China’s tire industry is currently standing at a critical crossroads: on one side, there is overcapacity, price involution, and increasing trade barriers. Most companies are trapped in the dilemma of “increasing revenue without increasing profits”; on the other side, there are new opportunities brought by new energy transformation, global restructuring, and intelligent manufacturing upgrades.
Faced with difficulties and opportunities, General Motors used the 2025 annual report and the first quarter report of 2026 as evidence. With a report card of growth against the trend, profit restoration, and significant improvement in cash flow, it has found a high-quality path that is different from the traditional scale war, and also provides a transformation example for the entire manufacturing industry to learn from.
Outstanding performance
In 2025, when the industry is generally under pressure, GM shares will deliver not only digital growth, but also structural optimization and quality improvement.
Full-year revenue was 8.497 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.11%, significantly outperforming the industry. In the first quarter of 2026, the stable trend continued, with revenue of 2.137 billion yuan, net profit attributable to the parent company of 127 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.24%, and non-net profit increased by 32.42%. The profitability repair efforts are extremely outstanding in the industry.
What is even more convincing is the cash flow indicator. The net cash flow from operating activities in the first quarter reached 339 million yuan, soaring more than 26 times year-on-year, which means that the company has achieved a qualitative leap in its hematopoietic ability, payment quality and risk resistance capabilities.
At the same time, overseas layout has become the biggest highlight, with overseas assets accounting for nearly 70% and overseas revenue accounting for more than 85%. The dual bases in Thailand and Cambodia continue to be at full production and sales, and orders for semi-steel tires have exploded, effectively hedging the uncertainty caused by trade frictions between Europe and the United States.
These data are not the result of simple expansion, but a concentrated reflection of the company’s insistence on global production capacity layout, lean cost control, and continuous technology research and development. It proves that in the industry involution cycle, solid growth can also be achieved by relying on value competition rather than price competition.
Mixed Reform Empowerment
In June 2025, General Motors completed the landmark mixed ownership reform. Jiangsu Soho Holding Group became the company’s controlling shareholder, and the actual controller was changed to Jiangsu Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
This mixed-ownership reform is not a simple equity change, but a reshaping of the underlying logic, creating a new paradigm for the tire industry of “state-owned credit + private enterprise efficiency”.
Before the mixed-ownership reform, enterprises faced related bottlenecks such as high financing costs, limited global resource integration capabilities, and governance structures that need to be improved. After the mixed-ownership reform, credit endorsement has been significantly enhanced. In March 2026, 450 million yuan of scientific and technological innovation bonds were successfully issued, with a coupon rate of only 2.00%, setting a new low in the industry, and injecting low-cost long-term funds for research and development and production expansion.
At the governance level, the strategy is more focused, the decision-making is more standardized, and the risk control is more stringent, while retaining the advantages of private enterprises in quickly responding to the market and flexibly adjusting operations.
In terms of resource synergy, relying on Soho Holdings’ advantages in overseas channels, industrial resources, and international trade, GM has accelerated the expansion of high-end customers, optimized the global supply chain, and achieved resonance among “policy support, low capital costs, and high operational efficiency.”
Mixed-ownership reform truly transforms institutional advantages into competitive advantages, making enterprises more stable in cyclical fluctuations, more courageous in global competition, and more confident in tackling difficulties in transformation.
Strategic Acceleration
In 2026, General Motors will use the mixed-ownership reform dividend as a guide to implement a series of key actions that lead the direction of the industry and promote itself from a manufacturing enterprise to a technology-based and global enterprise.
The overseas layout continues to deepen: the Cambodian base has won the first local “Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Factory” certification and has become a benchmark for intelligent tire manufacturing in Southeast Asia. The planning of the third overseas base has been accelerated, further building a global moat.
Technological innovation focuses on high-end breakthroughs: it took the lead in realizing the batch application of Eucommia rubber and launched Super Eucommia tires, which directly address the pain points of new energy tires with its super wear-resistant, safe and comfortable features; it cooperated with Lenovo and Tsinghua University to promote the implementation of AI large models in quality inspection, safety warning and other scenarios, and built a semi-steel tire “black light workshop” and an all-steel tire “5G carbon cloud smart factory”. It won the China Industrial AI Outstanding Application Award and jumped out of low-price involution with new quality productivity.
In the domestic market, digital dealer platforms and brand linkage activation terminals are used to achieve two-wheel drive at home and abroad.
The financial structure continues to be optimized: at the end of the first quarter, monetary funds increased to 1.083 billion yuan, the asset-liability ratio declined steadily, and operational security continued to improve.
This series of actions clearly shows that GM is shifting from “scale priority” to “value priority” and from “capacity-driven” to “innovation-driven”, providing a clear path for industry transformation.
Industry Enlightenment
GM’s practice has brought profound enlightenment to China’s tire industry, which is deeply involved in involution.
First, globalization is not an option, but a required course. Multi-base layout can effectively disperse trade risks and improve supply chain resilience, which is the core path to break through barriers and go global; second, mixed-ownership reform is a high-quality solution for the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing. State-owned assets empower to solve capital, resource, and compliance issues, and private enterprise mechanisms ensure efficiency, vitality, and market sensitivity.
Degree, the combination of the two may break the bottleneck of long-term development; third, high-end technology is the only way out of the price war. Only by focusing on new energy, new materials, and intelligence, and creating differentiated products can we gain pricing power and brand premium; fourth, stable operations and cash flow security are more important than short-term scale, and high-quality profits and strong cash flow are the fundamental guarantees for crossing the cycle.
From the perspective of the general trend of the industry, China’s tire industry is moving from a “manufacturing power” to a “brand power”, with the reshuffle accelerating and the strong ones staying strong.
General Motors takes mixed reform as its wings, globalization as its strategy, and technology as its core, proving that Chinese tire companies can completely escape from involution and move toward the high end.
In the future, as overseas bases continue to expand, high-end products continue to be launched, and the dividends of mixed-ownership reform are fully released, GM will continue to develop with its own high quality and lead the industry on a new journey that is more competitive and sustainable.
