On May 28, 2026, with the formal delivery of the key to an IM LS9 Hyper model into the user's hands, the Chinese automotive industry welcomed an important milestone in its development process — SAIC Group's cumulative production and sales officially broke through 100 million vehicles, becoming the first domestic automotive group to achieve this level.
Just a few days later, SAIC Group released May sales data: single-month sales of 349,000 vehicles, cumulative Jan-May sales of 1.651 million vehicles, continuing to lead China's automotive industry. Independent brand share broke 70% for the first time, new energy vehicles surged 46.5%, and overseas sales surged 45.9%. The historical milestone and current leading trends together outline the complete picture of SAIC from past to present.
This is not a simple stacking of numbers, but an industrial narrative spanning more than 70 years: SAIC's growth trajectory has always resonated with China's industrial modernization process.
Relying on Shanghai, a century-old open port, and leveraging the open genes of the Huangpu River estuary, SAIC walked a unique advanced path for China's leading auto companies. Its development process can be divided into three stages: knowing the world, integrating into the world, and changing the world. This is not only the growth lineage of a company, but also accurately outlines the identity leap of China's automotive industry in the global landscape — from marginal participants to active integrators, and then to rule definer.
Knowing the World: Building a Foundation with Openness, Constructing the Underlying System of China's Automotive Industry
The beginning of China's modern automotive industry, core is a journey of learning outward and benchmarking the world. As early as the 1950s, China's automotive industry was still in a blank stage, Shanghai workers hand-built the first Phoenix sedan. Although the process was simple and capacity was limited, it sowed the seed of independent car manufacturing in China, entrusting the original intention of local manufacturing breakthroughs. And the real modernization transformation was achieved through systematic openness after reform and opening-up.
Unlike the shallow development model of "import and assemble, simple replication" in the early industry, SAIC took joint ventures and cooperation as a key opportunity to build a complete industrial ecosystem and solidify local car manufacturing capabilities from the beginning.
In 1983, the first Volkswagen Santana rolled off the line in Shanghai. Initially, the localization rate was less than 3%, almost relying entirely on imported knock-down kits. But SAIC was not satisfied with this. Under the state's clear requirement to "never settle for substitutes", it pushed to establish a rigorous parts certification system, forcing local suppliers to improve process standards.
Within a short few years, the Santana localization rate jumped to over 90%, directly driving hundreds of local suppliers to complete technical iteration and quality upgrade, successfully building the first domestic automotive supply chain system conforming to international standards, and completely ending the backward and scattered development situation of China's sedan industry.
This thought of "promote reform with openness, promote capability with cooperation" also became the core methodology of SAIC's steady development over decades. Whether establishing a joint venture with GM in 1997 or integrating Wuling to form the "China-Outside-China" model in 2002, SAIC always emphasized "initiative in cooperation": not passively accepting foreign technology input, but actively participating in product definition, manufacturing process, and localization adaptation.
For example, the Wuling Sunshine and Hongguang models launched by SAIC-GM-Wuling were not simple copies of foreign platforms, but were redesigned based on the actual needs of Chinese urban and rural users. Finally, relying on high adaptability and high practicality, they established themselves in the market, achieving the brand reputation of "What people need, Wuling makes".
The core value of this stage lies in SAIC laying the foundation of "system capability" for China's automotive industry. It proved that openness is the means, growth is the core; technology introduction is the starting point, independent self-sustaining is the ultimate goal.
Through deeply embedding into the global division of labor system, SAIC not only thoroughly understood complete vehicle manufacturing technology but also mastered the complete operational logic of large-scale complex industrial industries, covering R&D, procurement, production, and quality control across the full chain. This solid system capability also became the underlying support for SAIC's subsequent independent breakthrough and global layout.
Integrating into the World: Independent Breakthrough from Borrowing Ships to Go Global to Brand Globalization
Entering the 21st century, the global automotive industry landscape began to loosen, emerging markets rose, and the waves of electrification and intelligence first appeared. SAIC then faced a critical choice: continue to rely on joint venture dividends, or actively build independent brands? The answer was quickly revealed.
In 2004, SAIC started the Rover project. Although it did not complete the overall acquisition of the enterprise, it successfully obtained core car-making intellectual property, and launched the Roewe brand based on this foundation. This layout was regarded by the industry as a landmark event of "technological self-awareness" in China's automotive industry. Since then, SAIC completely got rid of foreign technology dependency, possessed its own product definition, technical iteration, and brand shaping capabilities, and was no longer the localization OEM of international car companies.
The return of the century-old British brand MG further improved SAIC's autonomous global layout. SAIC endowed MG with a brand new positioning of younger and electrification, making it the main brand for going global, thus starting a new stage of China's automotive deeply cultivating global mainstream markets.
Early China car companies going global mostly focused on trial in low-end markets and inventory clearance, lacking long-term planning. SAIC, starting from 2010, completely broke this model, elevating going global to a core strategy, no longer limited to developing country markets, fully advancing into Europe, Australia & New Zealand and other global mainstream mature markets, competing directly with international first-tier brands.
Market data was enough to prove its strength: In 2019, MG UK sales surpassed Honda and Mazda; in 2022, it joined the top ten in Europe's pure electric market; in 2025, one out of every three EV models sold in the European market came from MG.
Behind the bright results is the support of hardcore product power. MG4, relying on a pure rear-drive platform, high safety battery technology, and localization smart cockpit configuration, precisely fit European consumer demands, successfully established itself in the global mainstream new energy market.
