Binyue L

The textures of the physical world are the true moat of traditional automakers.

Don't let the rhythm be disrupted by internet companies and consumer electronics brands making cars.

The automotive industry is a marathon; there is no need to rush for success. Persist, and you will eventually encounter surprises.

September 24, 2026, Crane Pavilion in Yuncheng, Shanxi. An autumn rain arrived unexpectedly; the Yellow River took a bend beneath the tower and was swallowed by the night. Colored lights and shadows fell on the eaves and bracket sets of the ancient building. Raindrops slanted down within the light beams; the whole tower looked as if it had been re-outlined in gold.

More than 1,000 years ago, Wang Zhihuan left the eternal masterpiece 'If you desire to reach a thousand miles further, ascend one more flight of stairs' here.

The most strategic model of Geely Automobile (0175.HK) in the past decade—the all-new fourth-generation Binyue L—launched anew on this rainy night. The fuel series starts at a limited-time price of 92,900 yuan; the i-HEV Smart Engine hybrid series starts at 99,900 yuan...

This means Geely Automobile is equipping 100,000-yuan level fuel hybrid SUVs with advanced intelligent driving features typically found only in 200,000 to 300,000 yuan level new energy vehicles. And soon, Geely Automobile's first rugged box SUV—Warship 700—is also coming.

In the view of 'Automobile K-Line', the launch of the all-new fourth-generation Binyue L is truly worth savoring not for the model price and configuration, but that Geely Automobile once again moved the new car launch event to a landmark of Chinese cultural tourism.

From the 2017 Binyue 100℃ temperature difference challenge from Mohe to Sansha, the 2018 Geely and Shell Friendship Journey across the Eurasian continent, to the 2023 launch of the 'Cultural Tourism China Exploration Plan' with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, from the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to the Maritime and Silk Roads, from the Dunhuang Singing Sand Dunes to the Crane Pavilion by the Yellow River, Geely China Star's cultural tourism chess game has reached its fourth season.

So the most interesting part is, when the entire automotive industry was anxious about profit margins dropping below 1.5%, Geely was seriously doing 'off-job' work—playing at cultural tourism.

Having tracked Geely for 15 years, the author found that if this matter is only understood as a marketing tactic, its strategic significance is underestimated.

The cultural tourism assets held by Geely Automobile are actually already sufficient to support an independent cross-industry, cross-border super cultural tourism group. And the window period for this is opening up.

In the first half of 2026, the average profit margin of the domestic whole vehicle manufacturing link dropped to 1.5%, reaching a new low in nearly ten years. The overall profit margin of the automotive industry is 3.6%, while the average profit margin of downstream industrial enterprises is 6.5%.

The average gross profit margin of new cars is -21.4%—selling cars has degenerated from a profit source to a limited traffic entry point. The judgment of the China Association of Automobile Distributors is more direct: 2026 is the 'Year of Elimination' for the domestic car market!

Looking at Geely Automobile's semi-annual financial report against this background, the data is quite decent: Total sales of 1.42 million vehicles hit a new high for the same period, revenue of 173.6 billion yuan increased by 15% year-on-year, core net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of 9.68 billion yuan increased by 46% year-on-year, gross profit margin improved to 17.9%, core net profit attributable to parent company per vehicle increased by 45% year-on-year to 6,806 yuan, achieving positive growth for six consecutive years.

However, even an excellent company like Geely Automobile must face a structural problem—the incremental space for the Chinese automobile market is narrowing; in 2026, the sales volume of domestic passenger cars is likely to see two-digit negative growth, and the automotive industry has fully entered stock competition.

Although Geely's overseas market growth is strong, overseas sales in the first half exceeded 474,000 units, a massive 158% increase year-on-year, already exceeding the full-year export total of 2025, with the annual target raised to 920,000 units (challenging 1 million), but the EU's anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese pure electric vehicles have a highest combined tax rate of 45.3%, and the shadow of trade barriers always exists.

Therefore, 'Automobile K-Line' believes that Geely Automobile needs a second profit pool outside of automobiles, and what it holds points exactly to a track that Chinese listed automakers have collectively ignored (Drive Geely, Tour China, See the World).

