"Time waits for no one. The current market environment has no room for error for Geely Auto." At the Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Auto") 2025 first quarter performance conference in mid-May, Geely Auto CEO and Executive Director Gui Shengyue said that this is the basic logic for Geely to merge so quickly.

In mid-February this year, Lynk & Co had just completed the equity delivery of its merger with Zeekr, and the two merged to form Zeekr Technology Group. In just less than 3 months, Zeekr Technology Group announced that it plans to fully merge with Geely Auto, privatize and delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

These big moves also made industry insiders call it "witnessing history." Accelerating integration is not the unique strategy of Geely, a traditional automobile "big factory". In the past year, in addition to Geely Auto, a private enterprise, SAIC Group and GAC Group, two state-owned automobile groups, and Dongfeng and Changan, two automobile central enterprises, have also started group resource integration.

The integration of the leading automobile groups is a strategic choice for car companies in the fierce competition and elimination of the Chinese automobile industry. When the auto industry maintained a double-digit growth trend every year, auto companies adhered to the concept of "working hard and fast, and having more children is better for fighting", and continued to expand their territory through acquisitions, independent brands, etc.; but once the industry growth slowed down, or even entered a stock battle, auto companies officially bid farewell to the era of "having more children is better for fighting", and clenched their five fingers into a fist to hit the market. Grabbing the ticket to the finals and surviving are the most important beliefs of auto companies.

Geely: The huge brand matrix returns to one Geely

Last September, Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, and a group of Geely executives gathered in Taizhou to discuss countermeasures to the new development trend of China's automobile industry. This is where Geely's dream began, and it will directly determine Geely's next development path.

At that time, although Geely Auto achieved revenue of over 100 billion yuan for the first time in the first half of the year, and its non-net profit doubled, it also had hidden worries. With the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, Geely Holding Group has formed a huge automobile brand matrix, with Geely, Lynk & Co, Proton, Ruilan, Geely Geometry, Geely Galaxy, Volvo, Zeekr, Polestar, Lotus, LEVC Yizhen, Radar and other brands and series, and many of them are still in the stage of sales volume not reaching scale and continuous losses.

Against this background, on September 20 of that year, Li Shufu officially released the "Taizhou Declaration", announcing that it would focus on the main automobile business and enhance competitiveness through the five major measures of "strategic focus, strategic integration, strategic synergy, strategic stability, and strategic talents", and officially enter a new stage of strategic transformation.

The strategic significance of the Taizhou Declaration is to promote the deep integration and efficient coordination of Geely's internal resources, eliminate repeated investment and reduce costs.

Subsequently, the Geely system started a rapid integration. First, Geometry, LEVC and Radar were merged into Geely Galaxy; then Lynk & Co was merged into Zeekr and Zeekr Technology Group was established. In addition to brand mergers, Geely's system R&D, batteries, smart cockpits, smart driving and other important business sectors were also integrated.

On May 7 this year, Geely announced another major move. Zeekr Technology Group, which had just been established for less than 3 months, was also merged into Geely Auto, privatized and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

This move also puzzled the market. At the Geely Auto 2025 first quarter performance conference and "One Geely" strategic integration plan briefing on May 15, Gui Shengyue explained that in the face of fierce market competition and an increasingly complex economic environment, Geely Auto can only win in the fierce competition if it changes its past image of small and scattered brands, conducts in-depth integration, and condenses the company's resources into one fist.

He further stated that in the past year or so of Geely's integration process, two major problems have been exposed. One is the efficiency of integration and the communication cost generated for integration; the other is the problem of inconsistent interests. Different teams strive for interests for their own companies, which will greatly reduce the effect of overall integration.

In order to solve the above problems from the root, the most thorough way is to return to one Geely, so as to truly achieve the purpose of integration. Gui Shengyue added: "Time waits for no one. The current market environment has no room for error for Geely Auto. This is the basic logic for us to merge so quickly."

