Following Changan Automobile's pioneering move on February 9 to launch the first shot in the intelligent driving race, domestic automakers have successively unveiled intelligent driving solutions and models. 2025 has been heralded as the "First Year of Intelligent Driving" within the industry.

On March 3, Geely Group held the Geely AI Smart Technology Conference, officially announcing a paradigm shift from "Car + AI" to "AI + Car." At the core of this transformation lies the elevation of AI technology from an auxiliary tool to the central engine driving the full-link intelligent transformation of automobiles.

At the conference, Geely debuted the "Qianli Haohan" high-level intelligent driving system and launched the comprehensively revamped intelligent pure electric flagship model, Yinhe E8. It is reported that all new and revamped products under Geely Yinhe will be equipped with varying levels of "Qianli Haohan" intelligent driving solutions. Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, stated at the conference that this marks Geely's comprehensive acceleration of the implementation of the "AI+" intelligent driving strategy.

However, unexpectedly, following this announcement, Geely Automobile's (00175.HK) stock price opened and closed lower on March 4, falling nearly 9% as of press time. Despite the positive news, why has Geely's stock price experienced such significant negative feedback?

Geely Enters the Intelligent Driving Market with AI at the Helm

2025 is being celebrated as the "First Year of Intelligent Driving" for China's automotive industry.

Major automakers have increased their layout and investment in the field of intelligent driving. BYD has launched the "Tianshen Zhiyan" high-level intelligent driving system and plans to accelerate the popularization of intelligent driving through a nationwide strategy, achieving full coverage of high-level intelligent driving. Wang Chuanfu, Chairman and CEO of BYD, believes that in the next 2-3 years, high-level intelligent driving will become an indispensable configuration akin to seat belts and airbags.

Changan Automobile has released the "Beidou Tianshu 2.0" plan, detailing the blueprint for digital and intelligent upgrades. Zhu Huarong, Chairman of Changan Automobile, stated that Changan Automobile will no longer develop non-intelligent new products from this year onwards. It will launch 35 new digital and intelligent vehicles over the next three years, achieve full-scenario L3 autonomous driving functionality by 2026, and further achieve full-scenario L4 functionality by 2028.

Xiaomi Automobile has also released HAD end-to-end full-scenario intelligent driving and initiated full-scale deployment. Lei Jun, Founder and Chairman of Xiaomi, expressed confidence in Xiaomi Automobile entering the first tier of intelligent driving this year.

With the growing market demand for intelligent driving, competition among automakers in this field has intensified. Those who achieve breakthroughs in intelligent driving technology, ensure equal access to intelligent driving, and allow more consumers to enjoy the convenience and safety of intelligent driving will have a greater chance of leading the market competition. In such an environment, Geely's increased investment in AI technology is a necessary step for the company.

In fact, on the eve of announcing its AI intelligent strategic layout, on February 6, Geely announced that its self-developed Xingrui large model and DeepSeekR1 large model had completed deep integration, achieving full-link intelligence from user interaction to autonomous driving. Specifically, through distillation training technology, Geely's AI system can accurately understand users' ambiguous intentions, invoke over 2,000 vehicle interfaces, and proactively provide vehicle control, after-sales services, etc., based on scenarios.

Meanwhile, during the 2025 CES exhibition, Geely also released the industry's first "All-Domain AI for Smart Vehicles" technology system, covering C-end consumers, B-end enterprise services, and an intelligent ecosystem integrating air, ground, and space.

Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, further revealed that Geely's AI technology layout will focus on "All-Domain AI for Smart Vehicles" to accelerate the gradual integration of the latest AI technologies such as end-to-end speech large models, AI digital chassis, and high-value intelligent driving into vehicles.

Therefore, the release of this high-level intelligent driving system is just one aspect of Geely's AI technology being put into practice. According to conference materials, Geely's "Qianli Haohan" safe high-level intelligent driving system is divided into five versions: H1, H3, H5, H7, and H9, covering functions from basic assistance to full-scenario high-level autonomous driving, and will be available across all brand models under the Geely Holding Group, enabling an intelligent driving experience accessible nationwide.

Among them, the "Qianli Haohan" high-level intelligent driving system H9 features a fully redundant L3 intelligent driving architecture, enabling full-scenario D2D (dock-to-dock navigation), city NOA without maps (navigation-assisted driving), highway NOA, and VPD (Vehicle Parking Drive) valet parking. Gan Jiayue emphasized that Geely aims not only to achieve equal access to intelligent driving but also to prioritize safety.

Geely's Comprehensive "Chessboard": Dual-Wheel Drive of Technology and Brand Integration

As the intelligent driving system makes its debut, products equipped with related technologies will also be successively released.

CEO Gan Jiayue also emphasized at the conference that 2025 will be a "big product year" for Geely Yinhe, with plans to launch five all-new models, including SUVs, sedans, and high-end MPVs, each equipped with the all-domain AI technology system.

For example, the 2025 Geely Yinhe E8, which officially debuted at this conference. In terms of technical highlights, the new Yinhe E8's AI voice assistant responds in less than 400ms, supports over 150,000 vehicle control commands, and achieves a five-dimensional interaction breakthrough of "fast, accurate, comprehensive, smooth, and understanding" in conjunction with the GPT large model, realizing ultra-natural human-machine interaction.

Simultaneously, in terms of end-to-end intelligent driving decision-making, the new Yinhe E8 relies on an end-to-end neural network and world model, leveraging the "Qianli Haohan" system to achieve full-link optimization from perception to decision-making, covering over 300 parking scenarios and full-speed NOA navigation assistance.

