Distinguished guests, investors, media friends, welcome to Geely Automobile Holdings Limited 2022 Annual Result Announcement. My name is Zhao Yang. I'm the moderator for today's announcement. It is a pleasure to meet all of you again after 3 years. Please allow me to introduce the management of today. We have first Mr. Li Shufu, CEO of Geely Holding Group, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings. Mr. Gui Shengyue, CEO and Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings. Mr. An Conghui, Chairman of Geely Automobile Group, Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings, CEO of Zeekr Intelligent Technology. Mr. Jerry Gan, CEO of Geely Automobile Group and Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings. Mr. Lawrence Ang, Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings. Mr. Dai Yong, Senior Vice President and CFO of Geely Automobile Group.
There are three parts in today's announcement. Mr. Dai first would open with the presentation, Mr. Gui will have a remark. The third part will be a Q&A session. For our audience online, please feel free to share your questions through the email address on the screen. Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Yong Dai.
Good afternoon. Now I would like to present to you the Geely 2022 annual results. In the past year, we have made a lot of progress in electrification, and we have achieved a 300% growth rate for our NEV segment. We have achieved an export of 198,000 units. We are the fastest growing NEV brand.
We have also launched a new series, which is Geely Galaxy. In terms of digitalization, we have launched the new Galaxy OS. In terms of smart cabin, cabinet and smart driving, we have make a lot of progress and a lot of our new models will be equipped with the Galaxy OS. We will also launch the large computing power platform with new generation E/E architecture. In terms of globalization, we have achieved a 72% of export growth to 198,000 units. In terms of Lynk & Co, we are number one among Chinese high-end brands in Western Europe countries, and we have completed investment in Renault Korea Motors.
We have achieved 34% of the shareholding for Renault Korea Motors. We have paid a price of RMB 1.3 billion. In 2024, our products will be exported to Renault Korea Motors. Through Korea, we can also export our models to other overseas countries. At the same time, we will also purchase share from DRB-HICOM, which is the parent company, Proton. We also planned to achieve extra growth with our technologies. In terms of market segment upgrade, our average selling price for Zeekr 001 has reached RMB 336,000. For Zeekr 009 will also be launched.
The overall average selling price will be over RMB 500,000. With the launch of Zeekr 009, we have established the high-end image of Zeekr. The average revenue for Zeekr selling price can also reach more than RMB 150,000. As you can see that, we have achieved remarkable progress on these four fronts. In terms of the core indicators, we have reached 8% sales growth rate to 1.43 million units. Revenue went up by 45%. In terms of the NEV proportion has increased from 6.2% to 22.9%. The proportion of export sales increased by 5 percentage point to 13.8%.
Average selling price increased by 29% to RMB 103,000. Profit attributable to shareholders up by 8.5% to RMB 5 billion. Last year, we have seen a price hike for raw material and chips. Our overall gross profit margin fell to 14.1%. With the average selling price going up, our average gross profit per unit went up by 11.1%. We have seen sustainable growth for our licensed revenue contributed by intellectual property rights up by 30% year-on-year. For Genius AFC, it contributed 50... A lot of our profit increased by 15.3% year-on-year. We have continued to accelerate the investment in electrification, digitalization, and our R&D investment increased by 51% to RMB 8 billion.
We have a very strong financial performance and standing. Our operating cash flow reached RMB 16 billion. Our total cash level went up by 20% reaching RMB 33 billion. Our net cash level is quite healthy. We propose a final dividend of HKD 0.21 per share, and our cash dividend payout ratio is now reaching 36%. We can see that our core indicators continue to improve and we have achieved a solid performance. Now I would like to go into details in terms of product mix. Our overall sales volume reached 1.4 million units. For Geely Auto, 1.1 million. For Lynk & Co, 180,000. Zeekr, 72,000. Livan, 56,000.
Our sales revenue increased by 45% to RMB 147 billion. Our total revenue does not include the JVs and Lynk & Co. Here you can see the sales volume include all the brands, but the revenue does not includes JV brands. In terms of gross profit and profit attributable to shareholders, as I have mentioned, due to the raw material price hike, we have seen some impact. We have also disclosed some of the premiums that we have achieved from our M&A projects and the long-term investment, and that's why we have achieved RMB 1.6 billion of investment proceeds. For Zeekr, we suffer RMB 2 billion of loss. For 0175, we have also seen RMB 1.6 billion of loss.
This is based on IFRS. If it is based on the US standards, then the number might be slightly different. Please refer to the disclosed number. We pay attention to carbon emission, and we plan to achieve a 25% of carbon reduction by 2025. In 2021, our carbon emission went down by 2.6%. In 2022, the carbon emission went down by 5.6%, and we continue to march towards the 25% reduction targets. In terms of the NEV sales, it increased by 300%. We can see that for BEV and PHEV we have achieved those progress. For BEV, we have achieved a 327% of sales growth.
PHEV, 219%. In terms of export, the volume went up by 72% to 198,000 units. The proportion of export sales went up by 5 percentage point to 13.8%. We will continue to focus on the 2C business and the S, R&D investment. In 2022, we have control our expense quite well. 0.8 percentage point decrease for administrative expense ratio and 0.6 percentage point for selling expense ratio. In terms of cash flow, we have RMB 28 billion of cash flow last year. As you can see that, we have invested RMB 12 billion in different projects and share purchase.
Here, you can see that our cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2022 was around RMB 33 billion. In total, our net cash flow by the end of 2022 was around RMB 19 billion. Now let's take a look at the performance of our JVs. For Zeekr, we have achieved a delivery of 71,000 units in 2022. We have exceeded the target set in the beginning of 2022. Zeekr 001 is the only Chinese premium pure electric model. In terms of the selling price and volume, and the delivery of 009 were quite ideal. From NPS, we have achieved 70%. Zeekr was awarded number one in terms of the NPS for Chinese mainstream passenger vehicles in 2022.
We continue to upgrade our models. We have expanded the user contact and we have set up the high-end image for Geely. For Lynk & Co, our overall strategy was to transition into NEVs. More than 10% of our sales went down by 10%. Our PHEV contributed 390,000 units, accounting for 21% of our sales. We have exceeded more than 100,000 units among all the PHEV brands. In terms of average selling price, we have achieved RMB 150,000, up by 15%. For 009, we have already enter the RMB 300,000 segment.