SAIC: Integrated management of large passenger vehicles

Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce market competition, China's once largest automobile group has reached a stage where it has to make drastic integration.

In July 2024, SAIC Group's senior management was "replaced", with Wang Xiaoqiu serving as the chairman of SAIC Group and Jia Jianxu as the president of SAIC Group.

A month later, at the 2024 SAIC Group Mid-Year Cadre Conference, Jia Jianxu delivered his first administrative work report after taking office. He mentioned that the group's production and operation pressure has continued to increase under the "internal and external pressure". From 2019 to now, SAIC's biggest waste is time, not money. Next, "we must clarify the strength and goal direction, and concentrate all our strength to fight a tough battle."

Behind the logic of concentrating strength on major events is that SAIC Group is in the pain of transformation. The market share of traditional fuel vehicles of joint venture brands has been continuously eroded, but independent brands still cannot take up the main responsibility, which has led to a downward trend in sales and profits of SAIC Group in recent years. On the other hand, in the past decade, SAIC Group has invested more than 150 billion yuan in the core field of intelligent electric vehicles and built "seven major technical bases", which are urgently needed to be installed on more models to achieve economies of scale.

After the new management took office, SAIC Group entered a period of intensive reform, and independent brands were the focus of this reform. At this conference, Jia Jianxu mentioned the concept of "big autonomy", that is, we should no longer fight alone, but should "make 5 fingers into 1 fist" to fight the market.

Feifan Automobile, which was independent in 2021, returned to SAIC Passenger Vehicle, officially firing the first shot for SAIC Group's integration campaign. At the end of August last year, Yu Jingmin, executive vice president of SAIC Passenger Vehicle, said in an interview with Yicai and other media that Roewe will further accelerate integration with Feifan, further focus on core resources, and improve overall efficiency.

At the end of October that year, SAIC Passenger Vehicle officially announced the merger of Roewe and Feifan brands to accelerate the integration of brands and channels. Subsequently, at the R&D level, the R&D businesses of Zhiji and Feifan were also incorporated into the R&D Institute, which is responsible for all aspects of new products from project initiation to overall development.

In January this year, Jia Jianxu once again emphasized the "integrated management of passenger cars" at the 2025 cadre conference, that is, SAIC Passenger Vehicle Company (Roewe Feifan, MG), SAIC International, Innovation and Development Research Institute, Zero Beam Technology, and Overseas Travel will form SAIC's "large passenger car sector", which will focus on resource integration and focus, and carry the development strategy of the entire SAIC Group.

In February this year, a notice on the appointment and removal of SAIC Passenger Vehicle cadres involving the changes in the powers of 63 middle and senior cadres was circulated online. The notice document is headed for the large passenger car sector of Shanghai Automotive Group Co., Ltd., and the document was issued by Jia Jianxu. The appointment and removal has taken effect since February 12, 2025.

SAIC Group, after strategic integration, has a good start this year. According to the latest financial report, in the first quarter of this year, SAIC Group's revenue was 140.9 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 1.55% year-on-year, but profitability has improved, with net profit attributable to the parent company exceeding 3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.4%. In this regard, SAIC Group stated in the announcement that this was mainly due to the continuous deepening of reforms since 2025. With the acceleration of internal business restructuring and integration, it has achieved remarkable results in reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and production and sales have been significantly improved.

GAC: Integrated reform of independent brands

In the past year, integration and reorganization to speed up high-quality development has become one of the key points in the deepening reform of state-owned auto companies.

Since October last year, GAC Group has launched a comprehensive and in-depth reform, implementing the three-year "Panyu Action" to promote the concentration of all factors on the front line of independent brands. The first step is to relocate the headquarters and go deep into the front line of research, production, supply and marketing. At the same time, the management model of GAC Group's independent brands has changed from strategic control to operational control, realizing unified scheduling of independent brand research, production, supply and marketing, promoting the concentration of resources on the front line, further reducing operating costs and improving management efficiency.

