Geely Auto posts record first-half revenue of RMB 173.6 billion as exports surge 158% and the group lifts its 2026 overseas target to 920,000 units.
Geely Automobile Holdings has reported its strongest first half on record, with revenue rising 15% year on year to RMB 173.6 billion (approx. US$24.2 billion / £17.9 billion), the first time the group has cleared RMB 170 billion in a half and its sixth consecutive year of first-half revenue growth.
Core profit attributable to owners of the parent grew far faster than revenue, up 46% to RMB 9.68 billion (approx. US$1.35 billion / £1 billion). Gross margin improved to 17.9%, and core profit per vehicle rose 45% to RMB 6,806, a striking result in a market where the ongoing price war has been grinding margins down across the industry. The group finished June with a funding reserve of RMB 69.56 billion, close to a historical high.
Total sales reached 1.42 million vehicles for the half. The Geely China Star series, the group’s mainstream nameplate family in China, contributed more than 580,000 units, while the new-energy Galaxy series added nearly 520,000. Zeekr sold more than 178,000 vehicles, around 12.5% of group volume, and Lynk & Co delivered over 144,000.
Exports become the growth engine
The standout number is international. Geely shipped more than 474,000 vehicles overseas in the half, up 158% year on year and already ahead of its full-year 2025 export total of 420,000. With monthly exports topping 100,000 units in both June and July, the group has raised its 2026 export target from 640,000 to 920,000 units, and says it aspires to approach one million.
That pace puts Geely firmly in the conversation as China’s export champion, and the group is leaning on partners to sustain it. Geely says it is pursuing a partnership-led globalisation strategy across manufacturing, R&D and supply chains with Volvo Cars, Proton, Renault Group and Ford, and has unified its engineering teams in Sweden and Germany to shorten rollout cycles between China and global markets. It currently operates in 114 overseas markets with more than 2,000 retail and service locations, and the flagship Zeekr 9X is slated to enter additional overseas markets.
A sports sedan and an off-roader to come
Product plans for the second half include what Geely calls a reshaping of the C-segment AI electric sports sedan market with the Geely TT, and a first entry into the rugged off-road category with the Zhanjian 700. The group is also accelerating hybridisation of its combustion line-up, targeting monthly sales of more than 30,000 i-HEV units by year-end, an annual one-million-unit run rate for the China Star series, and international i-HEV rollouts from 2027.
First-half R&D spending rose 8% to RMB 9.06 billion, though the R&D ratio eased to 5.2% of revenue on what the group describes as enhanced operational efficiencies. With BYD’s domestic momentum having cooled this year, these numbers will sharpen the question we have been tracking for some months: whether Geely is now setting the pace among China’s volume carmakers, at home as well as abroad.
