On the afternoon of May 28, 2026, the 100,000,000th vehicle of SAIC Motor — an IM LS9 Hyper — was delivered at the Shanghai North Bund World Living Room to SAIC's 100 millionth user, Momenta CEO Cao Xudong.
The delivery list provided by SAIC Motor shows that the 99,999,999th user is Yang Chen, a former Chinese national football team player who played in Germany; the delivered model is SAIC Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X, and the delivery location is Shanghai Anting. In addition, for users from the 99,999,996th to the 100,001,100th, apart from the majority of users from China, there were also users from London, UK; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Singapore, and models included multiple models from multiple brands such as Shangjie Z7, Huajing S, MG4 EV Urban, AUDI E7X, Buick Zhijing Shijia, Sunwin Series 10 Pure Electric Bus, and Jiyue Danaka T1.
Sales data from January to May this year shows that SAIC Motor has cumulatively sold 1.651 million new vehicles, of which overseas cumulative sales reached 589,000 units, accounting for a proportion of up to 35% of the group's sales. Among them, in Australia and New Zealand, the MG3 and MG4 led, with market share shares of 21.1% and 12.8% respectively, ranking TOP 1 and TOP 3 in the CAR-B segment market; in Belgium, MG sales doubled directly; in the UK, the MG brand ranked in the top six; in Chile, MG ZS successfully took the top spot in the local SUV market. Especially in SAIC's largest overseas regional market — Europe, the global car brand MG cumulatively sold 150,000 units from January to May, a year-on-year increase of 20%, continuing to claim the title of "Chinese Brand Europe Sales Champion".
Data from 2025 shows that SAIC Motor's cumulative sales reached 4.507 million units, ranking 7th among global automotive groups, leading world-established automotive groups such as Ford and Honda. This means that today's SAIC Motor has transformed from the "handcraft workshops" of those years into a global automotive enterprise.
From Hand Hammering to 18 Consecutive Years of Sales Champion, Haipai Culture is Key
SAIC Motor's growth history is basically a microcosm of the Shanghai automotive industry, and even the national automotive industry, going from 0 to 1, from weak to strong.
In 1955, the predecessor of SAIC Motor — Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacturing Company — was established. This company consolidated a total of 274 original factories and workshops in the entire industry, the vast majority of which were alleyway handcraft workshops and small private repair and matching workshops. This illustrates the hardships of the start of China's automotive industry.
In 1958, workers hammered out the first "Phoenix" brand sedan with hammers, achieving a "zero breakthrough" in Shanghai sedan manufacturing.
Then in 1978, the state established the policy that "joint venture operations can be carried out", and Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai General Motors were established successively. As the earliest generation of joint venture enterprises in China, Shanghai Volkswagen's greatest contribution was "persisting in German Volkswagen's high standards, enabling the Chinese automotive standard system to span 30 years". "Shanghai General Motors established in the late 1990s also brought the full set of models for contemporary automotive marketization operations: network, brand, public relations, service, used cars, evolving from pure manufacturing to forming systemic competitiveness in the value chain". Li Anding described the contribution of joint venture enterprises under SAIC Motor to the entire Chinese automotive industry in this book "Car Diary".
In fact, not only joint venture enterprises, relying on the unique "Haipai Culture", SAIC Motor was the sales champion of Chinese car companies every year during the 18 years from 2006 to 2023. In these eighteen years, various parts enterprises, forward-looking technology research and development centers led and founded by SAIC Motor, the vast majority have become the leaders or market segment drivers of the entire Chinese automotive industry. China as a whole also established a highly complete and developed automotive supply chain. It was thanks to this highly developed and complete automotive supply chain that there were the magnificent new energy vehicles in the Chinese market later.
"A century of historical sedimentation has created the 'Haipai' connotation of Shanghai automobiles: open, market-oriented, integrity; exquisite craftsmanship, superior quality; inclusiveness, good at building bridges between East and West." Li Anding wrote so in the book "Car Diary". In fact, this openness, marketization, integrity, exquisite craftsmanship, and superior quality are also a true portrait of SAIC Motor.
From Joint Venture to Independent, SAIC Motor's Final "Butterfly Transformation"
If the "Phoenix" born in 1958 represents the original intention of China developing independent brands, IM Motors established by SAIC Motor in 2020 represents Chinese automotive professionals who have always stood at the forefront of China's automotive industry, experiencing decades of wind and rain, still not forgetting this original intention.
Shanghai has always been Shanghai, and SAIC has always been that SAIC.
In 2003, SAIC Motor launched the acquisition of the British century-old factory Rover, the acquisition target was only the intellectual property rights of two Rover 25 and Rover 75 models. This is completely different from the situation where most Chinese automotive enterprises acquire the brand itself along with the industrial M&A overseas. This means that from the beginning, SAIC Motor has chosen the road of fully developing independent brands.
In 2006, SAIC Motor launched the brand-new independent brand Roewe, the first car chosen was the mid-size car Roewe 750, hoping to break away from the old road of Chinese brands "poor quality and cheap price". In comparison, in the past era, most independent brands often chose to start from compact cars or even micro cars. SAIC Motor in 2006 was undoubtedly one step ahead. In 2016, SAIC Roewe launched the world's first mass-produced Internet car Roewe RX5, which further set off the development wave of Internet cars in the entire Chinese market later.