For a long time in the past, GAC Group's profit cow came from its "two Tians" (i.e. GAC Honda and GAC Toyota), and the management of independent brands continued to use the strategic control model. In 2024, about 60% of GAC Group's car sales will still come from GAC Toyota and GAC Honda, while the sales of the two independent brands GAC Aion and GAC Trumpchi account for less than 40%.

With the profound changes in the competition pattern of the domestic automobile market, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars has exceeded 50%, and the development of independent brands accounts for an increasing proportion of automobile sales. The disadvantages of GAC's original strategic control model have gradually become prominent. It has become GAC's top priority to actively adapt to industry changes and find a suitable development path and institutional mechanism.

After the relocation of the headquarters, GAC Group implemented an integrated reform in the field of independent brand procurement in November 2024, implementing a full-process, integrated procurement reform around the product. In the comprehensive procurement work, it promoted procurement strategy management according to different categories, summarized and continuously applied common cost-reduction procurement strategies such as unified procurement, packaged procurement, and platform procurement, so that procurement costs were reduced relative to before the integrated reform, and business efficiency and decision-making efficiency were improved by about 50%.

This year, GAC Group accelerated its reform actions. Since January 1, GAC Group has integrated its own brand marketing business and established an independent brand marketing headquarters, including Trumpchi Marketing Headquarters, Aion Marketing Headquarters, and Haobo Marketing Headquarters. This department will be responsible for the key customer business of Trumpchi, Aion, and Haobo under GAC Group, and coordinate the marketing, vehicle sales, channel construction, after-sales service, new media marketing, etc. of Trumpchi, Aion, and Haobo brands.

In mid-May this year, GAC Group independently restructured its own brand R&D system, centered on the reorganization of the product headquarters and GAC Research Institute, with IPD (integrated product development) process change as the core, integrating the product headquarters, styling design institute, vehicle development research institute, platform technology research institute and supporting functional departments, a total of 5 parts, forming a "market + technology" product development model.

Feng Xingya, Chairman and General Manager of GAC Group, said at the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show that the three major reform contents of GAC Group, namely the shift from strategic control to operational control, the integrated operation of independent brands, and the comprehensive process reengineering reform of product development, have been adjusted in place and are being carried out in an orderly manner. Some newly-established departments are still in the running-in period, but the adjustment of the organizational structure and the streamlining of major processes have been basically adjusted in place.

According to the plan, GAC Group will strive to achieve more than 60% of the group's total sales of independent brands in 2027 through four major reform measures and five major guarantees, and challenge the goal of 2 million annual sales of independent brands.

Dongfeng and Changan: Promoting integration and restructuring

In February this year, Dongfeng Shares and Dongfeng Technology released an announcement showing that Dongfeng Group is planning a reorganization with other state-owned central enterprises. Announcements released by several military equipment listed companies such as Changan Automobile and Changan Military Industry show that the Military Equipment Group is planning a reorganization with other state-owned central enterprises. Based on this, the industry has set off discussions about the reorganization of Dongfeng and Changan.

Dongfeng Group Management said at the 2024 Performance Communication Meeting that the integration of the company and Changan is progressing, and the controlling shareholder is planning to reorganize Changan's automobile sector. Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said that Changan Automobile participated in the reorganization as an important role, and the reorganization plan has been basically completed. This reorganization will not affect any development strategy established by Changan, including Changan's existing brands, technologies, and plans.

At the end of last year, Dongfeng Motor had announced a plan to adjust the functional departments of the headquarters to promote the transformation of the company's headquarters from strategic control to "operation + coordination", further integrate the group's resources, and focus on independent passenger car business.

