based on the Emgrand brand and launched the pure electric model Emgrand EV., and then launched the Emgrand GSe in 2018. During this period, the Geely brand has been used in the new energy vehicle market. Overall, the results of this wave of attempts are not bad.

Emgrand EV struggled at the beginning. After its release, there was a short-term increase in sales. In March 2018, it climbed to the third place in the domestic new energy vehicle sales list, but the good times did not last long, and it dropped in September 2018. to tenth place.

In February 2019, it became the best-selling new energy vehicle in China, and the sales volume fluctuated greatly. However, this has also become the final glory of the Emgrand EV. Since then, this car has gradually faded out of the top ten best-selling cars in China.

Although Emgrand EV can no longer be seen in the sales list, it has been in the top three many times in the few years since its launch. In the market environment at that time, it was quite competitive.

It is little known that Geely also participated in the cooperative production of the miniature pure electric vehicle ZHIDOU. Among the top ten new energy vehicle sales in China in the first half of 2015, only three A0-class pure electric vehicles sold more than 4,000 units, while ZHIDOU was the largest in China. right there. But we all know what happened later. Wuling Hongguang MINI EV became a god in battle, and Zhidou is no longer seen in the list of pure electric miniature cars.

▲ Zhidou miniature car

Therefore, in the past five years, Geely’s goal is far from being achieved.

For the whole year of 2020, Geely Automobile’s cumulative sales volume of new vehicles was 1.32 million.Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 68,000 units, down 39.8% year-on-year., accounting for only 5.2% of the overall sales volume. In 2020, Geely’s friend BYD has become the sales champion of the domestic new energy vehicle market, with 189,700 units in one fell swoop.

In addition to electric vehicles, methanol-fueled vehicles are also a direction that Geely is very optimistic about.

As early as 2009, Li Shufu submitted a proposal to “issue a national standard for methanol vehicles as soon as possible”. In 2015, Geely signed a cooperation agreement with Iceland Carbon Cycle International to start developing methanol fuel vehicles. This is also one of the important layouts of Geely in the upstream industry chain of new energy. Just a few days ago, Geely’s fourth-generation Emgrand alcohol-electric hybrid car was officially launched in Guiyang, which is also the world’s first methanol-electric hybrid car.

In conclusion, at this stage, Geely not only pays attention to the improvement of the production capacity of pure electric and plug-in hybrid electric passenger cars, commercial vehicles, etc., but also pays attention to the upstream of the new energy automobile industry chain such as methanol fuel, hybrid engine and The improvement of production and R&D capabilities such as batteries.

Although Geely’s “five-year plan” for new energy has not been successfully realized, it has made some attempts in the field of new energy at this stage and has made some achievements. But it has also been left behind by strong competitors such as BYD and Tesla. In 2020, Geely’s friend BYD has become the sales champion in the domestic new energy vehicle market, selling 189,700 new energy vehicles in one fell swoop; Tesla also sold nearly 500,000 pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market; The new car-making force, Weilai, also achieved 43,000 units this year. Compared with Geely’s 68,000 units, it is obvious to see the gap.

This may be related to its strategic choice in the layout of new energy – Geely chose to go hand in hand, and made layouts in pure electric, plug-in hybrid, mild hybrid and even methanol vehicles, and failed to concentrate its core advantages. develop.

3. With Extreme Krypton as the main force, the current stage is accelerating the impact on the high-end

At the end of 2019, the domestic new energy vehicle market is already at a stalemate, and there are already many new energy vehicles on the market – traditional car companies have already begun to turn around, and new car manufacturers are eager to try. Geely has also begun to comprehensively adjust its new energy strategy,Devote more resources to new energy business.

With the sharp decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles, the sales of new energy vehicles have also been significantly affected. In 2019, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 1.206 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4%, but the data of one million units proves that the domestic new energy vehicle market has begun to take shape.

This year, the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory officially started construction. After Tesla started local production, the domestic Model 3 was also officially delivered. A catfish effect also swept the entire domestic new energy vehicle market, and new energy vehicles for the C-end market began to rise.

It was also during this period that BYD began to come up with its own heavy technology – DM-i technology, blade battery, e-platform 3.0 and so on.

In the face of such fierce competition in the industry, Geely’s new energy presence is getting lower and lower, so the first brother of the self finally started to worry and began to fully promote electrification.

At this stage, Geely implemented the strategy of “having more children to fight”.

