Geely Automobile’s third-quarter net profit rose 28% to 4.84 billion yuan ($726 million), as exports nearly tripled and a richer mix lifted margins, even though the carmaker sold about a quarter fewer vehicles in China.
Revenue rose 10% to 98.96 billion yuan ($14.8 billion) on sales of 812,523 vehicles, up 7%, the Hong Kong-listed company said in its results announcement on Thursday.
Core profit, which excludes after-tax foreign exchange gains and losses and impairments on non-financial assets, rose 32% to 5.21 billion yuan ($782 million).
Geely’s shares closed down 4.4% at HK$13.57 in Hong Kong.
Profit Turns Up
The third quarter reversed the trend of the first half, when profit attributable to shareholders fell 1.8% to 9.09 billion yuan.
For the first nine months, net profit rose 7% to 13.93 billion yuan ($2.09 billion) on revenue up 13% to 272.56 billion yuan ($40.9 billion). Core profit jumped 41% to 14.90 billion yuan ($2.23 billion).
The gap between the two measures comes largely from currency swings. Geely booked a net foreign exchange loss of 1.13 billion yuan in the nine months, against a gain of 3.34 billion yuan a year earlier.
The 2025 figures are restated to include businesses Geely bought in May from entities controlled by Chairman Li Shufu, including Radar Automobile and Geely’s Malaysian international unit. The restatement trimmed nine-month 2025 profit to 13.05 billion yuan from 13.11 billion yuan.
The Quarter
Geely publishes only headline figures for the quarter itself. Subtracting its first-half income statement from the nine-month one gives a fuller picture of the three months.
Gross profit rose to about 17.78 billion yuan ($2.67 billion), for a gross margin of 18.0%, up from 16.5% a year earlier and in line with 17.9% in the first half.
Research and development spending rose 19% to about 5.24 billion yuan ($786 million), or 5.3% of revenue, up from 4.9%. Distribution and selling expenses rose 3% to about 5.57 billion yuan, falling to 5.6% of revenue from 6.0%.
Profit before tax rose 31% to about 6.01 billion yuan ($902 million). The effective tax rate eased to 19.5% from 20.2%.
Currency still weighed on the quarter, with a net foreign exchange loss of about 453 million yuan, compared with a loss of about 297 million yuan a year earlier.
Share-based payments were about 332 million yuan in the quarter, close to a year earlier, and the share of profits from associates and joint ventures rose to about 434 million yuan from about 354 million yuan.
More Money per Car
Revenue per vehicle sold rose about 3% to roughly 121,800 yuan ($18,300), from about 117,900 yuan a year earlier.
Profit per vehicle rose faster. Geely earned about 6,000 yuan ($900) in net profit for every vehicle sold in the quarter, up from about 5,000 yuan, an increase of roughly 19%.
The revenue figure includes parts, services and other income as well as vehicles, so the per-car numbers are approximate.
Geely attributed the revenue growth to “substantial growth in export sales and a rising contribution from high-value products,” according to the announcement.
Exports Carry the Quarter
The volume story was split sharply between China and the rest of the world, based on Geely’s monthly sales filings for July, August and September.
Exports reached 323,442 vehicles in the quarter, up 189% from 112,014 a year earlier, and accounted for 39.8% of sales, up from 14.7%.
That leaves about 489,100 vehicles sold in mainland China, down about 25% from roughly 649,000 a year earlier. Geely does not report domestic sales separately.
Exports have become central to Geely’s growth. In the first half, they rose 158% to 474,228 vehicles, and more than half of them, 58.5%, were new energy vehicles, according to its interim press release.
The push comes as Geely prepares a Canada launch in 2027 and as Chinese carmakers negotiate with the European Unionover hybrid imports.
A Shrinking Home Market
Geely’s results reflect a shift across the industry. Passenger car retail sales in China fell 28.0% in September to 1.62 million and 21.7% in the first nine months to 13.33 million, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) monthly analysis.
The association blamed a high base from a year earlier, when the end of local subsidies in some provinces prompted a rush of purchases, along with the timing of the Mid-Autumn holiday and gasoline prices that have risen by a cumulative 2,375 yuan ($356) a ton this year.
Retail sales of gasoline and diesel cars fell 43% in September, while new energy vehicle retail sales fell 16.7% to 1.08 million, taking a record 67.0% share. Chinese brands sold 1.13 million vehicles at retail, down 25%.
The CPCA forecast October retail sales of about 1.6 million, down 28.9%, and said most carmakers had reached less than 60% of their annual targets by the end of September.
