CHERY AUTO (09973) released its 2025 performance report on March 18. This marks the company's first annual report since its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 25 last year. In 2025, CHERY AUTO achieved revenue of 300.287 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.3%. Annual profit reached 19.507 billion yuan, up 36.1% compared to the previous year. Profit attributable to owners of the parent company was 19.019 billion yuan, a rise of 34.6%. The net profit margin improved from 5.3% the previous year to 6.5%. Overall, while revenue surpassed the 300-billion-yuan mark, profit growth significantly outpaced revenue growth, indicating an enhancement in operational quality.
The company's performance growth last year was primarily driven by the volume increase in its new energy vehicle (NEV) business, expansion in overseas markets, and product structure adjustments. Revenue from markets outside China reached 157.419 billion yuan, exceeding domestic revenue. Passenger vehicles remained the core revenue source, contributing 272.352 billion yuan. Meanwhile, research and development expenditure increased significantly to 11.444 billion yuan.
Financially, CHERY AUTO's gross profit was 41.443 billion yuan in 2025, a 14.1% increase year-on-year. The gross profit margin was 13.8%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year. The annual profit growth of 36.1% was notably higher than the 11.3% revenue growth.
Analyzing the gross profit structure by product reveals industry-wide profitability pressures. The gross profit margin for passenger vehicles was 12.8% in 2025, down from 13.2% a year earlier. This was attributed to the increased revenue contribution from NEVs, which have relatively lower margins, and intensified market competition. While NEV volume growth drove scale expansion, the rising proportion of NEVs also diluted the overall profitability of the passenger vehicle business.
However, the NEV segment's gross profit margin improved substantially, rising from 0.4% to 8.8%. Combined with a 66.3% year-on-year increase in NEV revenue and its share of total revenue growing from 21.9% to 32.6%, the NEV business has begun to provide substantial support to profits.
The company's financial structure also improved. By the end of 2025, net current assets turned positive to 9.668 billion yuan from negative 3.401 billion yuan the previous year. Net assets increased from 25.924 billion yuan to 50.798 billion yuan. Interest-bearing bank loans and other borrowings decreased from 23.166 billion yuan to 15.924 billion yuan, indicating an optimization of the company's funding status and debt repayment pressure.
The past year's growth was primarily fueled by NEVs and globalization. In 2025, CHERY AUTO sold 2.6314 million self-owned passenger vehicles, a 14.6% increase year-on-year. Sales of self-owned NEVs reached 826,500 units, surging 72.5%, a rate significantly higher than the overall sales growth.
The company currently maintains a dual-track development strategy for both internal combustion engine vehicles and NEVs. In 2025, internal combustion engine vehicles continued to contribute a higher gross profit margin of 15.0% within passenger vehicle revenue. Although the NEV margin improved rapidly, it remained lower than that of internal combustion engine vehicles. This indicates that the company's current profit base still relies partly on traditional vehicle sales, while NEVs are tasked with driving volume growth and reshaping the growth trajectory.
Overseas markets played a prominent role in driving performance. Revenue from other countries and regions amounted to 157.419 billion yuan, compared to 14.2868 billion yuan from the Chinese market, meaning overseas revenue now constitutes a larger share. Vehicle exports reached 1.2944 million units in 2025, up 33.2% year-on-year, accounting for 49.2% of total annual sales. This shift in revenue sources shows the company is no longer solely dependent on the domestic market, with overseas operations becoming a key pillar for growth.
This structural change is also reflected in R&D investment. R&D expenditure in 2025 was 11.444 billion yuan, higher than the 9.243 billion yuan in 2024. Calculated according to the report's specific criteria, full-year R&D investment reached 14.715 billion yuan, a 39.6% increase. Against the backdrop of intensifying competition in electrification and smart technology, and rising localization requirements in overseas markets, sustained high R&D investment is essential for maintaining product iteration and supporting the company's global strategy.
The key to CHERY AUTO's next phase of development may no longer be just selling more vehicles, but rather how to further stabilize gross margins and profitability as the proportion of NEVs continues to increase and overseas markets keep expanding.
Regarding plans to drive high-quality development, CHERY AUTO's Chairman stated the company will focus on building robust systems, processes, and standards. It will actively utilize new tools like AI to foster content and business innovation, learn from non-automotive industries, decisively move away from low-level internal competition, concentrate on brand building, and achieve high-quality growth.