During an interview at 2016 China Automotive Innovation Summit on May 18th, An Conghui, CEO of Jiejiang Geely Holding Group, said that the company’s further rapid growth couldn’t be achieved in isolation with R&D and that’s the reason why they will invest more than 8 billion yuan in this field alone in 2016.

 

In recent years, Geely really stands out from other Chinese domestic carmakers as a dark horse. According the statistics released on May 5th by the company, the sales of Geely stood at 44,590 units in this April, up by 12% against last April. In the same period, China saw an overall increase of 6.3% in its auto sales nationwide and that of 8.7% in the sales of domestic passenger vehicles.

 

However, An Conghui still believed that domestic brands, including Geely, are still facing many challenges, even against a backdrop that the company outsold market in this April.

 

To start with, An Conghui confessed that none of its Geely Vision, Emgrand and GC7 could compete with other powerful star products with international influence, such as Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, and what Geely needs are its very own star products and the way to achieve that is by product iterating.

 

Supporting that, Corolla has come to its 10th generation and totaled 20 million sales, while Sonata has also come to its 9th and still sold very well.

 

To align with these best-selling star products, Geely will invest more than 8 billion yuan in R&D this year and introduce various star models in different segments including sedans and SUVs.

 

According to its plan, Geely will achieve that by leveraging on its 4 platforms, including GMA for compact cars, FE for Emgrand, New Emgrand and Emgrand GS, KC for GC7 and NL for SUV NL3 Boyue, to introduce more models, including MPVs.

 

An Conghui also underlined that there is no such thing as a shortcut for domestic carmaker to get brand recognition. They actually have to earn it by providing products with great quality, and to achieve that, every links of a product cycle matters, including design, manufacturing, purchase and sales. So Chinese domestic brands have got to target at excellent JV brands so as to compete with them in an increasingly competitive market.