From Solid to Lagging: Five Semi-Annual Reports, Who Sounds the Alarm?

In the first half of 2026, the financial report revenue of automakers is like the status of different students in a class. Some managed to grow while raising prices in the most competitive market, some directed 70% of their revenue overseas, some dragged a massive body with nearly 300 billion in revenue and tried to turn around, while others embraced robots while losses expanded.

At this point in earnings season, I selected five representative automakers and ranked them using the old rule from Solid to Lagging.All comments are based on public financial data and operating performance. The evaluation part involves a lot of the author's subjective judgment. If you disagree, then you are right.

Solid: Geely Automobile

Reason: The whole industry is cutting prices, yet they sold more expensively and earned more.

In the Chinese car market in the first half of 2026, although they say they won't have a price war, secretly increasing specs to cut prices is the mainstream. Under this background, Geely indeed turned in a performance report that was almost flawless.

Benefiting from the total sales of 1.423 million vehicles in the first half, Geely's total revenue in the first half was 173.6 billion yuan, a 15% year-on-year increase, setting a new record high.

The net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders on the books is 9.091 billion yuan, appearing to be a slight decrease of 1.8% year-on-year, but after deducting interference items such as exchange losses and non-financial asset impairment, the core net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders reached 9.68 billion yuan, a significant increase of 46% year-on-year, with growth far exceeding revenue.The core net profit margin is 5.6%, a 27% year-on-year increase.

The performance at the gross profit end is even more persuasive.

Gross profit in the first half was 31.15 billion yuan, a 25.7% year-on-year increase, with the gross profit margin rising to 17.9%, 1.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Revenue per vehicle increased by 16% year-on-year to 112,000 yuan. In other words, Geely sold cars more expensively in the past half year and earned more.

In 2026 when most peers are trading price for volume, these three words placed together are almost a luxury.

Financially, operating cash flow was 19.924 billion yuan, with cash reserves of 69.6 billion yuan. Total borrowings were slashed directly from 18.1 billion yuan to 8.7 billion yuan, a drop of over half.R&D investment was 9.199 billion yuan, a 26% year-on-year increase, without saving a penny of money that should be spent.

Additionally, Li Shufu chose to hand over the chairmanship to An Conghui at the peak of performance, a timing choice that can be described as textbook level.

Completing the power transition at the best time leaves the largest margin for error for the successor. During the half year with the most intense competition, achieving simultaneous upward movement in volume, price, and profit on all three dimensions, only a few hands in the entire industry can hand in this answer sheet.

Therefore, Geely getting Solid comes as no surprise.

Top Tier: Chery Automobile

Reason: 70% of revenue comes from overseas, the words "King of Going Global" can barely contain it.

Looking at Chery's financial report, revenue in the first half was 143.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 1.2%; net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders was 8.567 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.7%.If only these two numbers are focused on, the label "revenue growth without profit growth" seems almost to be pasted on.

But if the structure is broken down, the focus is still very obvious. In the first half of this year, Chery's overseas revenue was 98.968 billion yuan, surging 51% year-on-year, with the proportion of total revenue approaching 70%.

This number cannot find a second one in the Chinese automobile industry. It is the strong expansion of overseas business that pushed the overall gross profit from 18.4 billion yuan in the same period last year to 23.044 billion yuan, an increase of 25.1%, with the gross profit margin rising from 13% to 16.1%.

In my opinion, the overseas market has long exceeded the positioning of "second front" for Chery; it is the main battlefield and the profit engine of the entire group.

The transformation to new energy vehicles is also worth noting.

New energy revenue was 59.284 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 63.8%, with the proportion of total revenue rising from one-quarter to over 40%.More critically, the gross profit margin of new energy vehicles jumped from 5.2% to 12.8%, increasing by 7.6 percentage points within six months, a considerable speed of progress.

At the same time, fuel vehicles still contributed 12.553 billion yuan in gross profit and an 18.1% gross profit margin, providing a stable cushion for overall transformation.

Then there is cash flow. Operating cash flow in the first half was 37.762 billion yuan, surging 169.7% year-on-year, with cash reserves of 63.419 billion yuan, a 35% increase from the beginning of the year. The benefits brought by the non-competitive overseas market are obviously not just profit growth.

So, although Chery's data does not look very stunning on the surface, its quality performance in going overseas and new energy still makes it a typical car company representative standing on the wind.

And the 8.567 billion yuan net profit absolute amount is still very capable. The 37.7 billion yuan operating cash flow is even more of a bonus. No matter how this calculation is done, it is not a loss. Give it to Top Tier.

Elite: SAIC Motor

Reason: An elephant with nearly 300 billion in revenue, turning around faster than outsiders thought.

The semi-annual report from SAIC Motor needs a bit of patience to understand.

Consolidated total operating revenue was 298.65 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.31% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders was 5.15 billion yuan, a decrease of 14.38% year-on-year.On a giant in the industry with nearly 300 billion in revenue, these figures are indeed not very good to look at.

But at the same time, core net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders was 7.87 billion yuan, a significant increase of 72% year-on-year; gross profit margin was 12.6%, a 3 percentage point increase year-on-year; operating cash flow was 54.3 billion yuan, a 158% year-on-year increase. These figures look quite good.

