Technological change, product update, industrial change…… In the first half of the year, the automotive industry pressed the fast forward button, and automobile consumption soared under the dual stimulus of national subsidies and local subsidies, but the industry and enterprises experienced unprecedented in-depth adjustments in the price war, and collisions and thinking also followed.
The following is an inventory of major events in the automotive circle in the first half of 2025, this article will sort out the market structure, industry pain points, industrial integration and enterprise competition pattern, technology trends, etc., and take a look at the changes in the past six months.
01
New energyThe vehicle penetration rate broke records
Independent brands continue to lead
According to the data of the “Passenger Branch”, the penetration rate of the new energy retail market reached 52.9% in May, an increase of 6.2 percentage points over the same period last year, a record high; Among them, the new energy penetration rate of independent brands was as high as 74.6%, far exceeding the 6.4% of joint venture brands, and the overall market share of independent brands climbed to 65.2%. In this round of explosive growth, Geely Galaxy has become the fastest to break through one million sales at a speed that attracts attention from the industryNew energy vehiclesThe brand not only achieves a quantum leap, but also completes a qualitative breakthrough with design empowerment.
“The design that promotes the change of the times is never just about the shape”, as Chen Zheng, vice president of design of Geely Automobile Group, said, “This is the essence of big design.” Geely Galaxy’s million-sales answer sheet is a vivid interpretation of this concept: design is not only a strategic reconstruction of the business model, but also the integration and innovation of styling and technology, and a comprehensive reshaping of user experience. In Geely Galaxy’s product matrix, from the charm of light ripples to the intelligent electric design of technology and technology, design has always been the core driving force, transforming brand potential energy into market momentum.
Market data confirms this logic: in the top 3 new energy sales of independent brands in May, BYD (290,000 units), Geely (130,000 units), and Changan (74,000 units) formed the leading camp. Geely Galaxy has become a phenomenal hit with its “design + technology” two-wheel drive.
As Chen Zheng emphasized: “Good design, sales have the final say.” “In the acceleration of the arrival of the Million Galaxy Era, design has transcended the aesthetic category and upgraded dimensionality as the strategic fulcrum of Chinese car companies to break the game, which may be the key password for China’s new energy vehicles to move from scale leadership to value leadership.
02
Behind the price war isCapacityStructural excess
Chinese design may bring a new direction to break the game
The rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles further highlights the “ice and fire” of the production capacity of the automotive industry – the production capacity of fuel vehicles is extremely excessive, while leading new energy vehicle companies such as Xiaomi are facing the challenge of insufficient production capacity.
In March this year, Su Bo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, publicly pointed out at the 100-person meeting: “At present, China’s fuel vehicle production capacity is at least more than 30 million, and new energy has been built in recent yearsAutomotive capacityIt has reached more than 20 million units, most of which are newly expanded production capacity, even through the conversion of oil and electricity, only two or three million fuel vehicle production capacity has been digested, and the overall excess pressure is still intensifying. ”
In June, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, once again raised the issue of overcapacity in the industry at the 2025 China Automobile Chongqing Forum. According to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the capacity utilization rate of industrial enterprises above designated size in China will be 75% in 2024, while the capacity utilization rate of automobile OEMs will be only 50%. According to the data of the Passenger Car Branch, the capacity utilization rate of China’s passenger cars in 2023 and 2024 will be 48.2% and 56% respectively, far lower than the standard of 70% of the international health line.
In the industry dilemma of price war, intensified involution, and incremental profits, how to break through the vicious competition of low quality and low price has become the key to the survival of car companies. Geely Design may provide a new direction: by rooted in Chinese cultural genes and integrating global resources, it creates an internationally competitive original Chinese design. Geely has always regarded design as the core competitiveness of development, and strives to forward oriental thinking into a form of expression that resonates globally, and opens up a high-value track in a red sea.
In the era of overcapacity, innovation can create demand, and brand premium and user loyalty rely on breakthrough product experiences. In the future, whether the business model can be reconstructed and the brand potential energy can be enhanced by design may become an important watershed for car companies to cross the cycle.
03
Car companies ushered in a wave of integration
Resources are focused on strategic priorities
Overcapacity, price wars, and involution are all manifestations of the accelerated increase in market concentration. From the explosion of Jiyue at the end of last year to Nezha’s bankruptcy application in May this year, the cruelty of the new energy knockout competition has become more and more prominent. In the face of industry reshuffle, cooperation, integration and restructuring have been staged among major car companies, and leading car companies such as SAIC, GAC, Geely, and Dongfeng have successively launched integration plans to seek resource focus; New power brands are surviving inward in differentiation.
First, in January this year, SAIC Passenger Car opened a full competition for jobs and adjusted the organizational structure of the large passenger car sector; GAC Group’s independent brand integration strategy has also ushered in new progress, GAC has made major adjustments to its own brand marketing system, and the marketing fields of Trumpchi and Aion have been integrated.