In May 2026, seven departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the 'Notice on Promoting Industrial Culture, Protecting Industrial Heritage, and Developing Industrial Tourism', clarifying 8 key tasks including enriching industrial tourism product supply and improving industrial tourism service quality.

The notice specially proposed vigorously developing factory tours, encouraging manufacturing enterprises to innovate and launch projects such as observing production processes, simulation operations, and handmade experiences.

'Automobile K-Line' statistics found that domestic industrial tourism total revenue in 2025 was 120 billion yuan, up 10% year-on-year.

Research institutions predict that China's industrial tourism annual growth rate reaches 18%, and the market may break through 300 billion yuan in 2029. Global industrial tourism output value accounts for about 10%~15% of total tourism output value, while China's current market share is less than 5%.

Taking the Tsingtao Beer Museum as an example, this museum built with an investment of over 28 million yuan in 2003 has cumulatively received over 15 million visitors and cumulative revenue of at least 700 million yuan. In just the last year, it received 2.5 million visitors, with over 250,000 foreign tourists, an increase of about 70% year-on-year. It proves that industrial tourism can completely detach from ticket dependency and turn experience into consumption.

Information shows that Xiaomi Automobile Factory opened in March 2024, received over 250,000 visitors since then; free spots drawn by lottery, winning rate once only 0.4%, scalpers even mark up prices to thousands of yuan but demand still exceeds supply; Nio Hefei Factory has already received hundreds of thousands of visitors; Tesla launched a points-for-factory-tour plan in the US and Europe...

For Geely Group which has a vast industrial layout domestically and internationally, each base can become a seeder, a propaganda team, or become a key piece in its grand cultural tourism chess game, making 'Happy Life, Geely Companion' more concrete.

'Automobile K-Line' believes that industrial tourism in China's automotive industry is currently in a stage with heat but no system, not to mention any cross-border integration.

Because in the past everyone lived too well, lying down and making money was enough just by selling cars, now times have changed drastically...

Therefore, whoever can first upgrade scattered factory visit explorations into operable cultural tourism products, holds the entry ticket to this multi-billion market.

For most listed domestic automakers doing cultural tourism, it starts from zero, but for Geely Automobile it is different; its cultural tourism assets are already scattered across various sectors of the group in fragmented form, lacking only integration.

For example, Mingtai, under Geely Holdings focusing on track new business, event operations and business travel development, operates the Ningbo and Wuhan international tracks, also invests, constructs and operates the Chengdu Tianfu International Track and US UMC Track, possessing exclusive operation rights for key event IPs such as F4 Formula China Championship.

However, for a long time, Geely Automobile Group's business travel development capabilities and track operation experience were never systematically used to operate cultural tourism products aimed at million-level car owners; it is a sleeping asset.

Good news is, according to 'Automobile K-Line', currently Geely Automobile Group has established a Car Sports Experience Center, subordinated to the newly established Group Sales Company, coordinating all brand car sports culture events of Geely Group, on par with China Star, Galaxy, Lynk & Co and Zeekr sales companies; it seems Geely Automobile Group finally realizes its importance.

What makes 'Automobile K-Line' even more agreeable is that CaoCao Mobility acquired high-end mobility brand YaoMobility for 225 million yuan last year, and acquired Geely Business Travel for 65 million yuan, while Geely Business Travel operates a one-stop travel platform, integrating comprehensive travel products and services from airlines, accommodation and traffic service suppliers.

Of course, this background is the implementation of the 'Taizhou Declaration' consolidation focus strategy, yet inadvertently made Geely have a clearer cultural tourism business ecosystem loop.

If CaoCao Mobility can upgrade ride-hailing and car rentals from transportation tools to product experiences—using models from Geely's bases for experiential leasing, users rent not just a car, but the i-HEV of Binyue L, the Thunder God electric hybrid of Galaxy, Lynk & Co 07GT, Zeekr 9X's luxury experience—the commercial loop of this matter would be completely different.

The author opened a map and found that Geely's manufacturing bases and industries domestically cover Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Shanxi, Hebei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Shandong, Liaoning, Gansu, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Hainan, Shanghai, and more than ten provinces and municipalities; its industrial cultural tourism potential is not to be underestimated.

