SAIC Motor takes fast track to develop as high-tech company

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SAIC Motor, the largest automobile manufacturer in China, is fast getting into gear to develop as a high-technology company, after having generated 742.13 billion yuan ($113.41 billion) in operating revenue last year, according to its annual report which was recently published.

In 2020, SAIC Motor sold 5.6 million vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 10.2 percent. However, its sales saw a 7.6 percent year-on-year rebound in the second half of the year.

Moreover, the year-on-year growth of SAIC Motor's vehicle sales climbed quarter by quarter throughout the year as the manufacturer began shaking off the negative impact of the novel coronavirus on auto markets.

Sales of new energy vehicles or NEVs by SAIC Motor surged 73.4 percent in 2020 to 320,000 units, leaping to top spot in the country and third place in the world while it exported 390,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent and leading it to retain top spot in China for the sector for five years in a row.

In 2021, SAIC Motor is projected to achieve total sales of 6.17 million vehicles, a yearly increase of 10.2 percent, and it will also promote ride-hailing services and solutions.

The automaker has reportedly been improving its core business while nurturing new growth drivers in recent years.

The company has stepped up efforts to promote the industrialization of intelligent-connected vehicle, or ICV technology, and the development of core industry supply chains involving batteries, electric motors and electronic control modules, as well moved to launch more high-tech products.

The auto manufacturer has been improving its technological capacity in data-determined experiences and software-defined vehicles. It has done so by exploring emerging technologies, including software development, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cyber security.

In addition, SAIC Motor has also promoted electrification, intelligent and connected, sharing and globalization in recent years, laying a solid foundation for its sustainable development.

On April 8, 2022, a Roll-Roll vessel carrying 405 units Maxus vehicles left Lianyungang port on schedule and headed for the other side of the Pacific. That was the company's second massive shipment to Chile and the 14th batch delivered to overseas markets within the year. 

Over the previous week, our team for South America markets had been making concerted efforts to ensure timely shipment. On one hand, we kept coordinating with key components suppliers and the vehicle manufacturer to bring the vehicles off-line in time. On the other, we kept our eye on the pandemic situation in Shanghai and other nearby port cities, devising various delivery plans accordingly. 

After comparing the distance, time and cost of different delivery routes as well as the shipping space, shipping schedule and arrival time of different shipping companies, we finally decided to shift the shipment from Shanghai to Lianyungang, another port city in Jiangsu province. 

However, the pandemic prevention and control measures brought great inconvenience to vehicle transportation and port entry. We kept communicating and coordinating with different parties — shipping company and the forwarder, local disease prevention and control department, the port and the transportation team. After 6 consecutive testing days and nights, we finally managed to deliver all 405 vehicles into the port and completed the whole export procedure in time. 

This year, we have strengthened cooperation with our partners, such as vehicle manufacturers, domestic logistic suppliers and international shipping companies, and overcome the adverse effects of supply disruption of chips, labor shortages, outbreak of Covid-19, etc. Through these efforts, we are encouraged to see that our distributors’ orders have been delivered timely and we are playing our own role in carrying out the globalization strategy of our group.

In the exhibition, NAIEC displayed after-sales parts for SAIC MOTOR's self-owned brand and received nearly a hundred customers from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia and other countries and regions. 

China's largest carmaker, SAIC Motor, published its new vision, mission, values, and logo on June 15, indicating its transition to a user-oriented high-tech company.

Its new stated value is to be user-oriented，more attention on open partnerships and innovation to achieve further. The company’s new vision is to provide an exciting ride for a green and intelligent future.

The carmaker's new logo uses a youthful and flat design language to reflect the dynamic vitality of a “New SAIC”.

Last year, SAIC Motor started piloting the sharing of automobile data with users to improve the user experience of IM Motors, an electric vehicle brand jointly founded by SAIC Motor, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, and Alibaba Group.

Moreover, SAIC Motor is making every effort to tackle the serialized "three-core system" with long endurance, multiple energy gradients, and multiple drive systems. By the end of the year, the company's new-generation electric battery system will be put into operation with improved safety, fast charging, and energy conversion efficiency.

By 2025, SAIC Motor plans to launch a solid-state lithium battery with high levels of safety and high energy density for commercial applications, and its L4 intelligent driving technology will be used in IM, R brand, intelligent heavy trucks, and Robotaxi.