More importantly, SAIC's globalization is not a single product export, but a complete systematic output. Currently, SAIC has already built modern production bases in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, India, Mexico, arranged overseas R&D centers in London, Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, and relied on SAIC Logistics' self-operated RoRo fleet to build an overseas industrial ecosystem integrating "R&D, production, sales, service, logistics". At the same time, adhering to global localization operations, optimize product configurations for different regional markets, such as local voice assistants exclusive to the India market, Brazil version MG ZS EV optimized tropical climate battery thermal management system, winning global user recognition through deep adaptation.
In this development stage, SAIC completed a major leap from "Made in China export" to "Independent brand globalization". It proved that Chinese car companies do not rely on low-price involution, but only by technical differentiation, ecosystem synergy capabilities, and refined localization operations, can they establish themselves in global mainstream markets, and also pave a new globalization path for China's automotive industry different from Japan and Korea car companies.
Changing the World: Hundred-Million Level Volume Starts a New Chapter, From Industry Follower to Rule Leader
The achievement of 100 million vehicles is, on the surface, a victory of scale, but in substance, a comprehensive leap of system competitiveness. Today's SAIC is no longer the student who needs to look up to international giants, but a leader who can reverse empower global partners and define technical directions.
The most significant change has occurred in the technical field. In the past, joint venture enterprises were the main channel for technology input; now, SAIC's independent innovation results feed back to joint venture brands.
In 2024, SAIC signed a deep cooperation agreement with Audi, not only jointly developing new cars but also setting up an Audi Innovation Technology Center in Shanghai, focusing on smart cockpits, electronic and electrical architecture, and advanced intelligent driving. This means that future Audi models will deeply integrate Chinese R&D technical modules. Similarly, Volkswagen ID.ERA 9X premiered the Momenta R7 World Model, and Audi E7X will become the world's first L3 level autonomous driving production model — these technical foundations all originate from SAIC and its ecosystem partners.
In May, SAIC's joint venture new energy also welcomed a strong recovery, joint venture new energy strong recovery in May. SAIC-GM new energy vehicles sold 13,000 units in May, soaring 75% year-on-year, with Zhijing E7 deliveries breaking 10,000 in the first month of listing. SAIC Volkswagen new energy vehicles sales reached nearly 10,000 units in May, increasing by 34.3% year-on-year; the newly listed ID.ERA 9X cumulative delivery exceeded 7,000 units; at the Greater Bay Area Auto Show at the end of May, Tiguan L ePro, Passat ePro equipped with brand new generation "Golden Super Hybrid" technology, and Audi Smart Performance Flagship SUV AUDI E7X were listed continuously.
In the new energy and intelligence track, SAIC's independent brands are even more at the forefront. In 2016, Roewe RX5, as the world's first Internet car, pioneered the trend of "software defined cars"; in 2024, "Zero-Burn Magic Cube Battery" won the National Science and Technology Progress Second Prize, solving the high-nickel battery thermal runaway problem; in 2025, MG became the world's first mass-produced semi-solid state battery car brand; in 2026, IM LS9 Hyper equipped with full steer-by-wire, Thor Chip, and Star Super Extended Range System, representing the highest level of China's high-end intelligent electric vehicles.
These are not isolated technical breakthroughs, but a complete technical stack covering batteries, electric drives, chips, operating systems, and AI large models, which are technical barriers difficult for opponents to copy.
Besides technology leading, SAIC's "Glocal" Global Localization Strategy is also reshaping operational rules in the global automotive industry. On the basis of unified global technical platforms, promoting localization agile iteration by adapting to local conditions, this development concept has been recognized and referenced by many multinational car companies. At the same time, SAIC built a complete industrial ecosystem covering intelligent driving, core computing power, and hydrogen energy by laying out high-quality enterprises such as Momenta, Horizon, and Jieqing Technology, forming a dual competitive advantage of "Complete vehicle manufacturing + Core ecosystem".
Standing on a brand new starting point of 100 million vehicles, SAIC will fully advance from "Scale leading" to "Ecosystem leading", thoroughly saying goodbye to extensive scale growth, focusing on three major core directions: high-quality going global, high-value brands, and high-resilience supply chain. The company officially announced that it will invest 300 billion yuan in R&D funds in the next five years, with 70% of resources key investing in electrification, intelligence, and internationalization core tracks. This is not only the enterprise's strategic choice, but also a firm bet on the future direction of China's automobiles.
Conclusion: 100 Million Vehicle Journey, Writing the Era's Answer of Made in China
From hand hammering by the bank of Huangpu River to user delivery in over 170 countries globally; from the localization breakthrough of Santana to the technology leading of IM high-end intelligent electric vehicles, SAIC's 100 million vehicle journey is the microcosm of China's automobile from weakness to strength.
It tells us: True industrial rise does not lie in temporary scale explosion, but in whether it can build sustainable system capability; True globalization does not lie in how many cars are sold, but in whether it can export technology, standards, and values; True independent innovation does not lie in working in isolation, but in integrating global resources with an open mindset, and then reconstructing value chains with local wisdom.
Today, standing on the new starting point of 100 million vehicles, SAIC's mission has gone beyond the enterprise itself. What it represents is the possibility of Made in China from "Following run" to "Parallel run" to "Leading run". This 100 million vehicles is also a powerful answer to the historical question of "Can China build a car powerhouse".
The future has come. This time, China is no longer just the world's factory, but the definer of future mobility. And SAIC will also continuously rely on technical innovation and global layout, continuing to write a brand new chapter belonging to China's automobiles.
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