Gree Turns to Europe's Winters After AC Revenue Nearly Doubles

Gree Electric Appliances chairwoman Dong Mingzhu told Bloomberg TV that Europe's cold winters are the Chinese appliance maker's next growth opportunity, after record summer heat nearly doubled its air-conditioning revenue in the region.

Gree Electric Appliances, the Chinese manufacturer best known for making air conditioners at enormous scale, is telling investors that its next opening in Europe is not the summer but the winter. Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg TV's Avril Hong that Europe's cold winters represent the company's next growth opportunity, following a season of record summer heat that nearly doubled its air-conditioning revenue in the region.

The claim is a straightforward one on its face and a considerably harder one underneath. Selling cooling into a heatwave is a demand-pull business: the weather does the marketing, distributors clear inventory, and a manufacturer with spare capacity and a cost advantage captures the overflow. Selling heating into a European winter is a different exercise entirely, one that runs through building codes, national subsidy schemes, installer networks and incumbent brands that have spent decades embedded in the plumbing trade.

Why the summer surge does not automatically repeat in January

The mechanics of the two markets diverge almost immediately. Room air conditioning in much of Europe is still a discretionary, retail-led purchase. A household decides in July that it cannot face another August, buys a split unit or a portable, and the transaction is essentially over. That is a channel Chinese manufacturers have proven adept at winning on price, availability and speed of shipment, which is how a single hot season can produce the kind of near-doubling Dong described.

Heating is a capital decision attached to a building. Replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump typically involves a survey, emitter sizing, sometimes new radiators or pipework, and an installer willing to stand behind the system for years. It is also, across much of the European Union and the United Kingdom, a subsidised decision, which means eligibility lists, product certification and minimum performance standards determine who gets sold. Brand recognition matters more when the buyer is committing to a decade of service visits than when they are buying relief from a heatwave.

That is the gap Gree has to close. The technology is not the obstacle — a heat pump is a reversible air conditioner, and a company that builds compressors at Gree's volume starts from an engineering position of strength. The obstacle is distribution and trust, both of which are owned in Europe by established heating names with entrenched installer relationships.

Energy storage and the shape of the wider pitch

Dong also used the interview to discuss Gree's energy storage business and the effect of artificial intelligence on its workforce, according to Bloomberg Markets. Those two threads matter to how the European push should be read.

Storage is the logical adjacency for a company whose core competence is power electronics and thermal management. A European household that installs rooftop solar, a battery and a heat pump is buying an integrated energy system rather than three separate appliances, and the vendor that can supply more of that stack has a structural advantage in the conversation. If Gree can arrive with heating and storage together rather than heating alone, it is selling into a different and more defensible position than a commodity box-shifter.

The workforce comment points at the cost side. Chinese appliance manufacturing has competed on price for years; automation and AI-assisted production are how that edge is extended as domestic labour costs rise. For a company trying to win share in a market where incumbents enjoy pricing power built on service reputation, the cost gap has to be wide enough to overcome buyer caution.

The policy variable that neither side controls

Any Chinese manufacturer scaling up in European energy hardware now does so against a live trade-policy backdrop. Europe has shown repeatedly that it will examine imported clean-technology goods for subsidy and dumping questions once volumes become material, and heating equipment sits squarely inside the bloc's decarbonisation agenda. A company that becomes a visible winner in European heat pumps invites the scrutiny that visibility brings.

There is also a demand-timing risk. The air-conditioning surge Dong cited was weather-driven, and weather-driven demand is volatile by definition. A mild summer would reverse the comparison as quickly as the hot one created it. Building a winter business on top of a summer spike is, in one reading, a sensible hedge: two seasons of revenue from broadly similar hardware smooths the annual curve. In another reading, it stretches a company into a market whose purchase cycle it does not yet control.

What to watch from here

The tests are practical rather than rhetorical. Does Gree secure certification and subsidy eligibility for heat pump models in the larger European markets? Does it build or buy installer capacity, or partner with an existing European distributor that already has it? Does the energy storage line get sold alongside heating, or separately? And does the next set of disclosed regional figures show European revenue holding after the exceptional summer, or reverting?

Gree's shares trade in Shenzhen rather than on a US exchange, so American investors take their exposure to this theme indirectly — through European heating and building-controls incumbents, through component suppliers, and through the broader industrial complex that serves the electrification build-out. Those names were trading in a constructive tape: on Thursday, 17 September 2026, the S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) closed at $762.60, up 1.13% on the day, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ) at $716.92, up 1.73%, and the Dow ETF (NYSEARCA: DIA) at $518.35, up 0.61%.

The strategic logic Dong laid out is sound. Whether it converts is a question about installers, subsidies and trade policy — none of which respond to the weather.

Frequently asked questions

What did Gree's chairwoman actually say?

Dong Mingzhu told Bloomberg TV's Avril Hong in an exclusive interview that Europe's cold winters represent Gree Electric Appliances' next growth opportunity. The comment followed a summer in which record heat across Europe nearly doubled the company's air-conditioning revenue in the region. She also addressed Gree's European expansion plans, its energy storage business and the effect of AI on its workforce.

Why would an air-conditioning maker target winter demand?

A heat pump is mechanically a reversible air conditioner, so a manufacturer with compressor and refrigeration expertise already has much of the engineering it needs to sell heating equipment. Adding a winter product line also smooths revenue across the year, reducing dependence on whether any given summer happens to be unusually hot.

What makes European heating harder to enter than cooling?

Cooling is largely a retail, impulse-driven purchase won on price and availability. Heating is a capital decision tied to the building, involving surveys, pipework, installer warranties, national subsidy eligibility and product certification. Incumbent European heating brands hold long-standing relationships with the installer trade, which is the real gatekeeper for replacement systems.

How does energy storage fit into Gree's European strategy?

Dong discussed the energy storage business in the same interview. Storage is a natural adjacency for a company built on power electronics and thermal management, and it lets Gree sell into households adopting solar, batteries and heat pumps as one integrated energy system rather than competing for a single appliance sale at a time.

Can US investors buy Gree shares directly?

Gree Electric Appliances is listed in Shenzhen, not on a US exchange, so American investors generally cannot buy it through an ordinary domestic brokerage account. Exposure to the same theme is usually taken indirectly, through European heating and building-controls incumbents, component suppliers, or broader industrial and electrification funds.

What should investors watch next on this story?

Key markers include whether Gree obtains certification and subsidy eligibility for heat pump models in major European markets, whether it builds or partners for installer capacity, whether storage is bundled with heating, and whether the next regional disclosures show European revenue holding up after an exceptionally hot summer.

Sources

• China's Gree Eyes Europe Winters for Growth — Bloomberg Markets

Photo: Iban Lopez Luna · Pexels Licence — source