On April 11, 2019, Geely released the Geometry brand, positioning it as a first-level sub-brand parallel to the Geely and Lynk & Co brands, focusing on pure electric models, and successively launched pure electric models such as Geometry A, Geometry C and Geometry E. .

▲ Geometry A

Geely expects the Geometry brand to use a new brand image to win the market, and Geely Group’s Volvo, Polestar and other brands have also launched mid-to-high-end pure electric models, but these models are ultimately tepid, with a lack of presence. Not strong.

And by 2020, Geely finally made its big move in the field of pure electricity—— It has jointly developed a pure electric platform called SEA Haohan platform with Volvoand based on this, a ace product, Extreme Krypton 001, was created.

▲ Extreme Krypton 001

Extremely Krypton 001 has a body size of 4970/1999/1560mm and a wheelbase of 3005mm. It is positioned as a luxury hunting coupe with a price of around 300,000.

This car has rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive options. The maximum power of the single motor is 200kW (about 272 horsepower), the maximum power of the dual motor is 400kW (about 544 horsepower), and the peak torque is 343 ~ 768N m. Among them, the standard endurance four-wheel drive version is equipped with an 86kWh battery, which can accelerate from zero to 100 hours in 3.8 seconds, and the cruising range under NEDC conditions is 526km. The long-range rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive versions are equipped with 100kWh batteries, and the zero-to-zero acceleration is 6.9 seconds and 3.8 seconds, respectively, and the NEDC cruising range is 712km and 606km, respectively.

In terms of intelligent driving, Jikr 001 is equipped with a full-scene driving assistance system called ZEEKRAD. The chip adopts the 7nm process Mobileye EyeQ5H high computing power automatic driving chip. The detection device includes 12 ultrasonic radars and 15 high-definition cameras. The farthest sight distance reaches 600m. Combined with a high-precision map and positioning system with centimeter-level accuracy, as well as the “skeletal recognition” technology based on a cross-visual fusion algorithm platform, JK 001 can detect targets such as open streets, trees, pedestrians, construction scenes, and alien vehicles. Accurate identification, and even prediction of the target movement trajectory and method.

With good product strength and a wave of market offensives, the sales of the 001 model have continued to increase, and it has now reached the level of 4,000 units per month. In the Geely system, it is a well-deserved new energy main model. At present, the sales have improved slightly, reaching the level of 4,000 units per month, but there is still a distance between them and Wei Xiaoli.

In terms of power batteries, Geely also has a layout. In July 2021, Sunwoda announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Sunwoda Auto Battery, Geely Group and Zhejiang Jirun will jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture. The three parties invested 30 million yuan, 28.5 million yuan and 41.5 million yuan respectively, and the shareholding ratios were 30%, 28.5% and 41.5% respectively. The capacity construction of the newly established joint venture company includes cell, module and battery pack production lines, mainly focusing on supporting the production of HEV (including 48V) power battery packs to meet the needs of Zhejiang Jirun, Geely Group and its related parties for a full range of HEV automotive power. battery product demand.

In October 2021, Geely released Raytheon Power and the world-class modular intelligent hybrid platform – Raytheon Hi·X.

Lin Xiaozhe, deputy director of Zhejiang Geely Powertrain Research Institute, introduced that based on the four advanced technologies of supercharged intercooling, high-pressure direct injection, Miller cycle, and low-pressure EGR, Geely’s 1.5TD hybrid engine has achieved a thermal efficiency of 43.32%. , setting a record for the highest thermal efficiency of a mass-produced hybrid engine in the world.

With the continuous development of several pure electric brands and the continuous improvement of the new energy industry chain, Geely is accelerating to catch up with the current leaders in the new energy market. Sales data is the best proof.

Just past June,Geely sold 29,671 new energy vehicles, an increase of more than 51% month-on-monthalthough there is still a lot of gap compared to the opponent, but Geely’s new energy penetration rate has increased significantly.

Conclusion: Geely needs to speed up in new energy

The history of Geely’s car manufacturing has only been more than 20 years, which is not long compared with many large car companies, but it only took more than 20 years to achieve the status of the first brother of its own brand, which shows that its overall strength is indeed very strong.

After reviewing the history of the new energy field, it is obvious that Geely’s current new energy achievements are mainly caused by not paying enough attention and investing enough resources before, which is also related to the development rhythm of the new energy market.

From the current point of view, the general trend of new energy vehicles has come, and the sales of fuel vehicles are declining. Geely has a series of new energy brands in hand at this time, and has the R&D and manufacturing capabilities of global layout. After that, you should get good results.