Half of the indicators are going down, half are surging up. This is essentially the true situation of SAIC currently: joint venture sectors and independent sectors fighting left and right, old and new forces intertwining, one growing while the other declines.

So why can it still be given to Elite?

Firstly, SAIC sold 2.045 million vehicles in the first half of the year, the only car company in the country with half-year sales exceeding 2 million, with growth outpacing the market by nearly 4 percentage points.

In terms of independent brands, the MG4 family sold over 10,000 units monthly, Shangjie Z7 and Z7T were delivered rapidly after launch, and IM Motors sales doubled. The joint venture camp did not lie flat either. SAIC Volkswagen launched NEV models like ID.ERA 9X, AUDI E7X, etc., and SAIC General's new energy vehicle sales growth exceeded 80%.

Strategically, an cooperation agreement was signed with Audi to establish an Innovation Technology Center, ocean transport annual capacity exceeded 600,000 units, and the three lines of independent overseas expansion, joint venture transformation, and new energy layout advanced simultaneously.

Therefore, in my opinion, from the current node, this company has done more things right than wrong. While the elephant turning is hardly elegant, the direction is right, and the momentum is also improving.With the position of Elite, it can hold its ground.

NPC: Changan Automobile

Reason: Overseas looks like a different company, but it cannot cover the "holes" in China.

Changan Automobile is a bit like Chery, but the latter's overseas foundation is too thick, while Changan is just starting.

In the first half of this year, Changan Automobile's operating revenue was 65.634 billion yuan, a decrease of 9.71% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders was 817 million yuan, a crash of 64.32% year-on-year. Deducted net profit attributable to the parent company shareholders was even more miserable, only 251 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 83%.

However, turning to the overseas page, the style changes suddenly.

Overseas sales in the first half were 455,000 units, a 52% year-on-year increase; overseas revenue was 21.942 billion yuan, surging 78.77% year-on-year; overseas gross profit margin was as high as 20.13%, nearly twice as high as the 11.67% of domestic business.Production capacity expanded to 445,000 units, channel coverage 1,269, localization construction in Thailand and Brazil continues to land.

Looking at overseas alone, this is completely a company worthy of higher evaluation.

But unlike Chery where overseas business can account for 70% strength, Changan's overseas performance cannot cover the data dragging behind domestically.

In the first half of this year, its new energy vehicle sales were 414,000 units, a decrease of 8.3% year-on-year (note that there was a reason for its active cutting of lumin sales), 65 billion in revenue only corresponds to 817 million in net profit.

In terms of specific brands, slightly comforting is that Qiyuan achieved single-quarter profitability in the second quarter, and Avatr is also reducing losses. These positive signals do exist, but overall, the new energy business is still in a stage of heavy investment and slow recovery, still a distance from self-sustaining.

Comprehensively speaking, give it NPC.

Lagging: XPeng Motors

Reason: The car sales haven't been figured out yet, but robots with a 43 billion valuation have arrived first.

XPeng Motors' semi-annual report is probably the most mixed feelings of the five.

First, total revenue in the first half was 32.78 billion yuan, a decrease of 3.8% year-on-year; automobile sales revenue was 28.05 billion yuan, a decrease of 10.3% year-on-year; cumulative deliveries were about 166,000 units, a decrease of 15.8% year-on-year. Net loss was 3.12 billion yuan, expanding by about 173.7% year-on-year. Under the reference of NIO and Li Auto, XPeng falling behind in "NIO, XPeng, Li Auto" needs no further explanation.

Of course, there are positive parts in the report.

The comprehensive gross profit margin rose to 20.6%, gross profit was 6.766 billion yuan, a 20.2% year-on-year increase. Revenue in the second quarter was 19.74 billion yuan, a significant increase of 51.5% quarter-on-quarter, having clearly walked out of the low point of the first quarter. The net loss in the second quarter also narrowed from 1.78 billion yuan in the first quarter to 1.34 billion yuan. From a trend perspective, the valley may have been passed.

But the problem is, XPeng chose this node to make a large-scale bet on "Second Curve".

The robot business completed its first round of over $900 million in financing, with a post-money valuation of about 43 billion yuan. The gross profit margin of the technology service business was as high as 75.1%, which sounds very attractive, but the revenue scale is only about one-sixth of the automobile business, and relying on it to hold up the situation is far from enough.R&D expenses in the second quarter were 2.91 billion yuan, a 32.1% year-on-year increase.

For a company established on technology, high R&D investment is understandable, but when the automobile main business has not yet found a profit turning point, a large amount of resources flowing into the robot track, the market is likely to have a question: The automobile question hasn't been finished yet, why rushing to turn to the next page, is this considered vision or anxiety?

The capital market voted with their feet. After the financial report was released, XPeng US stocks fell 8.53%, and HK stocks continued to fall sharply by 9.19%.

Therefore, the 3.1 billion yuan loss may still be within the acceptable range, but the real dilemma XPeng faces now is that the profit path of the automobile business is still blurred.Using a high-valuation robot story to buy time for the current automobile dilemma, at present, it seems difficult to balance both.

Judging from its first half performance, for now, it can only be given "Lagging", but perhaps at this time next year, the robot can prove that XPeng has the qualification to return to Elite or even Top Tier levels. Of course, as an automotive practitioner, what is more hoped for is that this achievement comes from its automobile business.