In fact, Geely Baoji Base obtained the title of 'Baoji City Industrial Tourism Demonstration Base' as early as 2021. Geely Automobile's welding workshop can witness the magical process of full-line robotic precision welding; this industrial tourism route has become a popular choice for local primary, secondary and university students' study tours.

Therefore, Geely needs to systematically develop potential from the brand and marketing levels. For example, currently all brands under Geely include cultural tourism products into the design of retail systems while building new outlets, so marginal costs are almost zero.

'Automobile K-Line' believes that, given Geely Automobile's strong overseas expansion momentum and the national opening strategy, Geely's cultural tourism ambition should not stop domestically; its overseas manufacturing base layout coincidentally covers the most geographically promising space for Chinese cultural tourism going global.

Currently, Geely Automobile Group has 12 local factories in countries like the UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil, etc.; overseas capacity exceeds 650,000 vehicles (will exceed 840,000 by year-end); overseas offline channels have broken 2,000, covering 114 overseas core markets.

Previously, overseas media and dealer delegations have walked into Geely Ningbo Safety Center to experience crash tests first-hand; Chinese media delegations have also visited Geely overseas R&D design centers and factory production lines.

I believe these routes can be fully open to car owners and cultural tourists. This summer, Zeekr has already led car owners to attempt visiting Geely's European related sectors in Northern Europe.

In September 2026, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism explicitly stated that the '15th Five-Year Plan' period will continue to promote cultural exports.

If Geely Automobile can combine China's automotive industry's intelligent manufacturing capabilities with the cultural tourism resources of the countries where overseas bases are located, what is done is not overseas marketing of Chinese brands, but a global cultural tourism product of Chinese Intelligent Manufacturing + Local Culture. This is something neither Tesla nor Nio has done.

Tesla doing factory visits is essentially fan benefits. Nio cooperating with cultural tourism, providing car owners with scenic spot tickets and hotel discounts, is essentially an extension of user rights.

If Geely does a cultural tourism group, the logic is completely different. Geely has manufacturing bases as experience nodes, tracks as event carriers, satellite mobility assurance, business travel platforms as transaction entry points, and a global factory industry network as transit stops for cross-border routes.

The density and complexity of this set of things will far exceed the existing layout of any listed automotive company globally.

Mentioning the differentiated barrier for Geely Automobile doing cultural tourism, it must be the long-distance assurance formed by satellites and full-energy paths.

Past few years, Geely Constellation has completed Phase 1 networking, 64 satellites in orbit, achieving global communication coverage except the poles; Doyu satellite-based high-precision positioning technology has also achieved scaled service, first time mounted on vehicles globally.

Rent a Geely car, go to a place without signal, no need to worry about being disconnected, no anxiety about recharging; this is something ordinary rental companies cannot do.

The value of cultural tourism to Geely does not lie in how much revenue it can contribute itself. Because even achieving the level of Tsingtao Beer Museum, annual comprehensive revenue of 200 million yuan, placed in Geely's over 300 billion yuan annual revenue box is insignificant.

But 'Automobile K-Line' believes that the true value of cultural tourism lies in changing the nature of the relationship between automaker brands and users.

The new car gross profit margin indicator of China's automotive industry has long revealed that selling cars itself is not profitable; the profit comes from the post-sales links: finance, insurance, maintenance, repair, trade-in, leasing, mobility services.

Whoever can continuously interact with users for ten years after users buy cars will survive in stock competition!

Imagine a car owner participating in a 'Geely Intelligent Manufacturing Tour', seeing their car's production line at bases in Ningbo or Xiangtan, hearing a story about the Yellow River and Binyue in front of Crane Pavilion, sending a Moments post via satellite communication in the Hexi Corridor and Northwest no-man's land... His perception of this brand will change from 'I bought a car with good value for money' to 'I belong to the lifestyle represented by this brand'.

These routes do not need to cover the whole country, just need to be extreme in specific geographical narratives. Every route is an independently operable cultural tourism product, with clear pricing, schedules and service standards.

