(Yicai Global) Aug. 19 -- Shares in Geely Automobile Holdings advanced as much as 4.7 percent today after the private Chinese automaker logged a five-fold leap in sales of new energy vehicles in the first six months from the same period last year.

Geely’s stock price [HKG:0175] closed up 3.5 percent at HKD17.42 (USD2) apiece today. Earlier in the day it hit HKD17.60.

Geely shifted 109,700 electric cars in the six months ended June 30, accounting for 17.9 percent of total sales and a gain of 14.4 percentage points from a year ago, the Hangzhou-based company said yesterday. Its pure electric Geometry series was particularly popular, was deliveries quadrupling to 55,000 vehicles.

The firm will continue to speed up its transition to electric cars and aims to have NEV sales account for more than 30 percent of monthly sales in the second half and half of those next year, Chief Executive Officer Gan Jiayue said.

However, heavy investment in its smart electric vehicle marque Zeekr saw first-half profit slump 35 percent year on year to CNY1.6 billion (USD235.8 million).

Revenue, though, surged 29 percent to CNY58.2 billion (USD8.5 billion), despite a 3 percent dip in overall vehicle sales to 613,800 autos, mainly due to the global chip shortage and Covid-19 restrictions, it said. Higher prices and improvements in its product mix helped offset the decline in sales. The average price per car jumped 21.1 percent to CNY102,000 (USD15,030).

Editor: Kim Taylor