In terms of Genius AFC joint venture, in terms of the total capitalization, we have an increase of 9.5%. Under those conditions, we have a very stable risk control system with only 2.3% of non-performing loans. Net profit margin has gone up by 15.3%. In terms of TSG, last year MSCI ESG rating has gone up from BBB to A. We are also have been awarded the Hang Seng ESG 50 Index, as well as the Sustainalytics ESG low-risk rating. Last year we had a RMB 400 million green club lending. We have supported the ESG initiative in terms of green disclosure.
In the future, we will continue to follow climate neutrality, nature positive, all around safety, digitization and innovation, co-prosperity, governance and ethics as four directions that we're gonna follow in the future. That was briefly our performance and financials in 2022. We would like to help you look forward to 2023. Our sales target is 1.65 million, doubling the sales of EV. We are also gonna speed up with the transition to new energy. We are going to launch Galaxy as well as three completely new models for Galaxy. We are also going to transit to smart cars, launching two smart cars models in the year and to increase our market share in the world, as well as getting into the European market.
For Lynk, we are going to promote the whole series transition to new energy. We are also going to improve our in-house digitization capacity and launch Galaxy and OS. We are going to focus on the development of automatic perception and intelligent decision-making capacities to offer high-level AD features. We're going to enhance the content operation and experience upgrades for smart cockpits to target integrating high hardware setting, function definition and human machine interface. We're also going to expand the coverage of international markets, improve market channels and after-sales services network. We are going to intensify the cooperation with Proton in Southeast Asia and right-hand drive markets, and actively execute South Korea Motors collaboration. We have many new models which are going to launch into the market in the next months in Q1.
We already have new models in the market. For Geely Auto, we have Galaxy, Geely Geometry as well as Star. For Zeekr, we have Zeekr X, which is already announced. We're also going to have some SUVs. For Lynk & Co we have PHEV SUVs and midsize sedan. For Livan, we have RL7, a battery swapping BEV SUV. Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you very much, Mr. Dai, for your presentation. Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Gui for his remarks.
Dear friends, both online and offline, good afternoon to everybody. When I came in just now into the room, I was struck by two things. First, I was very excited. We are a company listed in Hong Kong. In the past three years we are affected by COVID. We were not able to meet you face-to-face. After three years, finally, we are able to see each other in Hong Kong and to hold this announcement meeting with you. To you. It's really exciting for me to meet friends old and new on this occasion. For instance, I haven't seen Mr. Wang for three years. I haven't seen many other old friends for such a long time.
Sometimes, I have met friends from the media, mainly in China, but it is indeed, three years, when I couldn't meet friends from the Hong Kong media. Secondly, I was very touched. Why do I say so? As you all know, Geely Auto Holdings, before COVID, have performed very well with many more high volume transactions on the stock exchange and high stock prices. In the last few years, our performance was a bit lackluster with stock prices going down and trading volume dropping from the level before. However, we still have so many friends coming to this announcement. I also know that there are many friends joining us online. You still show interest in us, and I am deeply touched by your support.
I'd like to take this opportunity and speak on behalf of all people of Geely to express our thanks to all of you who supported us, who gave us your interest in the years in the past and now. I'm very sincere about these feelings. I'd also like to make a note here. You might have noticed that compared with before COVID years, we have made some changes to today's announcement. In the past, we generally held the press briefing before we had the announcement for investors. Today, we have merged the two together. In the past few years, we have heard from friends of the media that they want to have access to the announcement for investors and vice versa. We merged the two together.
There are two benefits at least. First, we can be more fair, transparent and open. We also would like to leverage this opportunity to improve our governance. That's one of the reasons why we have made a change this year. Secondly, we hope that with a merged meeting, we can improve the efficiency of results announcements. We can free up more time to report to you our performance, what we did in the past year, and also to have more time to share with you and learn from you. I hope that we can benefit from the change of the format this year for the results announcement. That's just one little note I want to put in here. Mr. Dai has already presented to you the results of the company in 2022.
I would like to share with you, in addition to that, some of the thoughts of the management team. Based on the performance of last year, we can see indeed Geely-In terms of sales, he's behind BYD and Volkswagen ranking number three. The portion of EV vehicles are starting from 2021 equaling 6% to nearly 23%, which is a drop, A tripling of a performance in 2019. The performance is remarkable in 2023. However, the reality is that Geely has already lost its position as number one in the Chinese auto industry. In the development of EVs, we have been taken over by our peers in the industry by a large margin.
We can see that, our stock price has dropped considerably from over 30 to only a little over HKD 9. All in all, our performance in the past few years has not been very satisfactory. Of course, the main reason is because of our across the board transition to EV has not been very satisfactory to our investors. Probably you don't have a very clear idea of what we're doing in this transition. Transition to EV may be the main reason for this drop in stock prices. With the stock prices dropped to the lowest level in 8 years to HKD 8.3 at the beginning of last year.
From June to August last year, if I remember correctly, the international capital market was very turbulent and the whole automobile industry hasn't been performing very well in the stock market. Whereas, 0175 actually picked up in its stock prices very quickly, going up to over HKD 19. What's the reason behind? What's the driver? What was the driver then? I think it was mainly because in June we announced we have launched the Emgrand HEV to the market within a short period of time. We have received orders of 35,000, and it seems that the market believes that HEV is now becoming a major driver of our business. Resulting in high expectations of the performance of EVs for the company. Stock prices were pushed up by this expectation.
After that, to our own dismay and yours as well, in July and August, the ultimate sales volume for Emgrand was very disappointing. It was a far cry from the orders placed to us. Very soon, Emgrand did not show very good market performance. Your expectation turned to disappointment and stock prices dropped again. It is indeed very true that this rollercoaster ride forced us to reflect and to look into our operations in a critical way. We think there are two reasons. First, there's a problem with the product. For instance, the Emgrand L model has deficiencies. For instance, there's no fast charging function affecting the driver experience or user experience. This compromised your expectations. Secondly, the sales for EV is not very well prepared.
