Geely reported a sharp jump in third‑quarter profit after the company revealed on Monday in China that its discount push sent more cars out the door even as regulators complained about the size of those price cuts.
The automaker said net income for the three months ending Sept. 30 rose 59% from a year earlier to 3.8 billion yuan, or about $535 million, based on the statement it filed.
The company also said revenue for the period climbed 27% to 89.2 billion yuan because deliveries increased 43%, which was the main force behind the numbers.
Investors did not reward the results. Geely’s shares in Hong Kong fell 1.4% right after the company published the filing.
The drop came even though the company is working to simplify its structure and direct more resources toward fighting rivals such as BYD and Xiaomi in a market where every brand is trying to hold on to customers during a long price war.
The company said China’s move to reduce a national trade‑in subsidy and new orders from regulators telling automakers to pay suppliers faster have made cash flow harder to manage.
Geely pushes discounts while competition rises
Geely said in the filing that Chinese authorities have tried to stop automakers from offering discounts they consider excessive, but the company has continued to use incentives because sales depend on them.
One example listed in the filing was the 2026 version of the Galaxy E5 electric SUV, which has a stronger battery and updated software but keeps the same starting price of 109,800 yuan for the basic model.
The company also said that in early November it introduced a rebate of as much as 15,000 yuan to balance the smaller electric‑vehicle purchase tax break that starts in 2026.
Geely noted that brands like Xiaomi and Li Auto also launched similar offers this month as every company tried to keep customers from switching to competitors during the slowdown.
Geely said its strong quarter looks very different from the past two quarters at BYD, which reported lower profit. The filing showed the sales gap between the two automakers has narrowed this year because Geely’s deliveries jumped more than 50% in the first nine months of 2025, helped by models like the Xingyuan hatchback, which the company described as China’s top‑selling model. BYD said in its own filings that domestic sales grew 5% in the same period.
The company also said overseas demand is soft. Geely reported earlier that exports dropped 7% through September because Russia, one of its big markets, saw weaker spending and higher import fees. The company said it is working on new regions instead, including the UK and Brazil, where it formed a joint venture with Renault to build cars for South America.
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