CaoCao Mobility's Geely Business Travel platform is responsible for booking and business travel management, Geely's CRM and Mingtai operations team are responsible for event execution, Geely bases are responsible for coordinating resources for visit reception. Resources are ready, organizational methods need re-designing.

The commercial value of this emotional connection far exceeds the gross profit of a few maintenance and repairs.

'Automobile K-Line' makes an assumption, if spiritual stickiness can increase repurchase rate by 5 percentage points, or increase average car price by 2,000 yuan, then the profit increment brought to 0175.HK will be in the billions of yuan level, this is the true ROI (Return on Investment) of Geely doing a cultural tourism group.

The true meaning of long-termism in the automotive industry is not to outlast others on one track, but when others are only staring at one track, you have already laid out a plan for the next decade.

Geely Automobile's first-half cash reserves are 69.56 billion yuan, having enough money to test errors, enough technology to support experience, enough users to verify products.

Now, Geely Automobile lacks only a decision, that is, to upgrade cultural tourism from launch event supporting materials to a strategic business unit, and upgrade technology from car-selling talk to user experience.

Currently Geely possesses the world's only automaker simultaneously possessing intelligent cars, chips, embodied intelligent robots, AI large models, satellites, etc., a sky-earth integrated tech ecosystem. If this technology system is only used for selling cars, it wastes all its imagination in the physical world.

After all, Technology itself does not constitute a moat; only when technology is perceived by users, remembered, and actively spread, it constitutes a moat. And the cultural tourism group is Geely's 'translator' that was accidentally created long ago.

'Automobile K-Line' firmly believes that for 0175.HK, the significance of the cultural tourism strategy is far more than a marketing activity to add flowers on brocade. Currently, the capital market looks at Geely, looking at sales volume, per-vehicle profit, gross margin, export growth rate; these indicators are naturally important, but have a ceiling. If the cultural tourism strategy is accomplished, 0175.HK's valuation logic will undergo a fundamental change.

Geely Automobile's CEO Gui Shengyue once clearly pointed out that the current technical attributes of Geely have not been fully recognized by the capital market; once investors realize the changes in its technology attributes, valuation methods will undergo a fundamental change.

The cultural tourism strategy is the key catalyst to promote this change, and Binyue, which has product accumulation and cultural tourism experience accumulation, is also the most suitable starting point in Geely's cultural tourism narrative.

When Geely Automobile's revenue structure changes from one-time car selling to continuous services, user relationships change from transaction relationships to membership relationships, when technical assets change from cost centers to revenue sources, when globalization changes from export sales volume to two-way flows, the capital market will give this listed company a brand new evaluation.

Therefore, the author believes that the key issue now is, from the group perspective, a powerful figure is needed to drive all resource integration, having an independent entity. This person's level must be high enough, possess a continuous entrepreneurship mindset, understand cars and users, and must have an international vision, reporting directly to Li Shufu or An Conghui.

This new entity may not be subordinated to Geely Automobile listed company, nor subordinated to CaoCao Mobility, but be on the same level as them.

For example, obtain vehicle resources from Geely Automobile, obtain traffic and business travel platforms from CaoCao Mobility, obtain track and event operation capabilities from Mingtai and other entities, obtain satellite and AI technology support from Geely Technology, obtain visit reception resources from each manufacturing base.

Even Geely can conduct deep strategic cooperation with domestic and international leading travel, cruise, leasing and other fields companies...

Views of AutosKline：

The Crane Pavilion in the rainy night tastes better than on a sunny day. Wang Zhihuan wrote in the past 'If you desire to reach a thousand miles further, ascend one more flight of stairs', not writing about physical height, but spiritual vision. Selling cars is just for users to stand on the first floor; cultural tourism and spiritual communities are the floor where users are willing to continue walking up. Some heights, precisely, can only be seen clearly in wind and rain. Therefore, Geely Automobile, hurry up and open a cultural tourism group, stop wasting potential! Warship 700 is a good opportunity.

Content is original from [Automobile K-Line], reference materials sourced from listed company announcements and industry public information (relevant companies and institutions should have the obligation to be truthful); some images are from the internet, copyright belongs to original owners.

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