Spanning 71 Years! Why is This China-First "100-Million Vehicle" Auto Maker Still So Successful Today?

In Autumn 1958, SAIC's automotive history began in a "lane-side workshop".

Without large machine tools or manufacturing bases, the first generation of car builders relied solely on disassembling overseas sample vehicles. With just hammers in hand, they hammered out car bodies and sheet metal. Prior to "National Day" that year, Shanghai's first "Phoenix" sedan officially rolled off the line and went to Beijing for the parade. This car, forged in the most primitive handmade style, completed SAIC's leap from 0 to 1.

Everything at SAIC Group started with this "Phoenix" sedan.

But what truly moved me was not those old business stories of "golden phoenixes hatching from grass nests", nor the countless industry records created in the past; but rather why, 71 years later today, facing unprecedented technological changes, SAIC can still lead the way into the "100-million club" and demonstrate strong vitality and calling power in the game of static market stock.

In China's and even global business history, manufacturing enterprises that can span decades and reach a 100-million volume level are rare. Previously, only Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai had crossed this threshold.

SAIC is the eighth and also the first Chinese brand. Under the wheels of the times, countless once-glorious companies fell like meteors. SAIC Group with 71 years of automotive foundations is absolutely a corporate sample worth deep study.

How did one enterprise "fight" for 71 years?

Today's business world is obsessed with "speed". Brands are keen on creating concepts, grabbing windfalls, and betting on short-term hit products. Under the drive of capital discount rates, countless enterprises are struggling to run in the shroud of algorithms.

But in the eyes of SAIC Group that has traversed long cycles, the business world has another set of heavier logic: not looking at windfalls, but only at the era's "topic/questions".

SAIC's ability to cross a 71-year long cycle lies in the fact that it has always been in sync with the pulse of the times. It never acts as a speculator of windfalls, but rather as the writer of every era's topic. When we trace back each breakout by SAIC at key nodes, we can understand why it became the first automotive group in China to cross the "100-million" threshold—those openings written in history are essentially the most accurate responses of SAIC to the anxieties of that time.

Starting from a lane-side workshop in the 1950s, to taking the road of reform and opening up first in the 1980s, after 6 years of difficult negotiations to establish China's first passenger car joint venture SAIC Volkswagen, to creating the "Shanghai Speed" of 23 months from factory construction to vehicle delivery in the 1990s via SAIC GM deepening joint venture cooperation, to strongly attacking the independent brand in the early 2000s, to actively implementing national instructions in the last decade and leading the comprehensive transformation to new energy... In nearly a century, SAIC experienced the transformation of the planned economy, the baptism of the market economy, the impact of the globalization wave, and the ruthless involution in the deep blue waters of intelligence and electricity today. Every technological iteration and industry reshuffle was a "life-or-death" moment, but SAIC stood steadily on the wave of the times every time.

SAIC inherited in the wave of the times is anchored on the "understand cars better understand you" causal chain with low variables and high reuse. Because no matter how drastic the external environment changes, human desire for beautiful mobility, certainty pursuit of high quality and safety, will not change due to dynastic changes or technological revolutions. People in the past needed a reliable fuel car to shelter from wind and rain, people today also need a smart cockpit with communication understanding and high safety.

When such precise response to user needs is repeatedly verified, classics are formed.

In 1983, the first Shanghai Santana sedan was successfully assembled, not only allowing Chinese families to use world-class quality cars, but also driving the domestication enlightenment of the entire Chinese auto parts system; In 2016, SAIC and Alibaba cross-boundary cooperation launched the world's first mass-produced Internet car Roewe RX5, letting cars evolve from cold mechanical tools to intelligent terminals with temperature; Until today, whether it is the Roewe i6 with 60,000 yuan level standard Qualcomm 8155 chip and Doubao Large Model, or the Shangjie Z7 with whole series standard Huawei Qiankun Smart Driving ADS 4.1 and 896-line LiDAR, or the Huajing S bringing high-level smart driving into the 150,000 yuan level family market, SAIC is always responding to consumer expectations with practical actions of "equity-driven advancement".

For every car delivered, there is one more point of trust. When this utility is verified 100 million times, trust becomes the most solid competitive barrier.

We can see the closed loop of this causal chain in countless users' real lives.

At the SAIC Volkswagen Anting base, the 99,999,999th new car delivered—Volkswagen ID.ERA9X—its owner is former German men's football national team player Yang Chen. As the first Chinese player to land in the Bundesliga, Yang Chen's life has always carried a resilience of "dare to move forward, also need to be steady". He witnessed instantaneous changes on the field, firmly believing that true strength is never a flash in the pan, but long-term trust and solidity. His choice of the flagship SUV of SAIC Volkswagen's new new energy sequence is exactly this long-termism life background and German exquisite car-making craftsmanship deep resonance.

Similarly spanning time and space is also Natalia, an intern doctor in London, UK. That classic MGB sports car of her grandfather was her childhood's most shining memory, this emotional bond prompted her to become the owner of MG4EV Urban. Two generations, two cars, one brand, this is the perfect fusion of classic inheritance and contemporary lifestyle.