In terms of energy and safety innovations, the SEA architecture of Yinhe E8 supports 800V ultra-fast flash charging (1 km of range added in 1 second), and the Shendun battery system prevents the spread of thermal runaway through PSS intelligent fusing technology, with safety standards exceeding national standards by 288 times.

Compared to Tesla's FSD V12, which relies on massive video training, Geely has reduced data dependency costs and accelerated the pace of technology integration into vehicles through the "AI Native OS + Large Model Distillation" approach.

While making technology accessible to all, Yinhe E8 directly competes with BYD Han EV, XPeng P7, and other competitors at a price point of around 150,000 yuan, attempting to expand market share through a cost-effective strategy.

In fact, as a successful model of transformation among traditional independent automakers, Geely Automobile's performance over the past one to two years has been quite impressive. In the first three quarters of 2024, its revenue and profit were 182.154 billion yuan and 11.312 billion yuan, respectively, both exceeding the full-year levels of 2023.

In terms of sales, its total sales volume for 2024 was 2,049,100 units, a year-on-year increase of approximately 84%, of which new energy vehicle sales were 98,433 units, a substantial increase of approximately 194% year-on-year, accounting for over 48% of total sales and contributing significantly to growth.

Relying on a diverse brand matrix including Lotus, Volvo, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Geely Yinhe, Geely Holding recorded sales increases of 21.4% and 84% year-on-year in January and February 2025, reaching 287,229 units and 204,910 units, respectively. It has now achieved monthly sales exceeding 200,000 units for six consecutive months, with products comprehensively covering the market from high-end performance to economical and practical models. It is estimated that its total sales volume will exceed 2.7 million units in 2025.

Behind Geely's surging sales is the company's accelerated pace of brand integration over the past year, with the Geely Yinhe series becoming a significant engine of sales growth.

In September 2024, Geely released the "Taizhou Declaration," further focusing on the main business of the automotive industry through five strategic initiatives: strategic focus, strategic integration, strategic synergy, strategic robustness, and strategic talent. It continues to advance the transformation towards electrification, intelligent connectivity, and sharing, comprehensively enhancing the company's competitiveness.

Since then, multiple brand mergers have been initiated. In October 2024, Geometry Automobile was officially merged into Geely Yinhe; on November 14, 2024, Geely Holding announced the optimization of the equity structure of Zeekr and Lynk & Co to rationalize equity relationships, reduce related-party transactions, eliminate horizontal competition, and promote deep integration and efficient fusion of internal resources.

At this conference, the Geely Yinhe series was officially upgraded to the "Geely Yinhe Brand" and positioned as the "leader in new energy boutique vehicles." Among them, Yizhen Automobile was officially merged into the Yinhe matrix, becoming Geely Yinhe's high-end MPV series. To date, the Geely Yinhe brand will cover the full range of new energy markets, including sedans, SUVs, MPVs, and hardcore off-road vehicles. Its product matrix includes the intelligent boutique small car GEOME series, the mainstream boutique car series, and the high-end MPV Yizhen series.

Patience Pays Off

Benefiting from robust sales and performance, Geely Automobile's (00175.HK) stock price has nearly doubled over the past year and a half since the beginning of 2024.

Following this conference, perhaps due to factors such as market sentiment cycles and changes in capital flows, its stock price fluctuated in the short term. However, there is no doubt that its intelligent transformation has begun to bear fruit.

In terms of computing power, Geely, in collaboration with companies such as Jieyue Xingchen, Qianli Technology, and Xingji Meizu, has established Xingrui Intelligent Computing Center 2.0, with computing resources exceeding the 10,000-card level and comprehensive computing power reaching 23.5 EFLOPS, "ranking first among Chinese automakers." It is reportedly about three times that of Huawei and ten times that of BYD.

In terms of data, Geely has over 7.5 million vehicles with L2 intelligent driving capabilities, ranking first among Chinese automakers, with accumulated actual driving data of over 10 billion kilometers. At the same time, Geely's self-developed AI-Drive large model possesses scenario generation and planning capabilities, capable of generating any scenario and data required for algorithm training, achieving the generation of "tens of thousands of kilometers" of complex driving conditions per hour, and improving intelligent driving training efficiency by 30 times.

This is reflected in the financial data, with sales of Geely models equipped with the Xingrui large model increasing by 35% year-on-year in 2024, the activation rate of user-paid intelligent driving functions exceeding 20%, and AI technology directly boosting gross profit margins by 2.3 percentage points. Following this conference, Yinhe E8 orders exceeded 12,000 units on the first day, with positive market feedback.

Patience pays off. Against the backdrop of the "Decisive Year for Intelligent Driving," Geely's all-domain AI layout and eco-cooperation model may become one of the driving forces behind industry paradigm shifts.

However, whether technological leadership can be translated into market dominance remains to be seen over time. The only certainty is that competition in the automotive industry has shifted from "horsepower" to "computing power," and Geely is attempting to establish a firm foothold in this transformation. Next, we will wait and see as Geely continues to tackle the challenges of high cloud computing costs, data privacy compliance, and consumer trust in intelligent driving safety.

Finally, it should be emphasized that the fierce competition in the automotive market in 2025, characterized by new energy and intelligence, is just the surface. At a deeper level, this transformation has transcended mere product competition, evolving into a multi-dimensional game of data-driven, ecological integration, and business model innovation.