At the Paris Motor Show, GEELY AUTO's three major brands gathered and made their appearance, presenting a clear brand echelon that demonstrates Geely's path of "value going global."

On October 12 local time, the 2026 Paris Motor Show opened. In the heartland of the European automotive industry, Chinese auto brands once again stood in the spotlight. At this year's show, GEELY AUTO's three major brandsGeely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekrappeared together as a group for the first time, showcasing to the world Geely's global brand layout, product and technology achievements, and the latest progress in its European business development. Over the past few years, China's auto exports have completed a leap from catching up from a low base to becoming an important variable in the global industrial landscape. In this wave, Geely is one of the most representative leaders. As the earliest pioneer among Chinese private automakers to establish a presence in Europe, Geely has been rooted in Europe for twenty years, starting from R&D and design and gradually building a complete localized system covering production, R&D, supply, and sales. In GMTEight's view, the group debut of the three major brands at the Paris Motor Show is a concentrated presentation of Geely's transition from product going global to system going global. A Group Debut of Three Major Brands at the Node of Twenty Years of Deep Cultivation in Europe In the first nine months of this year, GEELY AUTO's overseas exports reached 798,000 vehicles, a sharp year-on-year increase of 169%. The strong growth performance is the best footnote to GEELY AUTO's active integration into the world under "One Geely" after the Taizhou Declaration. For Geely, the European market can be said to be the most strategically weighted market in its globalization map. According to Geely's "123456" overseas expansion plan, the overseas sales target for the next 2-3 years is 2 million vehicles, of which 600,000 are in Pan-Europe and 300,000 in Eastern Europe, totaling 900,000, accounting for nearly half. For this Paris Motor Show, GEELY AUTO's exhibition lineup can be called an "all-star" roster. The Geely brand's Monjaro EM-i (the overseas plug-in hybrid version of the Xingyue L) made its European debut, with the Geely Xingyuan, Galaxy E5, and Galaxy Starship 7 also appearing on the same stage. Zeekr exhibited the Zeekr 9X aimed at Europe's high-end SUV market, while Lynk & Co brought multiple plug-in hybrid models already on sale in Europe, including the 01 and 08 EM-P. After twenty years of deep cultivation in Europe, Geely has built a complete localized system in Europe covering production, R&D, supply, and sales, which is the confidence underpinning GEELY AUTO's deep integration into the European market. For example, on the R&D and design side, Geely has formed a collaborative network in Europe of three styling and design centers in Milan, Gothenburg, and Coventry, and three engineering R&D centers in Coventry, Gothenburg, and Frankfurt. In March this year, Geely further integrated its R&D resources in Sweden and Germany and established a new technology subsidiary, effectively shortening the development cycle of global models. On the production side, on July 23, GEELY AUTO officially announced the acquisition of a 34% stake in Ford's Valencia plant in Spain for 221 million euros and the formation of a joint venture production company, which is also a landmark event in the localization layout of Chinese automakers in Europe in 2026. As the birthplace of traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and Porsche, the European market has far higher requirements for brand awareness and value recognition than other regions. If Chinese automakers rely only on "scale going global," it is difficult for them to truly integrate. Breakthroughs in premiumization are precisely strong proof that GEELY AUTO has achieved greater influence in the European market. Just last month, Zeekr 9X announced its price in Germany, with the Black Line version priced at nearly one million yuan, making it the most expensive Chinese mass-produced car on sale in the EU. The significance of this price tag lies not in the number itself, but in the fact that a Chinese brand has obtained equal pricing power in the heartland of traditional luxury carsshifting from entering through cost-effectiveness in the past to participating in value competition in the high-end market through product strength and brand strength. The export of intelligent capabilities is likewise a landmark step. This year, Qianli Haohan G-ASD passed the EU unified access standard UN R171 certification, becoming China's first mass-produced assisted driving system legally qualified to be on the road in Europe. This means that Chinese automakers going global are no longer limited to exporting complete vehicle products, but are instead systematically exporting intelligent software, system capabilities, and brand soft power. Geely's Sample Value from Price Competition to System Competition As Chinese automakers going global move from "product trade" to "system export," the model of breaking through by relying on cost-effectiveness is becoming increasingly unsuited to the current market environment and competitive atmosphere. Premiumization and globalization are becoming the core levers for Chinese automakers to counter involution, and the implementation of both cannot be separated from systematized capabilities. Against this backdrop, looking back at Geely's overseas layout, its strategic logic becomes especially clear: the strategic focus and resource synergy under the "One Geely" strategy precisely answer the question of "how to go global systematically." At the level of brand synergy, the brands under GEELY AUTO Group have formed a clear division of labor in Europe: Geely undertakes scale growth and new energy expansion, Lynk & Co penetrates the mid-to-high-end market, and Zeekr attacks the luxury pure electric market, covering the complete price band from mainstream to high-end. On the basis of the differentiated layout of the three main brands, Geely has further opened up channel resources within the group, with Volvo Cars serving as Lynk & Co's exclusive distributor in Europe starting in January 2027. Viewed from an overall perspective, this adjustment by Geely is essentially an efficient reuse of channel resources. Volvo had already established a mature dealer network and high-end brand recognition in Europe. Having it provide channel support for Lynk & Co can not only help Lynk & Co enter Europe's mid-to-high-end market at lower cost and faster speed, but also improve the utilization rate of Volvo's existing channels, achieving two-way gains in internal group resources. Replacing going it alone with "group-based operations" not only reduces the risks and costs of a single brand going global, but also allows the brand matrix to form synergy across different market segments. At the level of market layout, Geely has built a diversified, tiered market matrix: Europe focuses on high-value tracks and hones brand premiums; ASEAN stabilizes the basic; emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East tap incremental growth. At present, Geely's products cover 114 core markets and have penetrated 17 emerging markets. The multi-regional tiered layout disperses operational risks brought by changes in a single geopolitical environment, giving overseas growth greater certainty. More noteworthy is that Geely's globalization does not come at the expense of squeezing local industries. Take the cooperation at Ford's Valencia plant in Spain as an example: Geely revitalizes idle capacity and creates high-tech jobs, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results through industrial symbiosis. Finally, looking back at the group debut of Geely's three major brands at the Paris Motor Show, this is both a concentrated presentation of the results of Geely's twenty years of deep cultivation in Europe and a new starting point. In the historical process of Chinese automakers going global accelerating from "selling products" to "building systems," and from price competition to value competition, Geely's practice of participating in global competition with systematized capabilities has already achieved phased results from product premiums to brand recognition, and from single-point breakthroughs to group synergy. This is also expected to provide a reference path for the globalization development of Chinese automakers.