In February, the two major automobile groups of Changan and Dongfeng reported news of restructuring, but the restructuring plan was suspended in early June due to negotiations and negotiations. Subsequently, Changan Automobile was separated from China Armament Group and became an independent central enterprise, and may seek more flexible strategic cooperation in the future.
Since the release of the “Taizhou Declaration” in September last year, Geely Automobile’s internal integration strategy has advanced rapidly, with sub-brands such as Geometry, Yizhen and Radar merged into Geely Galaxy, and Zeekr and Lynk & Co merged into ZEEKR Technology Group. On May 7, one year after ZEEKR was listed, Geely Automobile announced plans to acquire ZEEKR. According to this plan, ZEEKR will completely merge with Geely Automobile and delist to achieve privatization. After that, the four major brands of Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Geely Galaxy and China Star will be under the same corporate structure, collaborating resources and reshaping Geely’s value system.
The reform of state-owned enterprises and independent brands is in full swing, and new car-making forces are also making internal structural adjustments in the increasingly fierce market competition. On May 9, NIO launched the deep integration of the three brands, and the product R&D and sales system of Ledao were merged into NIO’s main brand cluster, and the R&D function of the Firefly brand was brought into the headquarters to streamline functions and reduce operating costs. On June 27, Ideal announced a number of organizational and personnel adjustments, integrating and establishing a smart car group, which was responsible for President Ma Donghui, while Li Xiang turned more energy to AI strategy and optimized resource allocation to meet the challenges of pure electric transformation.
From traditional car manufacturers to the wave of integration and adjustment of new forces, it all shows that the industry battle has reached a critical stage, and the mild, small and scattered multi-brand strategy in the past only caused the dilution and waste of limited resources, and only clearer strategic goals and more concentrated resources can win this knockout round.
04
The “Evergrande Moment” of the automotive industry
When it comes to the most out-of-the-circle industry events in the first half of the year, it has to be Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, who put forward the concept of “car circle Evergrande” in a public interview, pointing directly to the current systemic risks faced by the automotive industry. Whether it is a “zero-kilometer second-hand car” or a “car circle Evergrande”, it is the product of a two-year price war, overcapacity and supply chain contradictions.
Continuous price reduction promotions have led to a continuous decline in the overall profit margin of the industry. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter of this year, the profit margin of our country’s automotive industry was 3.9%, lower than the average profit margin of 5.6% of downstream industrial enterprises. This has directly led to pressure on the upstream supply chain, with many parts companies calling on car companies to “leave profit margins”, and some suppliers are in financial difficulties due to long account periods.
The prominence of the problem of suppliers’ account periods seems to see a glimmer of hope under the implementation of the “Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” in early June. Mainstream domestic car companies have promised to shorten the supplier’s account period to 60 days to ease supply chain pressure. However, the industry believes that shortening the account period is only the beginning, and to step on the brakes of the price war, it must rely on in-depth capacity structure adjustment.
05
A wave of affirmative action
With the decline in hardware manufacturing costs brought about by technological progress and scale expansion, intelligent driving continues to promote cost reduction, and the wave of equality such as intelligent driving has become the main theme of the industry in the first half of the year.
Following the “equality of oil and electricity” at the beginning of 2024, in February this year, BYD once again proposed “intelligent driving equality”, launched the Eye of the Gods intelligent driving technology, and sank NOA (automatic assisted navigation driving) technology to 100,000 yuan level models, so that more consumers can enjoy intelligent driving technology.
On March 3, Geely Automobile followed suit with the release of the Qianli Haohan intelligent driving system. With Geely Automobile’s leading edge in computing power, algorithms and data, Qianli Haohan has five intelligent driving solutions of H1, H3, H5, H7 and H9, covering all models of the new Galaxy E8 and Xingyao 8, further promoting the equality of intelligent driving. In the second half of the year, the new and facelifted products of the Geely Galaxy brand will be equipped with different levels of “thousands of miles vast” intelligent driving solutions to accelerate the popularization of intelligent driving.
In addition, Geely also proposed aesthetic equality, luxury equality, and safety equality, using family design language to enhance brand recognition, avoid falling into low-price involution, and equipped the 115,800 yuan model with massage seats and 8155 chip cockpits, challenging BYD’s intelligent driving advantages with high cost performance.
This wave of equality set off by the two industry giants of BYD and Geely not only benefits ordinary consumers with more technology, but also injects strong impetus into the development of independent brands.
06
Car battery safety upgrades
High-standard design leads the industry safety benchmark
In April this year, the Ministry of Public Information issued the “Electric vehicleSafety Requirements for Power Batteries” (GB38031-2025), which can be called the strictest battery safety order in history. The new national standard has greatly increased the safety threshold on the original basis, the most striking change is the “zero tolerance” requirement for thermal runaway, which forces car companies and battery companies to optimize battery stability and achieve “no fire and no explosion”.