In 2020, SAIC Motor established the IM brand, the pricing and positioning of the new brand was clearly aimed at the high-end market. From the current trend that the market share of independent brands in China's automotive market is getting higher and higher, and independent high-end brands are beginning to occupy the BBA market share on a large scale, SAIC Motor's approach, its foresight, and determination to pursue brand elevation are obvious.
Latest data shows that in recent years, the proportion of independent brand sales of SAIC Motor in the group has been increasing, first breaking 50% in 2021, reaching 65% in 2025, and this year January-May even broke 70% for the first time, reaching 71.1%. SAIC Motor's striving upward has much to do with SAIC Motor's innate Haipai Culture.
Nowadays, not only SAIC's independent brands Roewe and IM, including overseas brands cooperating with SAIC, German Volkswagen and American General Motors, are all making use of SAIC Motor as an important innovation base, starting the development path of comprehensive transformation towards electrification and intelligence.
On May 20, 2024, again at the World Living Room, SAIC Motor and Audi Cars officially signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop multiple high-end intelligent electric new cars for SAIC Audi and jointly develop Advanced Digitized Platform intelligent digital platform. Audi Cars, for this cooperation, even went so far as to use the AUDI letter logo, a logo used when the Audi brand was established, as the brand logo for SAIC Audi. The last time this logo appeared independently as an Audi brand car logo can be traced back to 1994, 30 years ago.
"Audi Cars possesses powerful high-end model product definition, whole vehicle R&D and engineering technology capabilities; SAIC Motor's intelligent electric innovation technology is industry-leading, both sides will join hands through this cooperation to "technologically empower" SAIC Audi, fully support joint venture brands to sprint on new tracks and grasp new opportunities", both sides wrote so on the cooperation agreement. "SAIC Motor's intelligent electric innovation technology is industry-leading", for China's automotive industry, obtaining recognition from the German automotive industry which once led China's automotive industry significantly, and becoming a partner on equal footing with German cars, took China's automobiles a full 40 years. And for SAIC Motor established in 1955, it took a full 71 years.
Not only that, in April 2026, SAIC and Audi further cooperated to set up the Audi Innovation Technology Center in Shanghai Anting, forming the AUDI brand's technology home port in China, helping SAIC Audi continue R&D in China. This innovation technology center is even Audi's first "full value chain" R&D entity outside of Europe.
China R&D, China manufacturing luxury brand cars, re-exporting globally, this is SAIC Audi's new brand goal. Behind this brand goal, the underlying logic is precisely SAIC Motor's industry-leading intelligent electric innovation technology.
In fact, not only Volkswagen, but General Motors from the United States is also making use of SAIC Motor to build its intelligent electric vehicle whole vehicle R&D and manufacturing base in China. The brand-new high-end new energy sub-brand Zhijing of SAIC General Buick was established in such a context. Looking at the sales volume this year in May, Buick Zhijing terminal sales reached 12,253 vehicles, a month-on-month surge of 64.8%.
In fact, the first "Joint Venture" partner chosen by China's initial automotive industry was American General Motors, not German Volkswagen. And the concept of Joint Venture was also proposed by General Motors CEO Thomas Murphy at that time when he came to China to discuss cooperation in October 1978. Nowadays, SAIC Motor's cooperation with General Motors has also gone from the initial "Joint Venture", to later establishing the global R&D innovation base PanAsia Automotive Technical Center jointly by both sides, to now Zhijing brand focusing on new energy vehicles, SAIC Motor's technical weight in the entire Joint Venture system has been raised to a new height.
"The accumulation of a century of Haipai car culture has not only made Shanghai the backbone of China's car manufacturing industry, but also made Shanghai the earliest starting and most accomplished car R&D innovation base. This point, although the competent authorities and media have not paid sufficient attention, multinational corporations have already regarded it as a rare cooperative force." This is the observation given by Li Anding when writing the book "Car Diary" in 2010. More than ten years later, the constantly evolving cooperative relationship between SAIC Motor and Volkswagen, General Motors further confirmed Li Anding's observation.
Just on the afternoon of May 28, at the delivery ceremony of SAIC Motor's 100,000,000th new vehicle, a new car delivery ceremony originally worthy of being written extensively by enterprises and the entire industry "China's First 100-Million-Level Vehicle Enterprise", instead appeared restrained and low-key.
On the entire delivery ceremony, among the delivered car owners, there were former national team players and football stars like Yang Chen, current CEOs of top-tier enterprises like Momenta Cao Xudong, internet celebrities like Luo Zhenyu, Indonesian active national team players, DHL Senior Vice Presidents, and Village Party Secretaries, etc. Models also included multiple brands from passenger cars to commercial vehicles, from ordinary family sedans to luxury cars. But in this press conference, there were no leadership speeches popular in the industry, no parameter stacking that consumers found somewhat annoying, and no exaggerated and affected emotional performance. All temperature, height, breadth, and depth condensed into a string of numbers: 100,000,000.
From 0 to 1, from 1 to 100 million, it is less said that SAIC Motor is telling an "100-Million-Level Vehicle Enterprise" industry story, telling the era changes spanning a full 71 years, rather, it is telling the life legend of 100,000,000 users. Just as SAIC Motor's corporate Slogan says: Understand Cars, Understand You Better. This is what SAIC Motor wants to accomplish.
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