Geely wields the "Dragon Slaying Sword"

Author | Zhou Zhiyu

Editor | Zhang Xiaoling

Geely Auto, which vows to "return to the top of independence", intends to create a series of "blockbusters" to regain its crown.

On the evening of August 3, Geely Auto Group's new energy vehicle brand Geometry announced the global launch of its first intelligent pure electric SUV, the Geometry E5. With limited-time discounts, its price range is now between 109,800 yuan and 145,800 yuan, which is 14,000 yuan lower than the pre-sale price.

Products that have long dominated the A-class new energy vehicle market are all from BYD. Directly competing with the Geometry E5 is the BYD Yuan Plus, with monthly sales consistently above 20,000 units, showing signs of aiming to dominate the entire A-class car market.

Geely has taken out the "Dragon-Slaying Sword" from its technical pool, aiming to compete with BYD. With technologies such as the Shield Short Sword battery being first launched, as well as the current price advantage, Geely aims to turn the Geometry E5 into a blockbuster in the A-class car market, thereby accelerating the achievement of its annual sales target.

After the press conference, Geely Auto Group CEO Gan Jiayue told Wall Street News that once the product is competitive, the sales target for the Geometry E5 is to become a benchmark in the segmented market.

Gan Jiayue did not hesitate to show his favoritism towards the Geometry E5. He emphasized that Geely has been preparing for the Geometry E5 for a long time, putting Geely's best current technologies into this mainstream A-class pure electric SUV.

Geely Auto Group Vice President and Dean of the Central Research Institute Li Chuanhai stated that the Geometry E5 is the culmination of Geely's strongest technologies to date and is also Geely's highest level vehicle in terms of lightweighting. This showcases Geely's "architecture-to-vehicle" capability, which will demonstrate more advantages in the future.

Specifically, through the combination of the GEA architecture and CTB battery body integration, the Geometry E5 achieves a "room rate" of 67.2%, realizing "A-class size, B-class space"; with the support of the G-TCS all-weather anti-skid system, the Geometry E5 significantly reduces skidding and improves safe turning speeds by 6 to 10 km/h compared to other models in the same class; supported by Geely's self-developed "Magic Cube" thermal management system and the Geometry 11-in-1 intelligent electric drive, the Geometry E5 achieves the lowest energy consumption of 11.9 kWh per 100 km in the same class.

In addition, the Geometry E5 is equipped with Geely's self-developed 7nm automotive-grade chip "Dragon Eagle 1", which outperforms the Qualcomm 8155 chip. In terms of parking scenarios, the solutions supported by the Geometry E5 exceed most domestic new energy vehicles, allowing the Geometry E5 to support mainstream L2+ driving assistance systems and come with Geely's self-developed Geometry Flyme Auto vehicle system.

As for the battery, which accounts for the majority of the three-electric costs, Geely also uses its self-developed Shield Short Sword battery. Wall Street News learned that although the positive electrode material still uses lithium iron phosphate, Geely has innovated to achieve an energy density of 192 Wh/kg for the battery core, comparable to ternary lithium batteries.

Li Chuanhai stated that Geely is taking the most mainstream and competitively valued route demanded by users. Although the energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries may be slightly lower than ternary lithium batteries, Geely has made up for the shortcomings of lithium iron phosphate batteries through years of technological accumulation and breakthroughs. For example, the energy density of the Shield Short Sword battery is the highest among lithium iron phosphate batteries, and its safety is much better than ternary lithium batteries The more direct result brought by self-research is a significant reduction in product BOM costs. Li Chuanhai stated that in the mainstream A-class pure electric vehicle market, the Shield Short Sword battery can provide users with excellent product and experiential performance, and the cost is also very competitive. He pointed out that the Long Sword battery is not the optimal solution, and the Short Sword battery is the optimal solution for the new generation of power batteries.

Li Chuanhai firmly believes that competition between enterprises fundamentally lies in product competition, cost competition, and ultimately, technological capability competition. With strong technological capabilities, designing the front-end design well at the initial stage of product design is essential to achieve optimal value.

In order to ensure the delivery capability of the Galaxy E5, the 20,000th set of Shield Short Sword batteries was successfully offline at the Guiyang Flash Assembly Factory on July 26th, fully guaranteeing the launch and delivery of the Galaxy E5.

From these preparations, it can be seen that in order to make the Galaxy E5 an instant hit, Geely has made many preparations.

Indeed, the competition in the A-class vehicle market is fierce. Users in this market are price-sensitive but also hope to have top-notch quality, safety, practicality, and handling performance while maintaining a certain level of performance. Fan Juyi, General Manager of Geely Auto Sales Company, believes that only good products with good prices can become explosive models, and the Galaxy E5 is a "hexagonal warrior."

This is also Geely's understanding of the current price war. Gan Jiayue stated that Geely has always adhered to not simply engaging in price wars, which does not mean that the products do not have price advantages. Geely's price advantage has always been reflected in products, raw materials, secondary and tertiary levels, and even at the lowest level of materials.

In the recently announced "China ESG Listed Company Pioneer 100" list, Geely ranked eighth, maintaining its position as the top Chinese auto company. Gan Jiayue stated that Geely does not only focus on competitors but focuses on creating products around user needs, allowing users to get the best value for money and buy genuinely good products.

After being listed domestically, Geely will also push the Galaxy E5 to the global market, further expanding its scale.

Gan Jiayue revealed that in addition to the Galaxy E5, Geely and Lynk & Co brands will also launch several new models successively to drive sales growth.

In the first seven months of this year, Geely Auto's cumulative sales reached 1.1065 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 36%, making it the highest completion rate among various car companies. At the quarterly financial report meeting in early July, Geely Auto adjusted its annual sales target from 1.9 million units to 2 million units.

Next, Geely will further launch a fierce offensive to speed up its return to the position of "the leading independent brand."