See how Li Shufu plays the blues auspicious

　　Li Shufu is famous for his love of music in the circle, and he wrote the "Geely Song". Geely has also collaborated with the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra to ascend to the elegant art hall, which is not often seen in the private label considered grassroots. But this time, "musician" Li Shufu composed a more magnificent movement – the blues Geely Variations.

　　The full name of the Blues Geely Variations is "Blue Geely Action", which is Geely’s new energy strategy. Although Li Shufu, as the "composition" and "conductor", did not appear at the Guangzhou Auto Show press conference, for Geely, this is another grand movement after the 2015 sales target "Concerto" written by himself for many years. In the 2015 sales target "Concerto", Li Shufu’s goal is to exceed 2 million global sales by 2015. But the reality is that as of October this year, Geely has sold 404,800 vehicles, and even with Volvo’s 391,900 vehicles, it is far from the goal of 2 million vehicles for the whole year.

　　On November 18, Geely’s "Blues Variations" moved the industry more than its "Sales Concerto". According to this plan, Geely’s new energy vehicle sales will account for more than 90% of Geely’s overall sales by 2020, of which plug-in hybrid and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles will account for 65%, and pure electric vehicle sales will account for 35%. Although An Conghui, president of Geely Group, who attended the press conference, did not disclose the overall sales target of Geely’s new five-year plan after the adjustment, he is sure that in the next five years, Geely’s annual sales of new energy vehicles will exceed one million, and Geely will turn into an uncompromising new energy vehicle manufacturer.

　　For a moment, the industry was in an uproar – why did Geely achieve this goal? Could it be that Li Shufu put another satellite?

　　The total score of "Blues Geely Variations" includes five parts: taking the lead in committing to fully realize the national average fuel consumption limit of 5.0L/100km in the fourth stage of 2020 in advance; realizing the dream of consumers purchasing plug-in hybrid vehicles with the purchase cost of traditional cars; realizing that by 2020, the sales of new energy vehicles will account for more than 90% of Geely’s overall sales, of which the sales of plug-in hybrid and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles will account for 65%, and the sales of pure electric vehicles will account for 35%; achieving substantive results in the research and development of hydrogen fuel and metal fuel cell vehicles; realizing the leading position of new energy technology, intelligent and lightweight technology in the industry.

　　For the doubts of the outside world, it may be possible to compare Geely’s "total score" and analyze them one by one from the following aspects.

　　At the policy level, the goal of reducing the average fuel consumption of passenger car products from the current 6.9 liters/100 kilometers to 5.0 liters/100 kilometers in the Chinese version of the CAFE Act implemented in 2020 is an insurmountable red line in front of automakers. In layman’s terms, if you fail to do this, you will lose the qualification to continue to mix in the automotive circle. Therefore, the emission targets that are even more stringent than those in the United States in five years will force automakers to make strategic adjustments, and Geely is no exception.

　　At the market level, although the new energy vehicle market has seen explosive growth this year under the continuous promotion of policies, the high price of new energy vehicles is still the biggest obstacle to its marketization. What’s more, with the advancement of the subsidy withdrawal mechanism for new energy vehicles, new energy vehicles that have lost the coat of subsidies will face market competition. "New energy is a system engineering, not only including the’three electricity ‘ (battery, motor and electronic control), but also other areas involving product costs such as lightweight and electrification." An Conghui’s prompt broke the industry’s misunderstanding of the high cost of new energy vehicles.

　　In this system engineering, the initiative of "Sandian" to reduce costs brought about by technological progress is not in the hands of the OEM, but the OEM is not idle in terms of cost control. "Geely’s CMA architecture can achieve the universalization of parts." An Conghui once again reminded.

　　In addition to the CMA architecture, Geely also plans to launch a FE platform for mid-to-high-end electric vehicles and a PE platform for small electric vehicles. The modular design and flexible production lines will both bring about a significant reduction in costs to a certain extent. "Of course, there are also economies of scale," An Conghui added at no time.

　　In fact, Geely has been working on this technology path for a long time – especially to reduce costs. As early as March 2012, Geely signed a technology transfer agreement with Volvo. Under this agreement, the two sides will jointly develop small-displacement, high-performance, green series engines, environmentally friendly small car platforms, and new energy vehicle assembly system technologies such as electric vehicles, gasoline-electric hybrids, and plug-in hybrids. In June of that year, in Hengyang, Shandong, the lithium battery project of a new energy company was put into operation, and Geely’s figure was vaguely flashing behind it. In November 2014, domestic power battery manufacturer Keliyuan announced that it had jointly funded the establishment of Keliyuan Hybrid Power System Co., Ltd. with Geely to invest in the construction of a hybrid power and transmission system assembly technology platform project.

　　Geely’s plan is not limited to this. At the beginning of last year, the cooperation with New Ocean, the earlier cooperation with Kandi, and the recently completed release of Geely Car Sharing 4.0 strategy… all gave Li Shufu, the "conductor", a deeper understanding of the new energy vehicle market. Of course, Geely’s acquisition of a methanol production and development company in Iceland for 280 million yuan this summer can be interpreted as Geely’s technical reserves for future fuel cell vehicles – methanol fuel cells are also one of the technical paths for the ultimate power solution of fuel cell electric vehicles.

　　When external and internal factors worked together, Li Shufu took action. This time, he had no way out.