Geely CEO Gui Shengyue: "Electric cars don't reflect the industry's transition; if we don't continue making gasoline-powered cars, we'll lose a major growth engine."

When the CEO of the Chinese group Geely speaks, it's worth listening very carefully. Besides, it's not something that happens every day. His name is Gui Shengyue, and he recently shared his thoughts with one of Hong Kong's leading media outlets, the South China Morning Post : "The internal combustion cars of the future will no longer consume as much gasoline. They will be more fuel-efficient to achieve the global goal of reducing emissions. And they will be smarter, like electric cars ," Gui reflected.

Some curious statements, considering the Geely Group's preference for electric mobility: from Polestar to Volvo, through the Horse alliance with Renault to Link & Co, Zeekr , and Lotus. Geely is (almost) fully committed to electric cars, but they still manufacture cars with combustion and hybrid engines . And Shengyue knows that the future lies in not disowning the past. In other words, the combustion engine still has a future.

“Electric cars don't fully reflect the automotive sector 's transition. As a car manufacturer, you'll lose a major profit growth engine if you stop making gasoline-powered cars,” reflects Geely's CEO. Of course, this doesn't mean the group will change its philosophy . At least not in the short term. Another thing will be the regulatory standards that change. Of course, with synthetic fuels and efuels as regulators of that growth engine mentioned by Shengyue.

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With all this, we see that doubts about electric cars don't just affect European, American, and Japanese manufacturers. In China, they're also wary of the "all-electric" approach. In fact, Volvo , almost entirely owned by Geely, recently reversed its plan to become an exclusively electric brand by 2030. Deadlines are getting longer, and these new statements from Gui Shengyue aren't new; they reaffirm things he's said before.

In fact, last year, Geely's CEO was even harsher in presenting the company's financial statements: "Purely electric vehicle companies are not profitable," he asserted. The strategy is clear: diversify and bet on the winning horse in due time. He cited BYD as an example: "It's a leading company , but the product with which it generates the most profit is its plug-in hybrids," Shengyue concluded.