These EV vehicles were sold through the traditional channels of ICE vehicles. The company hasn't been doing a very good job at preparing this market. We need to work on this. Mr. Dai has shared with you the performance and the result of the company. I think what we need to do is to reflect on the mistakes that we have made in the past so that we can well
prepare ourselves for the future and march towards the right direction. That's the summary for last year. We have made some achievements. However, from the capital market point of view, there's still a lot of room for us to improve. Based on the issues that I have mentioned, for 0175, we still need to speed up in our NEV expansion, and our pipeline is still not very clear to the market. Here, I would like to share with you our confidence in Geely. It stems from our years of investment and the automobile industry. We might be a little bit lagging behind, but we are taking solid steps one at a time. There might be some problems for our NEV business, but our Zeekr performance last year was quite outstanding.
When we spin off, the Zeekr, two years ago, I have already reported to you that Zeekr would be the pioneer for us to transition into a NEV brands. The development of Zeekr will help bring Geely into NEV segment. As you can see, that Zeekr had achieved outstanding results last year and last month, January 23rd, we have also held the press conference for the launch of Zeekr NEV brand in Hangzhou. I believe that the strategy of transitioning into NEV has been quite clear and successful. For 0175, as we know, that main force would be passenger vehicles. We have three brands in total. The first one is Geely brand. Second one, Lynk & Co, and the 3rd one is Zeekr.
For these three brands, we will transition into NEV segment. These three brands, they are different strategic objectives. Zeekr will focus on luxury NEVs. Lynk & Co will focus on high-end and NEVs. Geely will focus on the mainstream brands markets. We have a very clear strategy with those three brands. On February 23rd, the CEO of Zeekr, An Conghui, has already shared with you the plan for our Galaxy brand. For Emgrand L, it wasn't very successful, and we would not repeat the same mistake. Starting from this year, we will continue to launch new models and products, which will give us a very strong positioning in NEV segment.
In the past few years, we might have lagged behind our competitors, but we have summarized the lessons learned and continue to stick to our strategy. We cannot rush for our strategy, and we need to take solid steps one at a time. We will continue to stick to our strategy and continue to launch the new models for electric vehicles. I hope that you can all look forward to the future of Geely. That's my remarks for today. We have the core management here at this announcement meetings, and we will start the Q&A session. We welcome your criticism, comments or questions.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gui.
Now we will start the Q&A session, and we welcome questions from our media and investors on site and online. We will start from this lady who's dressed in black. Thank you for your question. We have time for Q&A time.
Thank you. My name is Xinyi Dan, from China Securities. I have three questions. The first one is about the price war in the market. How do you see the price war, and how do you cope with that? The second question is about raw material price and how do you forecast the market trend for raw material pricing? Will it have any impact on our pricing strategy? The third one is about the profit forecast for 2023.
Can you please share some details with us?
Thank you very much for your questions. I believe that a lot of you have seen price adjustment from players such as Tesla, and it has a lot of impact on the automobile market in China. It is true that we have seen a price competition. I would like to share with you several perspectives. First, we always emphasize that the competition would focus on the products, and the competition among the products would be competition in price. That's why our products must be cost-efficient and competitive in price. We have strong technologies.
For example, we have the model manufacturing based on price, which can help us maximize the resources utilization and reduce cost and enhance our overall research and development efficiency. This gives us a cost advantage. Secondly, our cost control, especially for our supply chain cost control, has been quite strong since day one. As you know that, in Zhejiang Province, the private sector has been booming, and it has given us an advantage. Geely being headquarter in east part of China, enjoys the premium brought by the supply chain in the region. That gives us a competitive edge. The third one would be our homemade capabilities.
For example, for our powertrain, electric control system, and also our partnership with some chips companies have given us a lot of competitive edges. We have more than 20,000 R&D personnel, and we're deeply involved in the development of parts for our models, and we have strong R&D capabilities. That's why, in terms of cost control, we are quite strong. With that as a basis, we can't provide cost-efficient products to our users. We need to provide value-added service to our users. In terms of the value of our products, we don't want to participate in the price war. We want to compete in products and value-added service and high quality and post-sales service to our consumers.
We also compete in the brands and our operation. Ultimately, what we aim to is to provide high-value product to our users. In terms of price war, we will continue to stick to our strategy and give great values to our users. That's a response to your first question. The second one is about lithium carbonate pricing and raw material pricing. As we know that, two years ago, we have continued to see a price increase for lithium carbonate, and it has exceeded more than 600,000 per ton. Recently we have seen a price dropped to around 300,000 RMB. However, this price is still higher than before. The price for lithium carbonate is still standing at a very high level.
In terms of battery cells pricing, we believe that the supply will be relaxed, because more and more suppliers will be coming into the market. We believe this is favorable to our transition into the NEV segment. The third question is about the expectation for profitability in 2023. We have achieved 1.4 million units, our profit went up by 7.9%, reaching RMB 5 billion. I believe that that profit will be decided by our sales units and also our capability to control the cost. We'll continue to leverage on our capabilities and advantages and control the cost for the whole supply chain.
We hope that we can put into full play the values of our suppliers and our own brands. That's my response to your questions. Based on the listing rules, we will not disclose the detail guidance for profitability.
Next, we would like to give the opportunity to our media friends from Hong Kong. Lady in white. If you have any questions, please limit your questions to two due to time constraint.
I have a question about the total borrowing increased by 1.8 times to RMB 10 billion. Do you have any worry about cash flow? Gross profit margin has been the lowest over the years. Would you reduce the price to boost the volume?
About the price war, do you think that the sales or volume increase would offset the price decrease impact? For CapEx increase by 3.5 times, how do you enhance your overall competitiveness? For example, for the European markets, can you please share with us your plans? First one is about borrowings.
Thank you for your questions. They are very good questions, touching the finances of the company. First of all, for ZEEKR, we have already started to diversify our financing channels. We have already been able to finish Series A and Series B of financing ranging from 100 million to $700 million. In the future, the parent company is going to give us a loan of RMB 6 billion. That's why our debt has increased or our borrowing has increased dramatically compared with 0175. We have started our new business for luxury vehicles. In terms of CapEx and financing, there's an increase of 30%, which is really a situation at the beginning of the business.