Aiming at the next generation of electric smart cars where "data determines experience and software defines cars", SAIC Motor will focus on user experience innovation and promote changes in product design and business models. At present, SAIC Motor is the first in China auto industry to conduct a comprehensive layout of the five centers of software development, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cyber security, and initially establish the technical capabilities for intelligent cars. In the future, SAIC Motor will strengthen its independent control of the "brain and soul" of smart cars such as SOA software platform and centralized electronic architecture through self-research of core software across the domain. It is planned to achieve mass production of L4 autonomous driving technology in 2025 and become the leading intelligent driving enterprise in China.

Technological evolutions have not only broken the industrial boundaries, but also promoted auto companies to expand new circles of friends and reshape the industrial ecology. The ecological circle of friends that integrates industry and finance will become SAIC Motor's strongest "resource".

SAIC Motor worked with Alibaba and OPPO to expand Internet ecological cooperation; with Tencent in areas such as network information security and Internet content ecology. Cooperate with Huawei, NVIDIA, Mobileye, TTTech, to form system-level solutions from perception, decision-making to execution. In conjunction with China Mobile, Huawei, and Shanghai International Automobile City, jointly build the country's first "5G Smart Transportation" demonstration zone in Jiading International Automobile City.

The continuous expansion of the "co-creation and win-win" ecosystem will provide strong support for collaborative innovation, ensure supply chain security, and reduce costs, and promote the high-quality and coordinated development of multiple industries.

Looking into the future, SAIC Motor will strive to carry greater brand impact, more comparative advantages, and more flexible in systems and mechanisms. It will strive to seize the commanding heights of the global automotive industry in the future, strive to become a world-class automotive company.

The 2019 Fortune Global 500 Companies list was announced on July 22. Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor took the 39th spot on the list with consolidated sales revenue of over $136.39 billion in 2018. In addition, SAIC Motor ranked 7th among all auto companies on the list and ranked 10th among all Chinese companies.

In 2018, SAIC Motor achieved robust sales against the slowdown in the domestic auto industry. Company’s annual sales of vehicles reached 7.052 million units, a rise of 1.8 percent year-on-year, which led to an increase of one percentage point year-on-year in its domestic market share to 24.1 percent. It further expanded its lead in the domestic market.

Although the Chinese auto market is continuing to decline, SAIC Motor is striving to consolidate its market share while paying close attention to the changing trends in the global auto industry, striving to accelerate the promotion of “electrification, intelligent connectivity, sharing and globalization."

According to statistics, from January to June, SAIC Motor's new energy vehicle sales reached 82,000 units, up 42 percent year-on-year. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles ran over 2.1 million kilometers. Other breakthroughs included the launch of the world's first 5G-enabled screenless smart cockpit, co-development of China's first 5G-enabled smart transportation demonstration zone with Huawei and China Mobile, and the mass production of the world's first 5G-enabled internet car which is about to go on sale. In addition, Xiangdao Chuxing, a ride-hailing brand developed by SAIC Motor, has gained popularity and has received more than 50,000 orders in a single day. Meanwhile, the overseas sales of SAIC automobiles reached 145,000 units in the first half of 2019. MG Motor, a British carmaker now owned by SAIC, has made India's first internet car -- MG Hector, which has successfully entered the Indian market. SAIC Motor also agreed to establish a joint venture manufacturing company with Mansour Automotive Group in Egypt as part of its efforts to enter the African market.

New energy auto sales in H1

With strong independent research and development strength, SAIC Motor's new energy vehicle sales reached 82,000 units in the first six months of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 42 percent. As the only auto company in China that develops electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, SAIC Motor leads the nation in terms of core technology related to batteries, electric drives and electric controls. Currently, a new round of innovation in technology related to electric drive gearboxes, electric shafts, inverters and battery management systems is getting into full swing. The goal is to create an internationally-leading structure for electric vehicles.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles without emissions are the ultimate goal of for developing new energy vehicles. SAIC Motor's newly developed third-generation fuel cell system has galvanic pile power of 115 kW, volume power density of 3.1 kW/L, and allows for a low-temperature start at -30℃. These key indicators have achieved international first-class standards. SAIC Motor also took the lead in China in terms of commercialized hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars and commercial vehicles. SAIC Maxus FCV80 fuel cell wide body light passenger car, Roewe 950 fuel cell sedan and Sunwin fuel cell bus have an accumulated mileage of more than 2.1 million kilometers.

