On October 12 local time, the 2026 Paris Motor Show opened its doors. In the heartland of the European automotive industry, Chinese auto brands once again stood under the spotlight. At this year's show, Geely Auto Group's three major brands — Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr — appeared together as a group for the first time, showcasing Geely's global brand layout, product and technology achievements, and the latest progress of its European business development to the world.
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, research, supply, and sales. From the perspective of Zhitong Finance, the group debut of the three brands at the Paris Motor Show is precisely a concentrated presentation of Geely's transition from product overseas expansion to system-level overseas expansion.
Three Brands' Group Debut at the Milestone of Twenty Years of Deep Cultivation in Europe
In the first nine months of this year, Geely Auto's overseas exports reached 798,000 units, a sharp year-on-year increase of 169%. The strong growth performance is the best footnote to Geely Auto's proactive integration into the globe under the "One Geely" strategy following the Taizhou Declaration. For Geely, the European market can be said to be the most strategically significant market in its globalization blueprint. According to Geely's "123456" overseas expansion plan, the overseas sales target for the next 2-3 years is 2 million units, of which pan-Europe accounts for 600,000 units and Eastern Europe 300,000 units, totaling 900,000 units, accounting for nearly half.
For this Paris Motor Show, Geely Auto's exhibition lineup can be described as an "all-star" cast. The Geely brand's Monjaro EM-i (the overseas plug-in hybrid version of the Xingyue L) made its European debut, alongside the Geely Xingyuan, Galaxy E5, and Galaxy Starship 7. Zeekr displayed the Zeekr 9X aimed at the European 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 covering production, research, supply, and sales in Europe, which is the confidence that supports 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 design centers in Milan, Gothenburg, and Coventry, along with 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, establishing a new technology subsidiary to effectively shorten 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 — a landmark event in the European localization layout of Chinese automakers in 2026.
As the birthplace of traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and Porsche, the European market demands far higher brand recognition and value identification than other regions. It is difficult for Chinese automakers to truly integrate if they rely solely on "scale-driven overseas expansion." Breakthroughs in premiumization are powerful proof of Geely Auto's greater influence in the European market. Just last month, Zeekr 9X announced its German price, with the Black Line version priced at nearly one million RMB, 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 equivalent pricing power in the heartland of traditional luxury cars — shifting from entering the market through cost-effectiveness in the past to participating in value competition in the high-end market through product strength and brand power.
The export of intelligent capabilities is likewise a landmark step. This year, Qianli Haohan G-ASD passed the EU unified admission standard UN R171 certification, becoming China's first mass-produced assisted driving system with legal road qualifications in Europe. This means that Chinese automakers going overseas are no longer limited to exporting complete vehicle products, but are systematically exporting intelligent software, system capabilities, and brand soft power.
Geely's Sample Value in the Shift from Price Competition to System Competition
As China's auto industry going overseas shifts from "product trade" to "system export," the model of breaking through relying on cost-effectiveness is increasingly unsuited to the current market environment and competitive atmosphere. Premiumization and globalization are becoming the core levers for Chinese automakers to combat involution, and the implementation of both is inseparable from systematic capabilities. Against this backdrop, looking back at Geely's overseas layout, its strategic logic becomes particularly clear: the strategic focus and resource coordination under the "One Geely" strategy precisely answer the question of "how to achieve systematic overseas expansion."
At the brand coordination level, 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 targets the luxury pure electric market, covering the complete price range 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 the exclusive dealer for Lynk & Co in Europe starting from January 2027. Viewed from a global perspective, this adjustment by Geely is essentially an efficient reuse of channel resources. Volvo has already established a mature dealer network and high-end brand recognition in Europe. Having it provide channel support for Lynk & Co can help Lynk & Co enter the European mid-to-high-end market at lower cost and faster speed, while also improving the utilization rate of Volvo's existing channels, achieving mutual benefits from internal group resources.
Replacing individual efforts with "group-level operations" not only reduces the risks and costs of a single brand going overseas, but also allows the brand matrix to form synergy across different market segments. At the market layout level, Geely has built a diversified tiered market matrix: Europe focuses on high-value tracks to polish brand premiums; ASEAN stabilizes the base; Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and other emerging markets tap incremental growth. Currently, 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 is not achieved at the expense of squeezing local industries. Take the cooperation with Ford's Valencia plant in Spain as an example: Geely revitalizes idle production 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 not only a concentrated presentation of Geely's twenty years of deep cultivation in Europe, but also a new starting point. In the historical process of China's auto industry accelerating its overseas expansion from "selling products" to "building systems," and from price competition to value competition, Geely's practice of participating in global competition with systematic capabilities has already achieved phased results — from product premium to brand recognition, and from single-point breakthroughs to group synergy. This is expected to provide a referenceable path for the globalization development of Chinese automakers.