From One to 100 Million, Self-Reliance is SAIC's Foundation

By: Jiang Xiaohua

On May 28, at the North Bund World Living Room in Shanghai, SAIC held a vehicle delivery ceremony that is difficult for the industry to replicate directly.

To say it is hard to replicate, on one hand the "breaking 100 million" event is quite epic, and SAIC's achievement is quite meaningful within the entire history of China's automotive industry. On the other hand, it lies in the details of this press conference.

If you watched this large-scale commercial global live broadcast handled by Dragon TV on the TV end, you will find its commercial narrative logic is somewhat special: there were no lengthy grand strategic presentations on-site. Instead, the leaders of major brands under SAIC took turns, passing car keys to people of different skin colors and professions around the world through a consecutive delivery spanning the Eurasian continent.

Standing at the center of the stage were tech self-media bloggers, former men's national football team players pursuing German quality, London intern doctors inheriting family sentiment, and post-85 village secretaries delivering food to elderly people left behind in the mountains with micro-vans. It even included B-end key clients like DHL, DiShangTie, and Jiading Bus, which focus on extreme operational efficiency. This highly contrasting group portrait appearing together actually illustrates one thing: the volume of 100 million units has long exceeded the scope of a single circle or a specific market. What this reflects is the system foundation of truly making cars for all people and the full-scenario coverage capability.

Simply put, this is the clever idea of drawing a Qingming Festival Scroll of 100 million units of SAIC using refined simple lines.

Following this logic, when we go back to review historical data, we will see many interesting little stories about SAIC.

For example, in April 1959, Academician Osbyan, then an advisor to the First Ministry of Machine Building and head of the Soviet expert group, inspected the Shanghai Automobile Factory. When he learned that workers intended to hammer out a prototype using a 1956 Mercedes-Benz S220 as a model, this Soviet academician left a sentence: "It seems appropriate to make toy cars based on your conditions. Even if our Soviet industry is relatively developed, we dare not choose Mercedes-Benz products as the blueprint."

This "toy car" mentioned by the Soviet experts was the sedan with the largest production and sales volume in our country before 1983, commonly known by us as the "Old Shanghai".

Another example is 1973, when Qiu Ke, later the first chairman of Shanghai Volkswagen, visited Toyota and, after feeling the shock brought by world-class advanced car manufacturing levels.

His idea was that the technical level of China's automotive industry must be improved to fight a counter-offensive. After returning to China, Qiu Ke secretly pulled over ten technical backbones from various factories of the Shanghai automotive industry system to establish the Shanghai Tractor Automobile Research Institute, driving the formation of a design center, technical center, and prototype center through new model research and development, eventually achieving product universality, series, and standardization.

The new model developed after the research institute was established was the SH750 sedan. You may not be able to find this car in SAIC's historical models because it was a model that was not mass-produced. But it is also not a lost gem in history. Thomas Murphy, former chairman of General Motors who proposed the joint venture concept to Comrade Deng Xiaoping, was shocked by the SH750 prototype car equipped with a self-developed rotary engine when he visited various automotive factories in China in 1978.

Similar stories are countless in SAIC's history. Whether it was the first Santana hand-assembled off the line in 1983, opening the path of joint venture cooperation, or the "Shanghai Speed" created by SAIC-GM in 1997 with 23 months to build a factory and produce cars, or launching the world's first internet car Roewe RX5 in 2016, to the establishment of IM Motors in 2020. From a macro historical perspective, SAIC is always able to stand at the forefront of the era, being the "lucky one" favored by the times.

Grand narratives of history often like to create gods, attributing commercial success simply to the favor of the times or the dividends of policy. But when we detach the perspective from those steady and glorious achievements, and examine this automaker's operational methods of the past few decades using the logic of industrial evolution, you will discover an extremely cold and rational fact: in the Chinese automotive market where competition intensity tops the world, there are no so-called "lucky ones".

On May 28, 2026, SAIC Group held a grand ceremony for delivering the global 100 millionth user's car at the North Bund World Living Room in Shanghai, officially becoming the first automotive group in the history of China's automotive industry to have cumulative production and sales break 100 million units.

What does 100 million units actually mean? It is not simple repetitive labor on the production line, nor is it the superposition of numbers on a report. This is a complete industrial slice of China's automotive supply chain from breathing at others' mercy and passively following, to today exporting outward and defining standards. Supporting the operation of this huge number is actually two extremely pragmatic business rules: extreme openness to the outside and hardcore self-strengthening to the inside.

Joint Venture is Never Compromise, But Learning via Borrowed Position

When discussing the early development of China's automotive industry, "joint venture" is a term that is easily interpreted emotionally. The outside world often simply and crudely summarizes joint ventures as "market for technology", and even thinks this is a compromise on the industrial path. But if you deconstruct SAIC's joint venture process, you can see this is actually a deep enlightenment targeting the modern automotive supply chain.