5G-enabled intelligent connected car

As the earliest auto company in China to develop intelligent connected technology, SAIC Motor has continuously strengthened the independent development of key systems in driverless technology, and further promoted cooperation with Alibaba, Wuhan KOTEI Informatics Co Ltd, Mobileye, TTTech and other well-known domestic and international companies. Strategic cooperation agreements were signed with the Traffic Management Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, China Mobile, and Huawei to jointly carry out research on forward-looking intelligent connected technologies such as 5G and standard system construction.

In April, SAIC Motor released the world's first 5G-enabled screenless smart cockpit and unveiled China's first 5G-enabled smart transportation demonstration zone. It announced that the world's first 5G-enabled car would realize mass production and hit the market in 2020.

The Roewe Marvel X pure electric SUV manufactured by SAIC Motor is proof of the enterprise's ability to collaboratively develop electric vehicles, system of internet vehicles, intelligent electronic control units (i-ECU), and high-precision electronic maps. SAIC Motor is also among the first to realize mass production of cars with autonomous parking and self-driving functions. To date, the total test mileage of intelligent car prototypes independently developed by SAIC Motor is near 120,000 kilometers, and the test mileage on open roads has exceeded 10,000 kilometers.

Car-hailing platform and service ecosphere

In 2019, SAIC Motor maintained focus on intelligent transportation, convenient mobility services, and efficient logistics, actively using artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing technologies. Full play has been given to the synergy-resource advantage in the industrial chain in order to serve the construction of a large-scale car-hailing platform and service ecosphere.

Xiangdao Chuxing now enjoys more than 2.3 million subscribers who have placed a total of more than 5.5 million orders with user satisfaction up to 96 percent. Maximum daily orders have topped 50,000. A car rental service is also available for enterprise clients. SAIC Motor's time-sharing service of new energy vehicles is offered in 64 cities across the country with a fleet size of 45,000 vehicles. The number of subscribers has soon grown to more than 4 million.

Chexiang, a Chinese online-to-offline automotive trading platform invested by SAIC Motor, achieved an annual online trade volume of 72,000 vehicles and earned 8 billion yuan ($1.16 billion) in annual transaction value -- well ahead of its competitors. Chexiang is also increasingly recognized for its personalized service and other characteristic business offerings. It has established a joint operation mechanism with Automall.qq.com. More than 2,500 Chexiangjia outlets are currently operating in 130 cities and have successfully built a "three-kilometer community service ecosystem".

SAIC Anji Logistics Co Ltd, the world's largest vehicle logistics company, wholly-owned subsidiary by SAIC Motor, is working to promote innovative business models such as multimodal transport and intelligent warehouses.

At the same time, SAIC Motor used the acquisition of Hoau Logistic Co Ltd as a stepping stone to enter the non-automobile logistics field and is accelerating the development of an urban express logistics platform.

Creating a name card of Chinese car

In 2018, SAIC exported and sold 277,000 vehicles in the overseas market, an increase of 62.5 percent over the same period in the previous year and ranking first in the country for three consecutive years. Its vehicles accounted for 23 percent of the total overseas sales of Chinese cars. From January to June, a record 145,000 of the company’s vehicles were exported and sold overseas.

With the initial success of SAIC Motor's “overseas internet car business model” in the Thai market, the company wants to achieve similar success in India. The first product of MG India, equipped with SAIC Motor's iSMART system, was officially launched at the end of June. The first internet car in the Indian market has so far received more than 10,000 orders. In addition, SAIC Motor has also signed to establish a joint venture manufacturing company with Mansour Automotive Group in Egypt as an attempt to enter the African market.

SAIC has set up innovative R&D centers in London, Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, built vehicle manufacturing bases in Thailand, Indonesia, and India, created 93 overseas supplier bases, and established 12 regional marketing & service centers. A subsidiary operating diversified financial services has been established in Indonesia. Vehicles have entered more than 60 countries on five continents, while company's sales have exceeded 10,000 units in six overseas regions - Thailand, the UK, Indonesia, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, and the Middle East. SAIC Motor will strive to make ASEAN its first overseas market with a sales volume of 100,000 units.

Looking ahead, SAIC Motor will continue to promote innovation and explore deeper integration of the auto industry and emerging technologies such as new energy development, artificial intelligence and 5G communications, so as to master more core technologies and become more competitive, strengthen the company’s overall capacity and make strides in building itself into a world-renowned auto company that boasts a global business layout, multinational operations, international competitiveness, and brand influence.