Exports Fill the Gap
Passenger car exports, including kits for local assembly, rose 73.7% in September to 917,000 and made up 36% of carmakers’ sales, up from 19% a year earlier, the CPCA said.
“Exports have overtaken domestic demand as the core focus for some carmakers,” the association said, adding that a growing number of manufacturers now ship more than half their output abroad.
Because exports count in wholesale figures, factory sales fell only 8.9% in September to 2.55 million, a decline 19.1 percentage points smaller than at retail. New energy vehicles made up 60.8% of exports, up 21 percentage points, and new energy exports rose 138.8% to 3.89 million in the first nine months.
In the CPCA’s manufacturer rankings, Geely’s domestic retail sales fell 18.4% in the first nine months to 1,529,193, while its exports rose 169.2% to 793,965, the fastest growth among China’s three largest exporters. In September, Geely’s retail sales fell 24.0% to 176,619 and its exports rose 160.5% to 105,914.
The two measures differ, since retail counts sales to Chinese consumers and exports count factory shipments, but together they show how much of each company’s business now lies abroad. On that basis, exports made up about 34% of Geely’s combined volume this year.
BYD and Chery Go Further
Chery, China’s largest car exporter, shipped 203,765 passenger cars abroad in September, up 46.9%, more than twice its 86,176 retail sales in China, which fell 28.9%. In the first nine months, it exported 1,527,483, up 64.5%, while domestic retail fell 32.9% to 659,378, the CPCA said. Exports made up about 70% of the combined total.
BYD exported 1,301,074 passenger cars in the nine months, up 94.1%, as its domestic retail sales fell 33.3% to 1,695,099, making exports about 43% of the two combined. BYD’s own filing put its September exports at 180,700, up 153.6%.
BYD has raised its 2026 overseas target three times, most recently to 1.9 million to 2.0 million vehicles, and management has said it aims for more than 2.5 million in 2027.
Among others, Leapmotor grew both ways, with exports up 322.5% to 159,572 and domestic retail up 41.7% in the nine months, after an export record in September. SAIC Passenger Vehicle exported 620,175, up 62.5%, and Great Wall Motor 416,326, up 44.5%.
Russia was the largest destination for Chinese vehicles of all types in the first eight months, with 638,224 units, followed by Brazil, Britain, Australia, Belgium and Mexico, according to the CPCA. The association expects export growth to slow as trade pressure in the European Union builds.
The export push has not lifted the industry’s profits. Its profit margin fell to 3.6% in the first eight months and profit fell 16%, the CPCA said, citing official statistics. Geely’s third-quarter profit rose 28% against that backdrop.
A Brand Mix in Motion
By brand, Zeekr more than doubled third-quarter sales to 110,034 vehicles from 52,860.
The Geely brand, which includes the Galaxy sub-brand, rose 5% to 650,587. Galaxy alone grew 9% to 357,391.
Lynk & Co fell 41% to 51,902 from 87,335. Volvo Cars is due to start distributing Lynk & Co in Europe from January.
New energy vehicles rose 19% to 526,910, taking their share of sales to 64.8% from 58.2%. Battery-electric vehicles rose 24% to 351,209, and plug-in hybrids rose 10% to 175,701.
Cash Falls as Debt Is Repaid
Geely’s cash and bank balances fell to 48.99 billion yuan at the end of September from 59.36 billion yuan at the end of June, a drop of about 10.4 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) in the quarter. They stood at 65.43 billion yuan at the end of 2025.
Over the same nine months, bank borrowings fell to 3.20 billion yuan from 14.82 billion yuan, while bonds payable rose to 5.50 billion yuan from 3.50 billion yuan.
Notes payable, short-term bills used to pay suppliers, almost doubled to 40.86 billion yuan from 20.65 billion yuan at the end of 2025. Trade payables rose to 85.91 billion yuan, inventories rose 23% to 39.31 billion yuan, and trade receivables rose 45% to 28.27 billion yuan.
Net current liabilities narrowed to 8.75 billion yuan from 20.15 billion yuan, which Geely said was “primarily attributable to improved operating cash inflows and enhanced working capital management.”
The announcement does not include a cash flow statement, so it does not show how much cash operations generated in the quarter.
A Steep Fourth Quarter
Geely has kept its 2026 sales target at 3.45 million vehicles. It sold 2,235,481 in the first nine months, or 65% of the target.
Reaching it would require about 1.21 million sales in the fourth quarter, roughly 49% more than in the third quarter, or about 405,000 a month against an average of about 271,000 in the July to September period, by EV’s calculation.
Geely Holding, the parent group, has set a longer-term goal of 6.5 million vehicle sales and 1 trillion yuan in revenue by 2030 across all its brands.