As you have heard before, we have a drop of 3% in gross margin, mainly because of the special situation in 2022. In H1, we had a lot of orders for EVs. The demand for battery pushed up the procurement price for batteries. I have said that this affected our gross margin by 2%-3%. In the future, profit guidance has really never been given before. We can tell you what are some of the things working to push up profits and what are the difficulties. First, there is intensified competition in the market, this could be a difficulty for us. On the other hand, the NEVs will be gradually launched to the market. We are going to be more exposed to the supplying chain.
Lithium carbonate batteries will account for 60% of our batteries, making us, making it possible for us to score savings in terms of cost. In terms of Lynk and Zeekr in the European market, I'll hand that question over to Mr. An.
First of all, we have three brands under 0175, Zeekr, Lynk, and Geely. Zeekr and Lynk are now mainly sold or exported to the developed markets, scoring rapid growth recently. At the beginning of the Lynk brand, we have positioned the product as an international brand. We worked with Volvo and launched various models of Lynk, launching them into the developed world markets, and we delivered 28,000 last year. However, the market is big, the market demand is big because of our price advantage.
We believe that this year Lynk is going to have better performance in the international market. For Zeekr, it is even more an international brand targeting the international market. At the beginning of Zeekr development, we were getting ready to launch it into the international market. In Q4 this year, we hope that Zeekr will enter the developed market of Europe. We established the Zeekr company in January last year, and now we are going through the final assessment of the product. In 2024, Zeekr will be ready for the U.S. market. As you have probably read in the news, we are working with the Waymo company to launch new products for the North American market.
You can see that Zeekr, obviously, is a well-established product, is going to be a well-established product in China, but also will expand rapidly into the international market, which was, which is our original goal when we started the Zeekr brand. Either Zeekr or Lynk enjoy solid foundations for expansion into the overseas markets. We first launched Geely into the less developed market, then we had Lynk in Europe. We already have a solid foundation for, to build up on. We hope that Zeekr can be more competitive and can expand quickly in the international market, building on what we have achieved in the past.
Thank you. Now, I'd like to give the floor to an investor, Yu Tian from HSBC. Microphone, please.
Thank you very much. I'm Yu Tian from HSBC. I have two questions.
First, for the group, when you are transitioning into EV, how do you actually balance the Geely, Lynk, and Zeekr? Thank you very much for Mr. Dai's analysis of the margin. You are saying that you have challenges this year. You also have other advantages, for instance, reduction of cost and also the transition to EVs. Do you have any expectations for reaching the height of your margin midway into your EV journey?
Thank you very much for your questions. These are very good questions. Mr. Gui has already said that under 0175, we have different positionings for our brands. This is an issue of interest both to the media and investors as well as our users.
I'd like to give you more details about our plans so that you have a clearer idea of what we're gonna do. We are determined to follow market changes and to push ahead with EV. We are going to improve the product range of EVs. We have three brands already, Geely, Lynk, and Zeekr. These brands will be independent from each other, but at the same time, they are also going to compete in different market sectors and markets. They can meet the needs of different users and markets. At the same time, they also share commonality in infrastructure, in science and technology, supply chain, as well as manufacturing. These three brands can be coordinated in those regards so that we could benefit from scale and systematic operations in order to improve the profitability of the products and the competitiveness of these products.
The products or the brands have differentiation, but they have very good coordination and commonality at the back end. This is something that other producers or manufacturers do not have. Let me be more explicit. The Geely is a popular high-price brand, which is priced at RMB 200,000. The brands under it include Galaxy and Geometry. We have already said that we have already announced the Galaxy series plan. It is not just a launch of a product. It is really about a change in the Geely brand in moving to an EV. Vehicles in terms of technology, in terms of channels. For instance, we're using 2C model for sales. This is about Geely.
For Lynk, its position is medium and high range brand with a price ranging from RMB 200,000-RMB 300,000. Its style is trendy, high-tech and sports. We are going to launch three BEV models for Lynk. Well, I'm to emphasize that Lynk and Zeekr are all going to be EVs. For Zeekr, it's going to be a luxury brand and also a BEV smart vehicle at a price of at least RMB 300,000. At the same time, Zeekr will speed up its expansion into the overseas market, as I said before. To put it simply, we have three brands with different market positioning, as well as different pricing strategy.
Within the Geely Holding Group, we also have committees on brands, on technology, as well as the pricing to push ahead and to manage our business strategies in a very effective manner. I hope this answers your question.
Thank you.
Maybe we have.
Oh, there was another question, actually. That's right, you had a second question. I'll take up the second question. For Geely Automobile Group, of course, we want to expand our sales and margin and revenues. We also want to improve the value of our brand and our company in terms of our operational efficiency as well as gross margin, as well as expenses and costs. We have long-term targets. In the short-term, at the moment, we're moving towards EVs. We focus on market share, particularly for EVs. This is our priority at the moment.
Just now you were asking whether we will be able to go back to the peak in as we were able to score in 2018. Of course, this will be our target in the medium and longer term.
I have some additional comments. NEV has been the mainstream for automobile development in the recent years. Some people said that there are two camps in the automobile development: the conventional OEMs and also the NEV startups. With years of development, I believe that some of the signs have been quite obvious. Last year, just take Tesla as an example-Tesla actually enjoys 15 years of history in automobile segment, and is not a new company. The same for BYD. The BYD manufactures ICE vehicles, BEVs and NEVs and they have performed quite well, and it shows the rules for automobile industry. That is, we need scale effects to be able to be profitable.
I believe that, for whichever company, if you cannot achieve a scale effect, then your future might be very concerning. For Geely, we might be considered as a conventional OEM. We will show scale effect in the future. What are other distinctive features of Geely? We have been emphasizing our multi-brand strategy and also our strategic partnerships with other brands. For example, with Volvo, with Daimler, on smart and we also have Jidu that we partner with Baidu. We have a very holistic strategy which enable us to share some platforms. Ultimately, we can achieve a scale effect. The result of such strategy is not yet shown.
Once is shown, I believe that this would become our distinctive advantage, which other competitors might not have. Some people might ask, what is our competitive advantage compared to the NEV startups or other conventional OEMs? That is my answer to the question, and that's why we have the confidence. We might be lagging behind now, but we have the confidence to catch up. I would also like to invite all of you to change your mindset and perspective on the competitive landscape of automobile makers. We need to see the rules for the industry. Thank you.
