Visitors experienced the Aito M7 model at the Aito booth during a car show in Chongqing. (Photo/Huxin Luo)

Chongqing - Chongqing automaker Seres has defied China’s struggling auto market, reporting two years of consecutive profits. Its 2025 annual report shows net income attributable to shareholders reached 5.96 billion yuan (about 865.5 million U.S. dollars).

China’s auto industry faced mounting pressure in 2025, with profit margins falling to a record low of 4.1%, below the 5.31% average for large industrial firms, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Seres, however, stood out, maintaining profitability and posting a record full-year revenue of 165.05 billion yuan, up 13.7% from last year.

This success is driven by strong sales and high margins in Seres’ New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). In 2025, NEV sales reached 472,269 units, up 10.6% year-on-year, fueling revenue growth. The NEV gross margin hit 28.8%, highlighting the segment’s strong profitability and market competitiveness, which bolstered overall corporate earnings.

As a leading local automaker in Chongqing, Seres established the Aito NEV brand through a cross-industry partnership with Huawei, quickly securing a foothold in the domestic luxury car market. In 2025, Aito's cumulative annual deliveries reached 426,000 units.

Specifically, annual deliveries of the Aito M9 exceeded 110,000 units, maintaining its position as the top-selling 500,000-yuan tier model for two consecutive years. The Aito M8 saw over 150,000 deliveries, leading the 400,000-yuan market segment, while annual deliveries for the new Aito M7 also surpassed 110,000 units.

Driven by this strong product matrix, Aito reached the milestone of one million vehicles rolling off the production line in just 46 months. In 2026 Q1, AITO continued to expand its product line. Pre-orders for the new SUV, the Aito M6, opened on March 23, with total orders already exceeding 60,000.

Seres' solid operational momentum is rooted in its development strategy. As a technology-driven enterprise, the company continues to increase its R&D investment, which reached 12.51 billion yuan in 2025, representing a 77.4% year-on-year increase.

Beyond its core automotive business, Seres is actively expanding into new technology sectors. At an analyst briefing on the evening of March 30, Chairman of Seres Group, Zhang Xinghai stated that the auto industry is evolving toward L4+ embodied AI. The company currently develops bipedal, quadrupedal, wheeled, and wheel-leg hybrid product forms for both B2B and B2C scenarios, with select products expected to launch later this year.

In the capital markets, the reaction to Seres as a dual-listed (Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong shares) firm was subdued. On March 31, the first trading day following the report's release, its A-shares opened at 91.41 yuan and closed at 90.83 yuan, down 3.62% for the day. Its Hong Kong shares opened at 85 Hong Kong dollars and closed at 84.25 Hong Kong dollars, down 3.11%.