Whether in the East or West, time has verified quality, quality precipitated trust.

Opposing "Organizational Entropy Increase", Reshaping Industrial Base with System "Negative Entropy Flow"

Grand delivery numbers are just the result on the water surface, what truly supports the 100-million building underneath is the extremely rigorous industrial moat of the enterprise for decades.

In physics, there is a hopeless "Law of Entropy Increase": Any closed system will spontaneously move from order to disorder, eventually returning to chaos.

The automotive industry is exactly a huge quagmire easy to fall into "Entropy Increase"—when tens of thousands of parts, millions of industrial workers, and long time lines intertwine, human nature's fatigue, compromise, and "good enough" farming thinking, will let the huge production line go out of control like a virus.

All multinational auto companies in the world, always doing one thing is maintaining the high order of the system and product consistency.

In 1987, when SAIC was fully attacking Santana domestication, the supporting parts enterprises were still full of crude workshop habits. SAIC did not first preach grand quality strategies, but unexpectedly launched a "hygiene reform" across the entire group—forcingly installing toilet paper rolls and dryers in restrooms.

In the "Broken Windows Theory" of criminology, an unpatched broken window will condone more destruction. SAIC sharply noticed that employees using newspaper to defecate causing pipelines to clog repeatedly, was the most dangerous "broken window" in the large industrial system. If the enterprise condones this most basic disorderly behavior, then on the micron-level precision assembly line, compromise on errors will inevitably breed.

This detail "Toilet Reform" was the first "Negative Entropy Flow" injected by SAIC into old farming habits, it reshaped the behavior bottom line of modern industrial workers in an almost fanatical way.

And when facing the temptation of huge commercial interests, SAIC showed the extreme "Instrumental Rationality" advocated by Max Weber—to pursue absolute standards, dare to cut off all emotional ties and sunk costs.

In 1998, as the main force of SAIC core parts autonomous upward, Yanfeng Company, to attack Buick supporting project, specifically invested 600 million to build new factories. When the first batch of completed bumpers were sent to quality inspection, it actually reached the conventional international standard of no more than ten dust fall points per square centimeter.

However, when the joint venture foreign party proposed the harsh requirement of "fall points cannot exceed five", under the heavy pressure of huge sunk cost and delivery cycle, human nature's instinct is usually to find excuses for compromise. But the General Manager of Yanfeng Company at that time, in front of everyone's eyes, brought out a saw, and cut the huge cost bumper into two halves on the spot. "Things customers don't want, must be sawed off!"

This saw, not only sawed off unqualified products, but also Chinese local manufacturing's accumulated "human society" and "get by" path dependence over the past few decades.

This violent demonstration of destroying high-value assets to defend absolute standards, instantly cleared the system internal gambling mentality, letting "craftsmanship spirit" instrumental rationality completely overcame human nature's weaknesses.

This gene of iron-fisted opposition to entropy increase, has been strictly continued to today's smart electric track.

SAIC self-developed "Zero Combustion Magic Cube Battery", its core key technology is why able to win the Second Prize of State Science and Technology Progress Award, is exactly built on redundancy safety rules 6 times higher than national standard limit tests.

When modern capital is obsessed with short-sighted high turnover, SAIC uses defenses built for decades to stubbornly guard this seemingly "clumsy" principle.

100 million car deliveries, far from accidental time compound interest, is this giant enterprise success over 70+ years, successfully fought off 100 million times system entropy increase necessary result.

This system resilience opposing entropy increase, also reflects in SAIC current market performance. Just passed May, SAIC Group whole vehicle sales 349,000 vehicles, Jan-May cumulative 1.651 million vehicles, continuing to lead Chinese auto industry. Independent brand proportion first time broke 70%, new energy vehicles surged 46.5%, overseas market surged 45.9%. 100-million historical marker and current sales leading, jointly verify SAIC full-link competitiveness from system to market.

Seeing All Beings, Eco-Winning Era Foresight

In the movie "The Grandmaster" there is a very transparent line, martial artists have three realms: "See Self, See Heaven and Earth, See All Beings".

Today SAIC stands at the era gateway of 100 years unprecedented great changes in automotive industry. It cannot only be self-satisfied in the long river of history and glorious merit roll, it must stand up to "See All Beings". Its opponents are no longer any specific peers, but technology leap gaps, and those static self-sealing, closed-doors-to-build-cars island effects.

This is the most ruthless elimination era, also the best co-creation era.

At the Delivery Ceremony on May 28, 2026, appeared an extremely deep meaning, can even be recorded in Chinese auto history scene: SAIC handed that representing group 70 years car-making foundation and forefront technology collection complete the world 100 millionth car—IM LS9 Hyper, solemnly handed to deep strategic partner Momenta CEO Cao Xudong.

Partner become owner, is SAIC "See All Beings" most vivid, most earth-shaking footnote.