My name is Liang Hong Guo from China Merchants Group. I have a question about NEV development strategy.
You mentioned that cost advantage is the core for competition for Tesla and BYD. They focus on integrated solutions or advanced manufacturing. We can see that these are two automakers are quite competitive and leaving a lot of competitors behind. What is our coping strategy or our strategy to exceed these two players? The second question is about Zeekr. Tesla and BYD have their own advantage. NIO, Li Auto and XPeng have also their distinctive advantage. What about Geely? What is your differentiated advantage compared to others?
Thank you for your questions, and this is also the questions that we ask ourselves every day. What is our competitive edge? How do we compete with other players?
All our business plans and strategic are based on this, the answer of this question. First, for Tesla is a profitable company, which is the proof that NEV business model works. Of course is an early comer in the segment. It shows that this business model is profitable. This is of no doubt. Tesla has its own distinctive business model. It has its advantage and manufacturing processes and technologies. For example, for the integrated injection modeling, we have also applied that to Zeekr 009. The most important thing is about the material and tooling, as well as, equipment and vehicle processes.
As you can see from 009, we have higher loading for the integrated die casting, and we can manufacture larger size bodies. As you can see that we're quite advanced in terms of the integrated die casting. This technology will also be applied to other vehicle models. Some of them are now going through validation phases. We believe that the application of a such process can help us to reduce costs as well as our carbon emissions. In terms of the planning for Zeekr in the future, we have sold 70,000 units last year. I believe that 95% of the investors or analysts believe this is a target that's unachievable, but we have realized that target.
For this year, we set a target of 140,000 units, we have the confidence to achieve this target. For 2025, our target is set at 650,000. How come we have the confidence to set such a high target? I would like to share with you some detailed figures. For last year, we only have one model and achieve 72,000 units of deliveries. We launched Zeekr 009 end of last year, we started the delivery by March this year. For Zeekr X, as you know, that we have already announced news, and we believe that the delivery will start in Q3 this year.
We have another model, which is a sedan, A8 plus class sedan that will be launched to the market at the end of this year. For 001 and 009, we will see the volume contribution, and Zeekr X will also contribute to our volume growth in the second half of the year. For 001, more than 70,000 units. 009, around 30,000 units. Zeekr X, around 40,000 units. That's our expectation, which is the foundation for our target, 140,000 units. For 2024, we have 2 new models to be launched to the market. Every six months, we will launch a new model.
By the end of 2024, we will have another sedan, plus Zeekr 001, Zeekr 009, and the Zeekr X, and two other models. We will achieve a substantial growth for our sales, 2024. By 2025, we will have eight models to help us achieve the 650,000 units of sales. That's our planning for Zeekr. eight models, 650,000 units, and we believe this is achievable. We have more than 20 years of experience. We have a lot of lessons learned. We have overcome a lot of barriers and difficulties, especially in terms of product development and technologies, and we want to avoid such mistakes for Zeekr. We had been quite successful in the past.
For the planning, product planning for Zeekr, we started from three aspects. One of the most difficult model was 001. At that time, we have we decided to combine the advantage of a racing car and SUV. Some people believe it was a niche model. However, we combine these features together on 001, and it has been quite a popular model, and we have sold more than 10,000 from the beginning. The second one is about the differentiation. We have 001 and 009, and then the Zeekr X. They represent different segments. For 009 is the first pure electric MPV, and it's really, really popular in the market. For Zeekr X, it's a A0-class SUV.
As you can see that the three models are very different to cover different market segments. At the same time, we focus on the high-end market for Zeekr 001, the selling price is about RMB 336,000. The Zeekr 009 to RMB 520,000. For Zeekr X, we believe that the price would be even higher. This is about our product planning and why we have the confidence to boost our sales. Next, I would like to talk about some positive forecasts for Zeekr in 2023. First, about our battery. Lithium carbonate accounts for 40%-50% of our vehicle cost. It's quite impactful on our overall vehicle manufacturing cost.
I believe that the price has dropped to around RMB 280,000 or RMB 290,000. Our price for the supply of lithium carbonate varies based on the market situation. For Zeekr, if the lithium carbonate drop by RMB 10,000, then the impact on our Zeekr model is RMB 575, and a contribution to our gross profit is about 0.2%. It is true that the price decrease of lithium carbonate will be very favorable for our cost control. We have a JV with CATL, it is now up and running, we get the supply from this JV company. That's why our battery pricing is more competitive than some of our competitors.
For 009, the gross profit margin for, it's quite competitive in the segment of pure electric MPV. The model is quite popular, and the orders is now, lining up to four months later.
Users for 009 are the users from the existing Alphard, and that is the existing users of luxury MPVs. 009 will have a much better profit margin. With increasing deliveries, the revenues will grow. In terms of business scale, Mr. Gui and An Conghui have already said that we have the COS. Last year we have installed that system on 70,000 vehicles. This year, all brands and all models will use the same operating system, helping us to reach operation scale. This is also something that 0175 stand out amongst its peers and our competitive advantage after years of efforts.
Four. In terms of chips, compared with last year, there is more supply now with of chips. As we operate on scale, we will be able to negotiate better prices for chips. Of course, every year we have to negotiate the prices. We are also going to have a higher production capacity this year. We are going to launch four to five new models, which will be rapidly produced in our facilities. Therefore, production capacity will be used more efficiently. Zeekr is now recognized by our users in the market. We believe that this year we will be able to launch new technologies and new products under Zeekr, leading and submerging the market. These technologies will help to boost further the competitiveness of Zeekr. We also talked about the global strategy of Zeekr.
Starting from Q4 this year, Zeekr is going to get into the European market. Well, I'm afraid I'm taking up too much time. I stop here.
Can we maybe have another question from the media, maybe from the Hong Kong media, since we haven't met you for a number of years now? The lady in white, please.
Thank you very much for your sharing. I'm from Bloomberg. My question is about the export increases of Geely, which was a very good performance last year by the margin of 72%. What is your export to Russia? Now, the U.S. and Europe are sanctioning companies who deal business with or who conduct business with Russia. What is the geopolitical risk for you? Second question.
