Gasgoo Munich- Seres released its latest buyback update on the evening of August 3. The automaker spent roughly 260 million yuan on share repurchases in July alone, pushing cumulative spending past 587 million yuan by the end of the month. It marks the most aggressive sustained buyback campaign the company has undertaken in two years.
Image Source: Seres Announcement
Under the existing plan, Seres earmarked 1 billion to 2 billion yuan of own funds for repurchases, capping the price at 150 yuan per share over a 12-month period. The company has already cleared more than half of the minimum target. Yet the secondary market hasn't rewarded the effort. Shares are currently stuck in a narrow band between 52 and 60 yuan—a far cry from the historic peak of 170 yuan.
On one side, the company is pouring real cash into propping up its valuation. On the other, investors are watching their paper gains evaporate. That sharp disconnect signals a fundamental shift in market expectations—not just for Seres, but for the entire extended-range new-energy vehicle sector.
The experience of retail investor Xiaoqiong (a pseudonym) is typical. He bought in near 90 yuan and watched the stock surge to 170 yuan. Convinced by the long-term potential of the Huawei Smart Selection partnership, he held on—only to see his paper gains nearly wiped out. He's no longer banking on a quick rebound. Instead, he's waiting for earnings to catch up, to see if the company can justify its once-lofty valuation.
Another 587 Million Yuan Flows Into Buybacks
The disclosed data shows Seres is buying back in force. In July, the company repurchased 4.81 million shares via centralized bidding, paying between 52.08 and 56.30 yuan per share. Since the program began, prices have ranged from a low of 52.08 yuan to a high of 91 yuan, with total spending topping 587 million yuan.
Conventional wisdom holds that massive buybacks signal management believes the stock is undervalued and the business has a bright future. That logic, however, hasn't held up for Seres. Scroll through investor communities on East Money or Tonghuashun, and you'll find countless retail investors posting similar laments: they bought in above 90 yuan, watched the peak, failed to take profits, and then rode the downturn all the way back to zero.
Image Source: Seres
Xiaoqiong's story is hardly unique. Between 2024 and 2025, the market's expectations for Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance soared, fueled by strong sales of the AITO series and Huawei's full-stack technology. That optimism spilled over to Seres, driving its stock to 170 yuan and pushing its market cap past the 300 billion yuan threshold.
But as the sector cools, Seres' valuation has been steadily retreating. Buybacks might briefly offset market panic, but they can't reverse the fundamental reassessment of the company's long-term worth.
Extended-Range Sector Turns From Blue Ocean to Red Ocean
Seres continues to spend heavily on buybacks, and while the stock has recovered slightly from the mid-July low of 52 yuan, it remains far from its peak. The surface cause is weak short-term sentiment. The deeper issue is a restructuring of the competitive landscape in the extended-range sector—the logic of rapid expansion that once drove the industry has evaporated.
Just two years ago, extended-range vehicles were among the fastest-growing segments in the EV market. They offered the best of both worlds: electric driving for daily use without the range anxiety on long trips. In the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan family bracket, direct competitors were scarce.
As an early mover, Seres combined that market gap with Huawei's full suite of driver-assistance and HarmonyOS cockpit tech to create a standout product. Capital markets rewarded that differentiation with a premium valuation. But starting last year, the supply-demand dynamics shifted.
First, growth is stalling, and the industry has entered a dogfight for market share. Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows wholesale volume of extended-range models hit 504,000 units in the first half of 2026, down 13.1% year-on-year. Retail sales fared even worse, dropping 19.4%. In June alone, wholesale numbers plummeted 25.2%, while market share shrank from 10% last year to just 6.4%.
The era when the entire industry grew in lockstep is over. Overall market expansion has stalled, forcing automakers to steal customers from one another to move units. The normalization of price wars is crushing per-vehicle profits.
Image Source: Seres
Second, a wave of cross-sector newcomers has intensified the competition. At the end of July, Xiaomi officially launched its SkyNomad series of extended-range SUVs, debuting five- and seven-seat models priced directly against AITO's lineup. Leveraging its massive network of offline stores and online traffic, Xiaomi is poised to siphon off family buyers.
Li Auto, Deepal, and Leapmotor have also rolled out multiple new extended-range models this year. The flood of options is fragmenting the customer base.
These two shifts have fundamentally altered how institutions and retail investors value the sector. A few years ago, abundant growth and fewer players meant capital was willing to pay a premium for first-movers. Now that growth has peaked and the market is flooded with new models, capital markets are downgrading their valuation expectations across the board.
Seres remains a dominant player in the extended-range space thanks to its full Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance stack, but it is no longer the scarce high-growth gem it once was. Whether its stock stabilizes depends on two critical factors: first, whether new models can deliver sustained volume to protect sales scale and profit margins amid brutal price competition; and second, whether the company can reduce its reliance on extended-range technology and cultivate a new growth curve.
The rules of capital markets are blunt: high-growth sectors command high valuations, while sectors fighting for market share revert to rational levels. Seres is currently caught in that repricing cycle. Investor Xiaoqiong, for his part, has abandoned hope of a return to 170 yuan. He's staying on the sidelines, waiting for financial results to prove the company's real worth.
