On the afternoon of May 7, 2025, Geely Auto unexpectedly announced its submission of a non-binding offer letter to ZEEKR. This move signifies that ZEEKR will face delisting just a year after its US listing, merging with Geely Auto to become a business unit within the larger automotive company.

A mere week later, on May 15, 2025, Geely Auto officially unveiled its first-quarter financial report.

This bold maneuver epitomizes the ultimate strategy of Geely, a private automotive company with the most intricate brand structure among Chinese brands, during the new energy elimination phase. It's a move towards consolidating all efforts under one umbrella.

Returning to a unified Geely.

While China's market potential remains vast, the number of players is clearly excessive. Following WM Motor, HiPhi, and the recent collapse of Nezha, another once-prominent player, the demise of these new forces may be commonplace for traditional automakers like Geely. However, the sudden downfall of Geely's own new brand undoubtedly stirs different emotions.

Geely Yue, after all, is controlled by Geely. Regardless of the circumstances, this represents a significant setback in Geely's multi-brand strategy.

For years, Geely has aggressively deployed its multi-brand strategy in the new energy sector, from Geometry to Yihe, Lynk & Co to ZEEKR, and later Radar and Geely Yue. Each brand boasts its independent product rhythm, marketing system, and R&D path.

This was an effective exploration when market trends were unclear. The pure electric market boomed from 2021 to 2023 but suddenly slowed in 2024, replaced by the rapid growth of the hybrid market. New forces once fiercely competed in the high-end market but have shifted focus to the low- and mid-end markets in the past two years.

With uncertainty about the next market explosion point, no opportunity could be missed. The strategy was to have more brands and secure positions first.

However, with Nezha's collapse and Geely Yue's demise, the final elimination race is playing out brutally.

Overnight, all burn-money models became unsustainable, and companies realized that profitability is paramount. To achieve this, cost reduction and efficiency enhancement are essential.

MONA, initially intended to be independent, remains under XPeng. LeDao and Firefly, already independent, have returned to NIO.

ZEEKR, hailed as the fastest-growing new force to go public, fell short of market expectations. Last year, before Xiaomi's SUV7 launch, the meme "ZEEKR is everywhere" became a somber backdrop to Xiaomi's surge in popularity. Monthly sales below 20,000 units could not sustain this "new force's" ambitions.

More crucially, from 2021 to 2023, ZEEKR's net losses totaled 4.514 billion yuan, 7.655 billion yuan, 8.264 billion yuan, and 6.424 billion yuan, respectively, amounting to nearly 27 billion yuan over four years.

This is a heavy burden for the entire Geely Group. Though ZEEKR is not a stepchild like Geely Yue, even a biological son cannot continue endless transfusions, especially amidst fierce market competition.

In the first quarter of 2025, Geely Auto exhibited remarkable growth, with sales hitting a record high and profits surging significantly.

This quarter, Geely Auto delivered 704,000 units, a 48% year-on-year increase, marking a new quarterly high. Net profit attributable to shareholders surged over 260% year-on-year, seemingly driven by sales growth but underpinned by a transformative operating system supporting both sales and profit growth.

The sales structure highlights the new energy sector's growth, with 339,000 units sold, a 135% year-on-year increase, and a penetration rate exceeding 52% of overall sales, significantly higher than the industry average.

Yihe's rapid growth is particularly notable, with 260,000 units sold in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of over 200%. This high growth, besides new product launches and marketing support, is a direct result of the Geometry brand's merger into Yihe.

The merger occurred on October 9, 2024, coinciding with the launch of Yihe's first A0 compact car, the Yihe Xingyuan.

This compact car has become Yihe's sales backbone, with monthly sales stabilizing above 30,000 units and terminal sales of 117,000 units making it the domestic terminal sales champion across all categories from January to April.

Now, Yihe boasts three models with stable monthly sales over 10,000 units: Yihe Xingyuan, Yihe E5, and Yihe Xingjian 7 EM-i. The post-merger vitality is evident.

It's no surprise that just a month later, ZEEKR and Lynk & Co announced their merger.

Less than half a year later, ZEEKR merged back into Geely, truly completing the strategic transformation towards "one Geely".

The swiftness of these transformations underscores that Li Shufu and Geely's senior executives had a comprehensive plan in mind.

Perhaps to affirm the correctness of "one Geely" to the market and public, Geely swiftly released its first-quarter financial report following ZEEKR's delisting news.

As Geely Auto's Chief Executive Officer, Gui Shengyue, stated: "Only by unifying Geely into one cohesive force and ending the fragmentation of small brands can Geely survive in today's fiercely competitive market. Without a capital-level merger, integrating two listed companies like Geely and ZEEKR under two management teams would be complex, inefficient, and face inconsistent shareholder interests. Hence, the merger is necessary, and time is of the essence."

Amidst the first quarter's high growth, Geely Auto's significant improvement in cost control is noteworthy. Its sales expense ratio fell to 5%, and the administrative expense ratio to 1.9%. This indicates Geely's pursuit of a more efficient operational rhythm, aiming to maintain brand differentiation and product richness while reducing internal friction and enhancing collaboration efficiency. Profit growth is gradually achieved through gross profit structure optimization and cost structure reshaping, not solely reliant on sales growth.

However, things are seldom that simple.

While the Geometry-Yihe merger has proven effective, the situation for ZEEKR and Lynk & Co is more complex.

Both brands cannot be abandoned soon. ZEEKR holds the highest positioning and has captured some users' minds. Lynk & Co, with multiple fuel, hybrid, and pure electric product lines, remains Geely's technology group's market mainstay, accounting for nearly two-thirds of sales. However, pricing and positioning overlap between these brands is significant, even extending to their similar logos.

If these brands cannot be truly differentiated at the market level, relying solely on organizational mergers may not address the fundamental issue. Without the synergistic efforts of these two crucial brands, Geely's future will remain clouded.

Perhaps a start could be changing all Lynk & Co logos to 'LYNK&CO'?