Geely Auto

Sector

Automotive

Chinese name

吉利汽车

Programme

Day 3 · 13 Oct 2026 · Hangzhou

Geely Auto (吉利汽车) is the listed car company of Li Shufu, the entrepreneur whose group bought Volvo Cars in 2010. In 2025 it sold more than 3 million cars and posted revenue of 345 billion yuan. Growth now comes almost entirely from abroad: in the first ten months of 2026 exports were up 168 per cent, while sales in China fell by almost a quarter. For Belgium, Geely is closer than it seems, through Volvo Car Gent and, since March 2026, with its own cars in showrooms. The company was on day 3 of the China Business Mission 2026.

A private company in a sector for state firms

Li Shufu was born in 1963 in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province. He started a small factory for refrigerator parts in 1986, later built scooters and in the late 1990s wanted to make cars. At the time, that sector was reserved for state-owned companies and their foreign partners. Sceptics were told that a car is nothing more than "four wheels and two sofas". The first Geely rolled off the line in 1998, and in 2001 Geely became the first private Chinese carmaker to receive a full licence.

To read the figures, you need to keep two entities apart. Zhejiang Geely Holding is Li Shufu's private holding company, which owns Volvo Cars, Polestar, Lotus, half of smart and a stake in Malaysia's Proton, among others. Geely Automobile Holdings is listed in Hong Kong and groups the Geely, Galaxy, Zeekr and Lynk & Co brands. The figures in this article refer to the latter.

Volvo as a school

In 2010 the group bought Volvo Cars from Ford for 1.8 billion dollars. Ford had paid 6.45 billion in 1999. In China people spoke of the snake swallowing the elephant. Li kept his distance: Volvo stayed in Gothenburg under Swedish management and received money to invest. In return, Geely learned. A joint development centre in Gothenburg designed the CMA platform, used for the Volvo XC40 and the Lynk & Co 01, among others.

That is the core of the model: a few shared platforms under many brands. The electric SEA platform underpins the Zeekrs, the smart #1 and the Volvo EX30, which has also been built in Ghent since 2025. The same approach produced brands that competed with each other. Since 2024 Geely has been merging brands under the banner of One Geely, and in December 2025 Zeekr was fully absorbed and delisted from New York.

How big is Geely today?

Geely Auto sold more than 3.02 million cars in 2025, more than double its 2021 volume. Revenue rose 25 per cent to 345.2 billion yuan, while net profit held roughly steady at 16.9 billion yuan, CnEVPost reported. 2026 is proving harder. After ten months the count stood at 2.55 million cars, 74 per cent of the full-year target of 3.45 million. In October, however, a record 69 per cent of cars sold were electric or plug-in hybrids, according to the monthly figures.

Profit is holding up. Over the first nine months of 2026 revenue rose 13 per cent to 272.6 billion yuan and net profit 7 per cent to 13.9 billion. In the third quarter alone profit grew by 28 per cent, The Standard reported on 29 October.

There was change at the top too. On 18 August 2026 Li Shufu stepped down as chairman of Geely Auto. He became honorary chairman for life, remains the controlling shareholder and stays on as chairman of the holding company. The new chairman is An Conghui, who has worked at Geely since 1996 and built up Zeekr. His task is to make the brands work together better.

Growth comes from abroad

In 2025 Geely Auto exported 420,097 cars. In August 2026 the company raised its export target for this year from 640,000 to 920,000, CnEVPost wrote. By the end of October exports had already reached 904,823 cars. At the same time, sales in China fell by 23 per cent, in a market where purchase subsidies are being phased out and the price war continues.

Within the group, too, the picture is mixed. Zeekr, the premium electric brand, sold 94 per cent more after ten months, while Lynk & Co sold 23 per cent less. Geely is winning abroad and in the more expensive segments, but losing ground at home. How other Chinese carmakers deal with the same pressure is covered in our articles on NIO and JAC Motors.

What Geely is doing in Europe and Belgium

On 26 March 2026 Geely launched its own brand in the Benelux with two SUVs: the electric E5 from 37,990 euros and the plug-in hybrid Starray EM-i from 34,990 euros, VRT NWS reported. Geely works with local partners and aims for 35 sales points in the Benelux by the end of 2026. The plug-in hybrid is no coincidence. Since October 2024 the EU has levied extra duties on electric cars from China, 18.8 per cent for Geely on top of the standard 10 per cent import duty. Plug-in hybrids are not covered.

The next step is building in Europe. In July 2026 Ford and Geely set up a joint venture at Ford's Valencia plant, with Ford holding 66 per cent and Geely 34 per cent. From 2028 two electric Geely SUVs are due to roll off the line there, electrive reported. In August chairman An Conghui also said that from 2028 Geely wants to build more expensive models in European Volvo plants. Which plant that will be is not yet known.

Ghent is an obvious candidate, but nothing is confirmed. In July 2026 Volvo reached a provisional agreement with the Flemish and federal governments on up to 119 million euros of support for training, greening and research, and itself suggested the plant could also build cars for other brands. On 23 October Volvo Cars announced 2,500 job cuts worldwide, mostly in Sweden. What this means for the roughly 6,300 employees in Ghent remains unclear.

From buying and learning to building in Europe

For thirty years Geely followed the same pattern: make an expensive product cheaper, buy knowledge, learn from it and share it across brands. In Europe that pattern is now turning around. The group that kept Volvo going wants to use European plants to build its own cars inside Europe's trade walls. For Belgian suppliers and logistics firms, the question therefore shifts to who will help build those cars. How Chinese companies find their way to Europe is the subject of our page to Europe.