With an annual sale volume of 6.93 million vehicles in 2017, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited maintained its leading place in China automobile industry.

The statistics were released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and China Passenger Car Association, two authorities from the automobile industry. SAIC Motor enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent in sales volume, far above the average rate of 3.3 percent of the industry. Its domestic market share also reached 23.2 percent, increasing by 0.6 percent over 2016.

SAIC Motor Corporation Limited sells 6.93 million vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent, among which more than 50 percent is contributed by its self-owned brands.

Development of self-owned brands and joint ventures

In line with its development strategy that orientates on electrification, interconnection, intelligence, and sharing, SAIC Motor used innovations to develop differentiated products, which brought about the rapid development of self-owned brands and joint ventures.

The self-owned brands contributed towards more than 50 percent of the sales increase in 2017. Its passenger vehicle brands Roewe and MG achieved a sales volume of more than 522,000, an increase of 62.3 percent over 2016. The commercial vehicle brand Maxus sold out approximately 71,000 vehicles in 2017, with a year-on-year increase of 54.2 percent, and more than 10,000 vehicles were sold at oversea markets, increasing by 47 percent.

Three joint ventures – SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SGMW – achieved a sale volume of more than two million vehicles in 2017. With a sale of 2.063 million, SAIC Volkswagen ranked first among the domestic passenger vehicle enterprises, and SGMW, co-founded by SAIC Motor and Liuzhou Wuling Motor Co Limited and GM China ranked top among all the Chinese automobile enterprises as it sold out 2.15 million vehicles in 2017.

New energy vehicles doubled sales with advanced technologies

As the only enterprise in China that has mastered the advanced power technologies of plug-in hybrid, pure electric and fuel cell, SAIC Motor has prioritized the development of new energy vehicles. Its project “key technologies for low-energy plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle” won the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 2017, signifying that SAIC Motor has broken the technical barriers of national automotive giants and is able to produce vehicles with better safety and drivability.

To establish a complete production line for NEVs, SAIC Motor also conducted cooperation with enterprises from other fields. Production bases for environment-friendly battery and battery system was set up in 2017 by joining hands with China’s biggest battery manufacturer CATL. It also cooperated with Infineon Technologies to develop Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and with Magna International Inc. to provide electric-drive solutions for customers.

In 2017, SAIC Motor increased their NEV sales by 140 percent, far above the average rate of 50 percent of domestic NEV market. By making good use of its technologies, SAIC Motor plans to launch more new-energy products and increase marketing efforts.

Internet cars maintain sustainable development

Internet car is also the major product of SAIC Motor. Under the cooperation with Alibaba Group, SAIC Motor launched the world’s first internet car in 2016, after which a series of products, including Roewe RX5, Roewe i6, Roewe RX3, MG ZS, and MG 6, were released and well received by the market. SAIC Motor now has a complete product matrix of internet cars and is able to provide services covering finance, insurance, maintenance, navigation and entertainment.

The internet system Banma Intelligent Driving 2.0 was also recently released which can help more than 400,000 clients upgrade the voice control and navigation systems on their vehicles. Customers can enjoy better services in regards to online payment, smart parking and refueling.

In November, 2017, SAIC Motor launched i-Smart system in Thailand and started to sell internet car MG ZS in overeseas markets. The car was well received by local customers and orders for more than 3,000 vehicles were placed. 

In 2018, SAIC Motor will explore more intelligent travel solutions for customers and speed up its upgrading of vehicle systems based on customers’ requirements.

Intelligent driving vehicles take lead in China

SAIC Motor is also taking efforts to develop intelligent driving. In 2017, it cooperated with communications giants China Mobile Communications Corporation and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to develop the C-V2X – a technology that can promote vehicle safety and automatic drive, in an effort to lay foundations for the development of smart city and intelligent transportation.

SAIC Motor joined the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) which is an international alliance made up of vehicle enterprises, chip manufacturers and communication companies and is established to provide solutions for intelligent transportation and travelling, and smart city. SAIC Motor is the only such automobile enterprise from Asia.

It also gained the license for automatic driving test from the authority of California, becoming the only automobile enterprise from China with the license. An agreement was also signed with Wuhan KOTEI Informatics Co Ltd to develop high definition maps for intelligent driving. Cooperation was conducted with Tongji University to set up the first intelligent driving test base in China, occupying ground area of 1,370 mu (91.33 hectares) which can simulate hundreds of traffic scenes.

By the end of 2017, SAIC motor had completed the development of two generations of intelligent driving platform and started to study intelligent driving technologies which can be applied in the traffic scenes of autonomous parking and traffic jams. The accumulative test mileage of vehicles has exceeded 500,000 kilometers.

In the future, SAIC Motor will speed up the development of intelligent driving technologies and realize the commercial operation of intelligent technologies.

SAIC Motor cooperates with a series of enterprises to explore the field of intelligent driving.

The world biggest new energy time share enterprise

In 2017, Global Car Sharing & Rental Co Ltd, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, expanded its new energy time share business to 60 cities around the country. As many as 270,000 vehicles are under operation at the company’s more than 12,000 outlets. With 1.9 million registered members and more than 1.35 orders each month, Global Car Sharing & Rental has become world biggest new energy time sharing enterprise. 

SAIC Motor is developing exclusive NEV models for sharing business and technologies and operation models to occupy more market shares.

In terms of service business, Chexiang, the first full life circle online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce platform built by SAIC Motor in China, sold more than 70,000 vehicles and tried to develop customized services to meet individual demands. Chexiangjia, the offline physical service system of Chiexian has completed the B-round financing of one billion yuan ($158.23) and established 1,500 offline outlets. It also took efforts to improve operation at the store and provide better services for customers.

In terms of international operation, SAIC Motor strives to expand its overseas market. As of now, bases for vehicle production and development and research have been founded in the UK, Thailand and Indonesia, and a new one in India is under construction. Approximately 500 overseas sales and service outlets have been set up at the major regions, including Middle East, South America, ASEAN and Europe, which helped sell products to the US, UK, New Zealand and Ireland. SAIC Motor also established innovation centers and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and Israel. In 2017, SAIC Motor sold out as many as 162,000 vehicles in overseas markets, a year-on-year increase of 25.4 percent, ranking first in the country for two consecutive years.

In 2017, the market value of SAIC Motor increased by 40 percent and its value reached an all-time high of 400 billion yuan at the beginning of 2018. SAIC Motor shared the profit for the shareholders by releasing cash bonus. Per ten shares can get a cash bonus of 16.50 yuan (tax-inclusive). This is the fourth year that the company has repaid the shareholders with cash bonus.

In the future, SAIC Motor will continue the innovative transformation by adhering to the development strategy featuring electrification, interconnection, intelligence, and sharing, striving to become a world renowned automobile enterprise.