Yang Qing, Chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group, said: "Since the establishment of the three-level management system of Dongfeng Motor Group Corporation, business sectors, and specialized factories and subsidiaries in 1999, the functions of the company headquarters have not changed much, but the market situation has changed dramatically. The various market segments have changed from blue oceans to red oceans. We are no longer facing the question of who can take the lead in "grabbing the mountaintops", but the question of whether we can win. The market situation has changed, the competitive situation has changed, our battle formation must change, and our organizational structure should be adjusted accordingly." Yang Qing also said that at present, there is no advantage in breaking through the siege by dividing troops and fighting alone. Only by re-arranging troops and implementing unified planning and unified command can we win in the market. With this organizational adjustment, Dongfeng headquarters will accelerate the transformation to an operational type, strengthen command, management, and decision-making capabilities, and create a new world in the crowded track. At present, Dongfeng Motor has built a "4+2" business group structure, "4" represents independent passenger cars, commercial vehicles, parts, finance and horizontal businesses; "2" refers to the two joint venture units of Dongfeng Honda and Dongfeng Nissan. At the same time, Dongfeng also carried out professional integration of 27 directly-managed units, realizing the transformation from managing individual units to managing business units.

NIO: Focus and Accounting

On May 16, NIO released two new cars, ES6 and EC6, in Hefei. Like the Firefly launch conference held in Shanghai a month ago, both conferences were held in NIO House.

Founder Li Bin said the reason was simple: to save money.

Since last year, China's new energy vehicle price war has continued to stalemate, capital patience has faded, and profit pressure has increased sharply. Car companies are collectively facing a transformation test. And NIO is trying to break the curse of long-term losses through a "surgical" organizational change. Li Bin said in an internal speech that NIO must become a company that can calculate accounts.

The core logic of NIO's transformation can be summarized in two keywords: focus and accounting. From global ambitions to deepening the Chinese market, from extensive innovation to "atomic cost reduction", from vision-driven to full-staff management system - every step of NIO's adjustment reflects the industry transition of new car-making forces from "burning money for scale" to "efficiency survival".

On January 1, 2024, Li Bin sent a letter to all employees, mainly talking about cost control and management efficiency. Entering 2025, the company began to implement management measures for basic business units, and business awareness was passed on to everyone in the company.

In 2024, NIO started the Cost Mining project internally. Li Bin said that this was learned from Luxshare. After the plan was launched, the company received more than 6,000 Cost Mining clues that year. This project was deepened in NIO this year, and Li Bin proposed the "one million times cost thinking", pointing directly to the fatal injury of the company's cost system: in the past ten years, the company has been better at "creating demand" rather than "controlling costs."

NIO's second cost reduction action is directed to the supply chain.

In the past, the strategy of selecting suppliers according to the whole vehicle has become a "layered decoupling" cost reduction action driven by R&D. Li Bin said that the advantage of layering and decoupling parts and pulling through the supply chain is that it can achieve economies of scale, reduce mold opening costs, and increase reuse rates.

On this basis, NIO also learned from Luxshare's transparent supply chain system, and currently dozens of suppliers have been connected to it.

Li Bin calls this system GPS, hoping to use it to control costs precisely from the R&D stage, and to fully bind the interests of partners through a transparent supply chain, "everyone makes money in the open together". In the new system, the CE department, which was originally located under the procurement supply chain, is taken out separately and becomes an independent department for cost audit, which controls a reasonable profit level through audit.

Under a series of cost reduction measures, despite the pressure of market promotion, NIO's gross profit margin exceeded 14% in the fourth quarter of last year. But Li Bin believes that this is not enough. He believes that it is a visible goal for NIO brand vehicles to achieve a gross profit margin of 20%.

NIO's cost reduction, efficiency improvement and organizational changes are a microcosm of the return of China's new car-making forces from "capital narrative" to "business essence". When the capital dividend fades and competition returns to its essence, only by concentrating resources on core capabilities can we survive in the elimination round. But in any case, NIO's "surgical operation" has indeed reached the point where it has to move. In the market in 2025, for every car company, survival is more important than telling stories.

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