China's First Hundred-Million Vehicle Automaker Born: SAIC Group's 100-Million Milestone

On the afternoon of May 28, 2026, at the World Living Room at North Bund, Shanghai, one IM LS9 Hyper was officially delivered, and SAIC Group welcomed its 100 millionth global user. Accompanying this "global relay delivery"—15 brands and 19 models under its umbrella were delivered synchronously both domestically and overseas—SAIC became the first automaker group in the history of China's automotive industry to accumulate production and sales exceeding 100 million vehicles, the eighth automaker globally to join the "Hundred-Million Club".

This is not a simple breakthrough of a set of sales figures. From the first Phoenix brand sedan hammered out by workers with hammers in 1958 to the cumulative global delivery of 100 million vehicles today, SAIC's growth trajectory of over 70 years is almost a microcosm of the entire Chinese automotive industry developing from nothing to something, and from weak to strong. What truly gives the 100 million vehicles industry research value is the full industrial chain system SAIC has gradually built over these years—coordinated operation of various sectors including complete vehicles, parts, mobility, finance, international operations, and innovative businesses, entered the Fortune Global 500 for 21 consecutive years, ranking 7th globally in 2025 with sales of 4.508 million vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 12.33%.

100 million vehicles is a weighty threshold, but what deserves more attention than this number is the two fundamentals distinguishing SAIC from most domestic automakers: overseas layout and technology accumulation.

In terms of overseas markets, SAIC is one of the earliest and largest Chinese automotive enterprises to "go out." First achieving passenger car exports in 2001, now its products and services cover more than 170 countries and regions globally, and cumulative overseas deliveries exceed 7 million vehicles. Overseas, SAIC owns more than 100 parts production bases, over 3,000 dealer networks, built 3 major R&D innovation centers including London, and 4 production manufacturing centers in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and established China's largest self-operated vehicle logistics fleet. In 2025, SAIC's annual exports and overseas market sales reached 1.071 million vehicles, the MG brand ranked 1st in European sales among Chinese brands for 11 consecutive years, and entered the top 10 in passenger car market sales in 18 countries in regions such as Australia-New Zealand, Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia. During the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show, SAIC released Overseas Strategy 3.0 - "Glocal Strategy" (Global + Local combination strategy), planning to build 17 new overseas models including SUVs, sedans, MPVs, and pickup trucks in the next 3 years, gradually implementing HEV hybrid and solid-state battery technologies into global mainstream markets. From product export to value chain export, this road has taken more than 20 years, the system is built, the next step is to look at the brand power and depth of localized operations.

On the technology level, there are several key advances worth mentioning. In January 2026, the first mass-produced semi-solid-state battery model of the MG brand started delivery, to date, the delivery volume has broken through 1,000 units, the 2026 MG4 launched at the April 2026 Beijing Auto Show equipped with semi-solid-state battery, starting price under 70,000 yuan, bringing frontier technology down to the mainstream consumption market, which is rare in the industry. IM AD Intelligent Driving System cooperates with Momenta, has covered all five continents globally, including markets in Thailand, Mexico, UK, Australia, Nepal, Egypt, Singapore, Norway, New Zealand, UAE, etc., adopting a mapless end-to-end solution, possessing strong global scene adaptability. In addition, from a data perspective, SAIC's R&D investment in new energy and intelligent connected fields has accumulated to over 150 billion yuan, effective patents nearing 26,000 items, NEV sales share jumped from less than 0.1% in 2014 to over one-third in 2025.

Of course, 100 million vehicles is a reflection of historical accumulation, the real test lies in the upcoming market competition. SAIC internally calls this node the starting line of the second entrepreneurship, the direction is leaping from scale leadership to quality leadership, technology leadership, and ecosystem leadership. Previously, the comment of Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association, also hit the key point: "'These 100 million vehicles are not the end point, but a springboard for China's automotive industry to create another glory'." China's automotive industry has moved from following to running parallel or even leading in local areas, whether SAIC can continue to produce competitive products on the three fronts of new energy, intelligence, and globalization is the key to determining how many years the next 100 million vehicles will take. But one thing is certain: When a car company experiences a technical transformation and global layout throughout a complete industry cycle, the system capabilities it accumulates cannot be measured by simple sales figures.