In the industrial context of that time, SAIC's primary task was not at all to build a car that can run, but to toughly build a Chinese automotive parts system on a blank sheet of paper. In 1987, during the Santana localization process, SAIC established the iron rule of "never using substitutes". At that time, this meant that China's local supply chain enterprises had to accept the cruel baptism of German standards in craft and quality control. The German "Der Spiegel" magazine reported that year: "Shanghai Volkswagen seemed to be producing on an isolated island — there were almost no parts factories in the country."

It was in this background that German experts taught technology and Chinese workers learned craft. By 1993, the Santana localization rate broke through 80%.

This harsh quality culture established by force back then formed the baseline of SAIC's earliest system competitiveness. Without this baseline, later independent R&D and mass production would be impossible to discuss.

Now time comes to 2026, the logic of the automotive industry has been completely rewritten by new energy and intelligence. You might be curious, in today's era where independent brands are rising strongly, do joint venture brands still have value? The answer given by SAIC is Joint Venture 2.0.

What is Joint Venture 2.0, let's look at a set of data with contrast. At this 100 million unit delivery scene, Volkswagen Group's global first Series 9 flagship model ID.ERA 9X was officially delivered, which globally debuted with Momenta R7 Reinforced Learning World Model, achieving AEB braking stop increased to 140km/h and waypoint-to-waypoint seamless driving experience. On the other hand, the AUDI E7X positioned as a wisdom performance flagship SUV plans to become Audi's global first model to implement Level 3 autonomous driving landing.

Did you notice the hint? Once, foreign parties input engines and gearboxes, and Chinese parties responsible for OEM assembly; now German luxury brands are using China's intelligent driving models and digital chassis. The dimension of cooperation has completely reversed from one-way technology introduction to technology co-creation of "In China, For China, Defined by China". SAIC's role has leaped from a simple local adapter to a technology definer. This openness is essentially SAIC using its own technical spillover effects accumulated in the intelligent electric era to rebinding international giants, incorporating them into its own industrial ecosystem map.

The wheel of history is always dramatic, the rough drawings once exchanged for vast markets have now transformed into counter-output computing power and code. This might be the most thought-provoking role reversal scene in over a century of automotive industrial history.

From Being Strangled to Reshaping Standards

If an open posture determines the breadth of the enterprise ecosystem, then hardcore technical self-strengthening determines the depth of this enterprise's moat. The achievement of 100 million units is actually the inevitable result of SAIC breaking international monopolies in the field of core hardware engineering.

In this global delivery ceremony, the most symbolic 100 millionth vehicle model did not fall on any volume-selling affordable commuter car, but was handed to the IM LS9 Hyper.

Why is IM LS9 Hyper? Because it accurately steps on the core pain points of Chinese automotive engineering technology. For a long time, high-end chassis technology and active suspension systems have always been "profit forbidden zones" for international top Tier 1 suppliers. And this car is the concentrated display of SAIC's 70+ years of technical heritage, and also the hardcore footnote of Chinese automakers shifting from following to defining standards.

Let's do the math on the chassis. IM LS9 Hyper is equipped with the first mass-produced full steer-by-wire four-wheel steering system and the full-blood version Saurian Digital Chassis 3.0. People who know well know that full-by-wire technology means completely breaking through traditional mechanical physical limitations. This enables a large flagship with a vehicle length exceeding 5 meters to possess ultimate flexibility comparable to small cars. More importantly, this decoupled chassis architecture reduces the driving threshold from the root, it is an indispensable physical cornerstone for future Level 4 high-order intelligent driving.

Not only that, on the Three-Electric system, this car is equipped with SAIC's first Gold Label Hurricane Three-Motor Vector Four-Wheel Drive System, Star Super Range-Extended and full-domain 800V high-voltage platform let its comprehensive range break through 1,400 km. At the same time, it is also equipped with 520-lines super-field-of-view LiDAR and Nvidia Thor Chip, empowering Momenta Intelligent Driving Large Model, and globally debuted the Internal Security System 1.0, reinforcing travel safety and privacy barriers from the bottom.

From looking up at the "technical barriers" of international giant supply systems to the egalitarian landing of reconstructing car chassis with lines of code, this is a very romantic handshake between cold hard industrial machinery and inclusive business logic.

And under the surface manifestation of technology, what truly supports this single-point breakthrough is SAIC's systematically constructed "Smart Brain, Robust Body, Powerful Heart" three major technology bases. Such as end-to-end intelligent driving large model mass production landing, securing the industry's only Level 4 double license; such as DMH hybrid thermal efficiency reaching 46.3%; and for example, Magic Cube Battery achieved zero spontaneous combustion and zero thermal runaway upon production.

SAIC's technological breakthrough has extremely clear landing logic: all-brand, all-price-band mass production. Like 60,000-class Roewe i6 that comes standard with 8155 Chip across the series; 150,000-class Huajing S that comes standard with Huawei Qunkun Intelligent Driving Full Set; Shangjie Z7 equipped with Huawei ADS 4.1 and 896-line LiDAR. This strategy of using frontier technology to egalitarianize the market is true technical inclusiveness, and also the rational fulfillment of SAIC's slogan "Know Cars, Understand You Better".