Cao Xudong stated on site, Momenta L3 Level autonomous driving ability will launch on SAIC first, he not only will personally drive this car, more plans in development process first use it to verify test.

To thoroughly break technical walls, SAIC resolutely gave up traditional host plant attempt to take full responsibility "soul obsession", firmly chose "open to the world, beauty shared together" open ecosystem.

With Huawei Qiankun comprehensive deepening strategic coordination, not only launched new brand "Shangjie", but also let Huajing series become 150,000 yuan level full series standard Huawei Smart Driving breakthrougher; With Audi signed cooperation agreement, based on next generation intelligent digital platform jointly develop 4 AUDI new high-end intelligent electric new cars, opened Chinese technology reverse empowering foreign brand "Joint Venture 2.0" era; With Momenta deep co-create smart driving large model, and let this set industry first tier scheme horizontal empower to IM, Volkswagen, Audi, Buick, Cadillac multiple brand matrix.

And joint venture new energy also welcomed strong return. May SAIC GM new energy vehicles sales 13,000 vehicles, year-on-year surge 75%, Zhijing E7 launch first month delivery broke 10,000. May SAIC Volkswagen new energy vehicles sales nearly 10,000 vehicles, year-on-year growth 34.3%; New launched ID.ERA 9X cumulative delivery exceeded 7,000 vehicles; At end of May Greater Bay Area Auto Show, equipped with new generation "Golden Super Mix" technology Tiguan L ePro, Passat ePro, and Audi Smart Performance Flagship SUV AUDI E7X sequentially launched.

SAIC knows, true "Understand You", needs gather global top wisdom, no technical walls, no do ecological island.

Not only in domestic, in vast overseas market, SAIC also in practicing "See All Beings" grand narrative.

2025 released "Glocal (Global + Local) 3.0 Strategy", marks SAIC from single product export thoroughly to systematic globalization leap. In Europe, MG use Frankfurt European Engineering Center for deep localization customization R&D; In Southeast Asia, SAIC Maxus let Deliver 5 pure electric logistics vehicle batch delivery to DHL Senior VP, help this global logistics giant Singapore realize green upgrade; In commercial vehicle going abroad strategy, SAIC not only set sales growth over 50% grand target, but also overseas dealer historical positioning upgraded to "co-existing win-win wealth creation partner", and in Europe heavy asset weave global parts warehousing network. SAIC globalization, no longer simply selling cars, but with global industry chain and ecosystem deep integration.

"See All Beings" background color, more lies in to each ordinary individual warm protection.

At Delivery Ceremony, the 100 million 100th owner identity especially attracted attention—he is public welfare life class self-media "Western Heroes" blogger Liu Jia. This ordinary barber, 5 consecutive years rain or shine driving deep into Guangxi mountains, only to give left-behind children haircut, send company. When his old car broke down on mountain road, Buick first time reached out help, and invited him experience having South German TÜV Eye Protection Smart Roof Light and Zero Formaldehyde Certified Buick Zhijing E7 "Full Marks Cockpit". SAIC give this "100%" respect to Micro-light Guardian, let this 100th car became to "Guard" value most warm echo.

Same story also happened in Shaanxi Lantian 85 born village secretary Pang Fuqiang. To give 74 left-behind elderly meal delivery, he everyday persist running 8-9 kilometers, SAIC-GM-Wuling through "Striver Special Plan" for him delivered a Rongguang Electric Version Micro Van, with practical action salute grassroots strivers.

Enterprises that can cross cycles, are all stick to original intention, and actively embrace ecosystem, care society enterprises. When an enterprise can extract the essence of breakthrough and quality in history sorting, and let go of the greed of technological exclusivity in the torrent of the times, spreading the dividends of technology to the broadest audience, this is the enterprise's most substantial strength.

In 1958, a broken old hammer, hammered out the historical legend of major power auto industry in an alley workshop. In 2026, a relay delivery spanning Asia-Europe continent, connecting Shanghai, London, Jakarta, Singapore, witnessed 100 million trusts magnificent convergence.

Time will ruthlessly eliminate all capital bubbles and technology gimmicks that cannot withstand testing, then cast what remains into an unshakable base.

An enterprise able to complete 100-million vehicle era feat, rely on not only production line crazy stacking, rely on a industrial civilization resilience—that dare to publicly saw off unqualified bumper extreme reverence, that no set technical walls, with whole industry open co-creation broad mind, that from alley workshop all along struggle, finally 21 times entered Fortune Global 500 self-evolution.

TCM often says "Righteousness exists within, evil cannot invade", enterprise development is also so. Those enterprises that fell down in the time torrent, often not by external opponents defeated, but by internal urgent benefit "evil fire" swallowed.

100 million vehicles never was SAIC high song rapid progress end point, but from "scale leading" toward "ecological leading" new starting line. When system "Righteousness exists within", time no longer be step-by-step pressing enemy, but most loyal "Partner".

We have absolute reasons to believe, in smart electric new era magnificent second half, this "100-million vehicle auto maker" still possess generations passed down, endlessly magnificent reserve power.