What is your target for phasing out ICE vehicles? For instance, Volvo has already set its target. What is your target?
I'd like to give this to Mr. An. Geely Auto is a business and we don't comment on geopolitical issues. We will stick to global compliance and follow the rules and regulations of our host countries, of the countries in which we have operations. We will observe the laws and regulations in our business operations and in competition. In terms of the share of ICE vehicles and EV vehicles, I'll give it to my colleague.
Thank you very much for your question. We are accelerating our transition to EVs. Lynk & Co is a brand for medium or higher range users and this strategy is being accepted, appreciated, and expected by users. There is a high overlap between the existing users and the new EV vehicles.
To speed up the transition, we are going to stop investment in R&D for ICE vehicles. We are going to focus on the development of NEV and BEV vehicles under Lynk. This is a very clear plan for us. For Zeekr, we believe that both the Chinese and the international markets are, in the short run, going to accommodate both EVs and ICE vehicles. For 2023, our keyword is innovation and change. For innovation and change, we are going to change the organizational structure in our sales, and that is... We have three sections. One is the Zeekr, and the other is the Lynk, and the third one is the Galaxy. We have one section for ICE vehicles in order that we push the market share to the highest.
For Geometry and Galaxy, the market positioning has been very clearly described just now. For Geometry and Galaxy, we want to build them into popular mass EV vehicles, at a price range of RMB 200,000. We also have the entry-level EV for Geometry. For Galaxy, we have two systems. First, we have the HEV, and the second is BEV. These are the two series we have for Galaxy. New EV in Galaxy, we hope to bring better value to our users. For Geely, we have a lot of plans for the transition to new EVs, as you have asked us. Now, our focus is on Galaxy. On February 23rd, we have already made an announcement launching seven different models in Galaxy. Of course, they follow the timeline.
For instance, in Q2, we are going to have Galaxy L7. Q3, we have L6. Q4, we have the first BEV, E8. In Q1 next year, we'll have the L5. In Q2, we are going to launch E6 models. The whole Galaxy strategy is clearly laid out, as you can see. Galaxy is our NEV strategy. It represents the second phase of EV vehicles in our strategy. Geometry is the pioneer, and Zeekr is our premium product, and they have been able to achieve good market results. This is especially true for Zeekr. Galaxy is a symbol of comprehensive transition to EVs for Geely.
I'd like to give the floor to our friend in the second row.
I have two questions.
We have seen the announcements. Can see single vehicle margin and net margin have all been going up. We believe this is related to your focus on brands. Of course there is also price war, fierce price war in the domestic market, and everybody is looking for market share rather than prices. Of course, An Conghui has already given us an answer, and that is, we are going to bring products of value to our users. I'd like to ask others if you have anything to add to that answer. Particularly Mr. An, you are leading the spearheading products of EV of the company. Secondly, we believe that the competition in the domestic market is really fierce, and some companies are looking towards the international markets.
You are looking at going into Europe, and you are also looking into Korea by working with Renault Korea. What are some of your specific plans in this regard?
Starting from January. Actually, starting from the end of December last year, we have seen dramatic cuts in EV prices. Going into March, ICE vehicles also joined in the fight. There's been dramatic changes in the vehicle automobile market. I think this is normal. Auto industry is coming to a stage of reorganization and phasing out of the losing participants. The successors will have to rely on their comprehensive power. We are not going to rely on prices to win in the market. We are going to use technology, quality, service, ethics in our fight in the market.
That's why we have been trying to consolidate our foundations throughout the past years. It is also why 0175 have been constantly reflecting and taking stock of our performance. For NEVs, represented by Zeekr, I've already given you the positive developments of Zeekr in 2023. We are well prepared for Zeekr in 2023. We want to use a systematic approach in order to achieve good results this year and in the future in terms of our competitiveness to survive in this market. That's the best answer at the moment I can give to you. Of course, we have to make money in the market, but to be able to do that, we have to have comprehensive capacity in the market. My colleagues all believe that Geely relies on multiple brands. This is our strategy.
This may put pressure on us. In fact, the multi-brand is our advantage compared with our competitors. We were talking about our pricing and brand positioning. These seem to be points of interest to all of you. The brands will be able to support each other. This is not present in other companies. We have a very long-term strategy and plan for our prices. Use Zeekr as an example. You can see the numbers. When we start with the first vehicle, we are already in the black. Last year we achieved 5% of profit rate without complications. We believe that the gross margin will go up tremendously this year.
For our gross profit margin, I can say that, when compared to other brands with the same sales volume, we're definitely better. I will not say further about other aspects. About the financial service as the first step to enter a new market, actually, under Geely Holding, is responsible for the financial services. As you know, that for the last six to seven years, we have achieved profitable growth. Our bad debt management has been done professionally. Our bad debt ratio continued to be capped at a very low level, around 0.23%. We have very good image for auto financing services and our high management as performance. We can provide full support for our business to go global.
Based on the laws and regulations, our auto finance companies cannot set up a branch in overseas market. We can provide a lot of capability support for our overseas branch. At the same time, we can partner with global partners, for example, for Genius. Every time we issue ABS or bonds, we created a record with the lowest interest rate. For example, our interest rate for ABS was around 1.73%. That's for RMB interest rate. Is because we have a lot of support from our global partners. They have high recognition for Geely's financial services. For example now with BNP, we are discussing about some financial service projects. We're very open to potential partnerships.
We hope to have more support coming from our global partners.
I have two questions. From the results from last year, we can see that the ICE vehicle's profitability is better than expectation and not so ideal for NEVs. Why? For this year, if ICE vehicles also participate in the price war, what should we do? Another question is also about the price war in the market. I have a follow-up question as some of the investors have already mentioned this aspect. As we know that Geely has been the quite conservative in terms of following the price cut. Mr. An has also mentioned about the price decrease for lithium carbonate. Do we not consider some price adjustment, especially for Zeekr 001?
Also considering our competitors have followed the price cut in the market. Can you please share with us the development of the price war? Because now lots of our consumers are on the lookout for the price adjustment. What's your expectation for the consumer side and from the industrial perspective?
It's true that our ICE vehicle profitability in 2022 was better than expected. There were several factors. The first one is a product mix adjustment. For CMA, we have a seen scale effect being shown last year. For the Chinese chip, the price was around RMB 150,000. Another reason is, another question is about the profitability for NEVs, which was lower than expected.
