BEIJING - China’s Geely Automobile Holdings said on Thursday that it will invest more in new energy vehicles and higher-end models after forecasting flat sales in 2019 due to uncertainty about domestic demand.
“We can’t say whether the target of 1.5 million in 2019 can be reached, because we don’t know the changes in the economic situation. We will manage the company based on market conditions” Zhao Yang, a senior Geely official, told a news conference in Hong Kong, adding the company is facing record high car inventory.“The domestic market has some uncertainties, but the international market has good opportunities for Geely,” he added.
It achieved a record net profit of 12.55 billion yuan in 2018, an 18 percent jump from the previous year. Total revenue for the year was a record 106.60 billion yuan, up from 92.76 billion yuan in 2017. That slightly missed the 108.59 billion yuan estimated by analysts, according to Refinitiv data.