Dismantling the Walls of Business Books

Entering the second half of the intelligence era, the competition dimension of the automotive industry has long undergone qualitative change. The confrontation of single-car hardware has become a past tense, now competing for the thickness of the entire intelligent ecosystem system. On this battlefield, enterprises that try to hold all technology in their own hands and work in isolation will likely ultimately become information islands.

In the age of smart great sailing where lone heroes are destined to withdraw, SAIC clearly understands the reason that actively pushing down that defensive wall often exchanges for a wider city.

SAIC's global 100 millionth user is Momenta CEO Cao Xudong. As a leading figure in China's intelligent driving field, Cao Xudong led Momenta and IM Motors have been "Founding Lighthouse Partners" from birth. Both parties' teams polished out IM's assisted driving scheme back-to-back almost.

Cao Xudong bought this IM LS9 Hyper, even planned to use it to lead the verification test of Level 3 autonomous driving. This shows that SAIC's ecosystem is truly open to core technology partners. They are not simply Party A and Party B relationships, but an interest community deeply bound by technology underlying logic.

Some people might be curious, why don't car companies keep the soul in their own hands? Because the technology tree of intelligence is too huge. From AI Large Model to Smart Cockpit, from High-order Intelligent Driving to Hand-car Interconnection, no single car company can swallow the whole plate. So we see, SAIC launched extremely dense alliances at the cross-border level: collaborated deeply with Huawei to launch Shangjie brand, creating Coupe Wagon dual cars; Created AI Cockpit with Alibaba Qwen; Co-created intelligent interconnection with OPPO; Cooperated with Doubao for deep thinking large model. This "Beauty shared with beauty" open ecosystem enables SAIC to install the most advanced intelligent solutions differentiated on different brands.

Not only in passenger car field, commercial vehicles are also like this. In Singapore, global logistics giant DHL batch purchased Maxus eDeliver 5 and other pure electric light vans, just appreciating its customization ability and efficient three-electric technology in urban distribution scenarios. In the domestic market, DiShangTie batch purchased Yuelin Dashan T1, appreciating its long range and operational efficiency brought by 140kWh high energy density battery pack. This B-end users' real money and silver is the most real vote for SAIC's underlying supply chain.

Selling Cars Overseas, or Exporting Value Chain?

When the degree of involution in the domestic market has approached the limit, the overseas market naturally became the must-argue land for car companies seeking profit and scale increment. But in this matter of going overseas, SAIC walked a road much more complex than just loading cars onto ships and shipping them away.

SAIC's products and services have spread over 170+ countries and regions globally, with overseas cumulative sales breaking 7 million units. They hold over 100 overseas parts production bases, three R&D innovation centers, and four overseas production manufacturing centers, and even formed a logistics self-operated fleet with 42 roll-on roll-off ships.

But just looking at these infrastructure is not enough. Let's look at the European market. As is well known, Europe is the birthplace of the modern automotive industry, where the market barriers are highest and consumers are most picky. But MG brand has successively 11 years of consecutive champion of Chinese brands in Europe, becoming the first Chinese automotive brand to break 1 million cumulative sales in Europe. Expected by 2025, MG's annual sales in Europe will break 300,000 units.

MG is playing the technology card in the overseas market. They globally first mass-produced solid-state battery technology, this SolidCore battery's liquid electrolyte content dropped to 5%, even in -20°C extreme environment can maintain over 90% battery level, safety standard higher than industry highest increased by over 20%, instantly broke through the two walls of climate and safety attention of European consumers. In addition, Hybrid+ hybrid technology deeply recognized by the European market, monthly overseas sales broke 20,000 units.

This is exactly the core of SAIC's Glocal Strategy(Global + Local Combination Strategy) released in 2025. SAIC is accelerating the move from early simple product overseas to higher dimensional value chain overseas. When IM's IM AD Intelligent Driving System covers global five continents, when overseas travel i-Smart system global activation volume breaks a million, SAIC is actually exporting a new set of commercial standards based on China's new energy supply chain system to the world.

From 2014 to lead the full transformation to new energy, to 2026 welcoming 100 million unit milestone, SAIC walked an industrial cycle in 12 years. During these 12 years, SAIC completed the leap from being a leader, to 15 brands under its flag galloping like ten thousand horses.  

100 million units is absolutely not a merit book for lying flat, it is more like a new starting line for SAIC's second entrepreneurship. In this infinitely cruel and extremely fast iteration industry, any compromise on technology stagnation and obsession on closed ecosystem will be punished by the market in a very short time.

The reason why SAIC can traverse the cycle is never relying on the macro gift of history. It relies on insisting on open collaborative business rationality in countless micro-decisions, insisting on obsession with hardware and engineering, and maintaining dominance over the supply chain at all times during market changes. Only by understanding this industrial logic hidden behind the numbers, can we understand why SAIC can make this 100 million cars.