That's because at the end of 2021, there was a shortage of battery supply. At the same time, the orders for NEVs were quite sufficient. For Geometry, we could not deliver 28,000 to 30,000 units, and this has been postponed to the first half of 2021. The price was not adjusted, and that's why the profitability of NEV was severely impacted. Mr. An can respond to the question related to Zeekr.
Mr. Dai has already touched upon the ICE vehicle part, and you can see that our unit price has been on a increased track. It shows that the competitiveness of our products has been enhanced, and that's why we adjusted up the price for Zeekr BEV.
As you can see that, the price competition was quite fierce. We did not reduce the price or to take up other measures. We provide additional service to our consumers instead of reducing the price. As we can see that, our consumers were responding quite well. The orders went up by quite a bit. As you have mentioned, ICE vehicles have started to see a price adjustment as well. A lot of potential car buyers are on the lookout. Zeekr decides to offer value-added service, which helps boost the orders. A lot of the indecisive consumers have placed orders due to that reason.
For Geely or Zeekr, we would like to emphasize that we would not participate in a price war. Not now, not in the future. How do we cope with the current situation? I believe we have already touched a point that earlier. For us, we want to maintain a balance between value and volume. The key will lie in the product itself, the technology, the value-added service, the brand image, and our systematic capability. We are very proud to say that 0175 has such capabilities. Some additional comments, and we have received so many questions, and a lot of you have asked about the price war, because it is a big impact on the industry. I would like to share with you my perspective.
We know that in the past years, because of COVID and the market economy downturn, the industry has undergone a lot of pressure. However, we believe that the industry has its own rule of development. In the past years, we have seen the booming of many alternative carmakers. No matter how the macro environment changes, be there COVID or not, it's time for the industry and the market to change and to shuffle. Automobile industry is a manufacturing industry. We need to respect the rules. Without cash flow, without profitability, it is very hard for any manufacturer to survive. In the past years, we have seen a peak of sales volume. The Chinese market has now turned into a competition of the existing markets instead of a growth market.
That's why for lots of OEMs, they need to survive, and that's why they participate in the price war. It's a high time that happens. We don't think that this is against the rule, and the shuffling of the market might be a good thing to the market. If you take a price cut, you will have to reduce your investment in R&D, and this will ultimately have a impact on the user experience, as we know that the Chinese drivers attach great importance to driving experience. They now have already own a car and they have high demand for driving experience. If you continue to reduce the price, you have to reduce your investment in R&D and ultimately impact the user experience.
There might be some confusing signals in the market now, in the long term, it's a good thing. Mr. Dai has said it quite well. We need to focus on the service competition and product competition, we need to believe in our own technology advantage, we need to believe that we will prevail. Price war might look very serious at this moment, in the long term, we don't think that this would be a very severe problem, we need to have a clear view and standing on that.
We have received a lot of questions from our online audience. We'll take two questions. The first one is about IPO. What is the progress for the IPO for Zeekr?
There are also a lot of brands and subsidiaries going through IPO process. Would that have any impact on Zeekr's IPO proceedings?
Yeah, I was expecting this question. I have also written down my response to this question. For Zeekr, we have already submitted the IPO application to SEC in the U.S., and now we are going through a validation process. We will choose a right timing to disclose the details and finish the IPO process. We continue to keep an eye on the capital market dynamics. As you know, recently, we have seen a lot of volatility in the capital market and we might expect more. We'll keep a close eye on that.
Of course, it would depend on our operation and we'll find the best timing to complete the IPO process. I would like to emphasize that IPO is not the ultimate target for our operation. For Zeekr, we will continue to focus on the product development and technology upgrade. User experience is also very important to us. Create values for our users. Sales volume and user reputation among users would be our ultimate target.
Thank you, our friends from media and our investors. Thank you very much for your support and attention to our IPO progress for Zeekr and other brands. As Mr.
An mentioned, I would like to clarify with you that for Geely Holdings, we do have several subsidiaries going through IPO processes, but this is not our ultimate target or to pursue our capitalization. We mainly have two strategic objectives. The first one is to enhance the influence of our brands. The second one is to enhance the risk control and coping capabilities for Geely. We aim to support the development of HK 0175, which covers the core business of our group. I would like to talk about two aspects in details. The first one is to enhance the brand capability of our subsidiaries. We focus on the three brands under Geely and under Geely Holdings.
If we look at, Volvo and Lotus, they also have very clear brand positioning. If you look at the brand positioning, target customer group and price, target price range, they are all different for different brands. If you, take a look at the size and the models, we can also offer different options for our consumers.
For instance, a large size.
Simple option models as well as, a top option and small size models could also have price differences. Of course, this is something common for the auto market in the world. We want to have more choices for our consumers. Indeed, under Geely, if we don't provide such services, then other auto brands will be providing such options and choices for their consumers or for the auto market as a whole. Volvo, Zeekr, and Xingyue have all independently been listed in the market. They have expanded their impact on the capital market. They have been able to attract financial investors into their businesses, their interest has been able to push ahead the development of these brands.
Geely has benefited from transferring technology to these listed companies. We have coordinated technologically with these listed companies. We have also shared and collaborated with them in terms of supply chain as well as manufacturing facilities. We've been able to achieve good results in working together with these listed companies by sharing the technology platform for one thing, and also in terms of using our manufacturing capacity for Zeekr, for instance. We manufactured not only Zeekr, but also other models at our production capacities. Zeekr, in turn, contributed to the manufacturing and revenues as well as the cost control and price negotiations for the group. Secondly, we could also increase our risk control capacity. We have been able to obtain $2.7 billion when we floated when we listed Volvo.
Zeekr, we have been able to raise RMB 1.2 billion. Lotus has also been able to raise a lot of funds by the listing process. Geely Holdings, and through its listed subsidiaries, have been able to raise funds and free up funds actually to focus on its priorities. In the past 2-3 years, Geely Holdings has always enjoyed very strong financial position with a cash reserve of RMB 100 billion. Because of that, and also because of the listed companies, savings for our capital investment or expenditure by raising funds from the financial market, we as a group have benefited from an extra capital saved in the range of RMB 6 billion.