Battery safety has always been one of the core elements of power battery companies and even the entire new energy vehicle industry. The introduction of the new regulations is expected to directly promote the technical reshuffle of the industry, promote the elimination of backward production capacity, the survival of the fittest for new cars, and accelerate the application of advanced technologies such as solid-state batteries and NP (non-thermal diffusion).
Geely Automobile’s thinking and actions on safety are particularly worth mentioning. Geely has always adhered to the concept of “safety is designed” and regards safety as the core element of product design rather than the accumulation of post-configuration. Taking the Galaxy M9 as an example, the first collision point of its hood adopts a 47-degree design, which is 2 degrees higher than the industry standard of 45 degrees, and through precise calculation of collision mechanics, the curvature and buffer structure of the hood are optimized, so that the collapse space reaches 240 mm, providing more than 2 times the industry benchmark “safety redundancy”.
With the implementation of the new national standard, Geely will continue to lead the industry with advanced safety design concepts and promote the continuous improvement of electric vehicle safety performance. We believe that the automotive industry needs more companies like Geely Automobile to implement safety to the end and provide consumers with safer, smarter and more inclusive products and services.
07
Controversy over original car design
From “imitation” to “leading”
From “Porsche Mi” to “Farami”, both Xiaomi SU7 and YU7 models have been questioned for hitting their faces. However, appearance is justice, and the design controversy has not affected the market response of the two models, but has confirmed the key role of automotive design in brand building, which is not only the external expression of the product, but also an important carrier of brand culture.
In the field of automotive design, Chinese brands are undergoing a transformation from borrowing to originality. Chinese car companies represented by Geely Automobile are building a design language system with oriental aesthetic characteristics. Geely’s design team drew inspiration from Chinese cultural treasures such as West Lake landscapes and traditional architecture to create iconic design elements such as the Galaxy M9’s “Three Entrances Mansion” space philosophy, the A7’s “Galaxy Ripples” headlights, the “Rising Sun” through-type taillights, and the “Shanshui Courtyard” surrounding the cockpit. These designs that integrate traditional culture and modern aesthetics have not only won international honors such as the MUSE International Design Award and the Platinum Award, but also formed a Chinese design symbol comparable to BMW’s “double kidney” grille.
The rise of Chinese automobile design shows the awakening of cultural self-confidence. Geely Automobile’s “West Lake Aesthetics” design language and Roewe’s “Rhythm Design” concept are trying to interpret oriental aesthetics with modern design language. This cultural consciousness is not only reflected in products, but also extends to the field of talent training, and Geely promotes the deep integration of industry, education and research by holding innovative design camps and other activities, and reserves new forces for China’s automobile design. When design is sublimated from simple stylistic expression to the carrier of cultural inheritance, Chinese automobile brands can truly realize the leap from manufacturing to creation.
08 When supervision is in progress
Explore the boundaries of power and responsibility for autonomous driving
On March 29, a Xiaomi SU7 was involved in a car accident on a high-speed section, killing three passengers. At the time of the accident, the vehicle was in the NOA intelligent assisted driving state, which made the public question Xiaomi’s intelligent driving assistance system and vehicle safety design, and the determination of responsibility for the accident sparked widespread discussion.
This incident has once again pushed autonomous driving technology to the forefront. At the same time, with major car companies taking intelligent driving as the core competition point, the marketing naming of intelligent driving and autonomous driving has once again become the focus of discussion and supervision.
In mid-April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a meeting around the “Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Product Access, Recall and Software Online Upgrade of Intelligent Connected Vehicles” issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation in February, emphasizing that automobile manufacturers should fully carry out combined driving assistance testing and verification, clarify system functional boundaries and safety response measures, and not exaggerate and falsely publicize. The meeting further standardized the publicity of assisted driving, requiring the prohibition of vague and misleading expressions such as “autonomous driving” and “intelligent driving”.
A basin of cold water from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cooled down the hot “first year of intelligent driving”. In May, the automotive circle set off a “terminology change” of intelligent driving, and companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Ideal, NIO, and Xpeng have changed the publicity terms of “intelligent driving” or “intelligent driving” to “assisted driving” or “combined assisted driving”. Intelligent driving technology is beginning to return to rationality in publicity.
Written at the end
There is no doubt that the evolution of automobile incidents in the first half of the year is just the beginning, and China’s automobile industry is undergoing a painful transformation. Design concepts, AI, batteries and assisted driving technologies have attracted global attention, and while the scale of the new energy industry continues to grow, the accelerated reshuffle of the industry and the strength of new entrants have also made many car companies walk on thin ice. Will this industrial giant ship take us to a better shore? Who can stand on this giant ship all the time? Everyone is waiting for an answer when the tide recedes.