Finally, I would like to say 0175 has also bought some assets under Geely Holding. If the shareholders of 0175 believes that such acquisition is beneficial to Geely Holdings, to 0175, then we will do it. Our shareholders are open to these options. For instance, our recent collaboration with the Renault Korea Motors is actually done through 0175. I think I'll stop here.
We have still time for two more questions. I see this hand being held up for a long time in the first row.
I'm from Changjiang Securities. Thank you very much for your invitation, and I'm very happy to participate in the results announcement today.
Last year, when we experienced your vehicles, we thought the experience was very good. I think consumers still lack confidence in your PHEV and your HEV vehicles. What are you gonna do to build up your brand recognition and acceptance? I know that you have, for instance, four-wheel drive being promoted, and other technologies being promoted for your vehicles. What is your strategy to promote your EVs, especially Galaxy? What is your sales strategy? Because of the price war, people are not talking about smart cars anymore, but we still want to follow up on that. For Zeekr, what are some your smart vehicle plans for Zeekr?
Let me take up Galaxy as well as for the hybrid cars. When we started our announcement, Mr.
Gui has already shared with you that we have launched Emgrand HEV with a big order coming to us before we experienced problems with delivery. In terms of product itself, the marketing itself, we have looked into the problems that we encountered. First, in terms of our vehicle model, we don't have a complete range in terms of the NEVs. If we sell the NEVs in the same shops as the ICE vehicles, it won't work. Thirdly, training. NEV vehicles give users a different experience from the ICE vehicles, and we haven't put in training. We have reflected on these problems. When we are launching Galaxy this year, we are going to learn from the past lessons for Galaxy, for the HEV.
HEV is going to be our priority. On the basis of HEV last year, we are going to continue to upgrade our core technologies. Nation HEV for the heat. Thermal efficiency has been improved from 43% to 14%. 44% to 14%. We also improved the safety of batteries. We have improved on all the indexes, indicators relating to the battery safety. Radiation is another issue we worked on for our NEVs. We've done research and put in measures to shield our users from radiation. Across the board, we want to improve the safety and security of our new models. Secondly, we also want to build up the brands. Galaxy are high-value products in our strategy. We want to have four independent operations. First, the stores must be independent or unique. Our teams are independent.
We also have earmarked funds and earmarked accounts for these products. We also want to streamline three things. First, we have to unify. We have to integrate our online platforms for placing orders. We also want to streamline and improve our online experience. All these are going to be different from the traditional 3S stores, 4S stores. We have to leverage our existing advantages. We also want to leverage the advantages of 2C channel because Zeekr has had very good experience in the 2C channel. We have done a lot to improve the operations, and we hope to have good results. The fourth one, the guidance for Galaxy as a product, as well as the volume. We are going to launch one new model for each quarter this year.
In terms of volume, we believe the volume will go up in May and June. L7 has only been launched in the market for six months, and L6 will have 4 months in the market. We believe that their contribution will only be coming from half of the year, and the growth will be in double digits. I'd like to invite An, Mr. An, to give some additional points. I'll give you some figures. R&D staff is 6,387 people. For software, we have 77% of all R&D people working on software coming from 60%+ last year. 23% of the software go to engineering, which, and many of them are in the European center, working in the European center.
These figures show that we give greater emphasis to software development. Of course, smart driving and smart cockpit are technologies under intensive R&D. Investors and consumers are becoming more rational about smart vehicles. Vehicles are vehicles, after all. For smart driving, we believe we still have a lot of challenges in the future. The future is probably not going to come as soon as what we read or hear in the media reports. We have to be responsible to our consumers. For Zeekr, we have three technological directions. In CES, in June exhibited, we exhibited 001. We also exhibited L4, the L4 model for Waymo. Waymo is an excellent company in the world. 001 and 009 are using the chassis system of Waymo.
This is in the 2C channel. Our collaboration with Waymo is in fact 2B. The model is also shown at CES. I've also mentioned just now that in 2024 we'll be able to deliver in larger quantities. The third direction is relating to Zeekr. At the end of this year, it is expected that technology for Zeekr is going to be put in use. Smart driving strategy is comprehensive. This will make sure that Zeekr has good performance in smart driving and that we become a leader in the industry. Thank you very much.
One last question. Do we have any questions from the Hong Kong media? This lady, please.
The financial results show that you have an increase of 30% for the transfer of technology.
What are they in detail? What is your organizational change?
This seems to be very popular with a lot of auto companies. I'd like to have you respond to the organizational change. In the past few years, we have been working on our auto structures, including the chassis, including the E/E structures. We're using this modular kind of approach. We have worked with external collaborators, and we have shared our technology with other brands in the group. We have exported some of the technologies to the listed companies under Geely. For instance, Proton technology has been exported to companies outside of Malaysia. We could see that income from transfer of technology has been continuously growing up.
In 2022, we have reached a growth of 30%, a growth of more than RMB 1 billion. This is one of our strategies and business targets. By doing so, we'll be able to have standard technological standards for our products. We could also control cost of raw materials as well. I can't disclose all the details. I can't give you all the details of our collaboration with the other partners.
I will respond to your second question. I think the most important thing is about execution of our strategy, and we need a solid organization to be able to do that. In 2023, our focus will be reform and execution. For reform and innovation, we need to first start with organizational change, and that's why I have emphasized the sales team change. For Geely, Galaxy and Zeekr, we have three different business units and we have dedicated teams to lead different brands and this is on the sales organization. Secondly, on R&D, in 2021, Geely and Geometry were separated. The separation of the two brands means that we'll be more focused.
In the year beginning of this year, Geometry and Geely brands were combined again. It means that we have made drastic adjustment for the two brands. With the restructuring of the two brands, our R&D team would be more focused on the philosophy of the brand design, which would emphasize MEV. That's a simple response to the organizational change. I think that in the interest of time, we'll have to end today's session. However, thank you very much for all the questions, and we have roadshows in the coming days.
We welcome any questions on our roadshow sessions and we will make arrangement for our communication because this kind of communication is also a good opportunity for us to learn from you. Thank you very much.
Thank you all for your time. This will be the end of today's announcement, and we have several roadshows in the coming days, and if you have any.