Defying the Trend with a 28% Surge: How Did SAIC Commercial Vehicles Outperform the Industry Average in the First Half of the Year?

In the first half of 2026, the commercial vehicle market overall showed weak growth, with significant segmentation in tracks. The total commercial vehicle market cumulative year-over-year growth was only 8.28%, while head enterprises such as Foton, Sinotruk, Dongfeng, and FAW had growth rates of less than 20%. Multiple enterprises maintained single-digit growth or even saw sales declines. The industry average increased slightly in the first half, light truck sales declined slightly, and light van growth was sluggish. Industry growth was basically supported by pickups and exports, with car manufacturers generally falling into intense battles in the existing market.

Forming a stark contrast to the industry's flat trend, SAIC Commercial Vehicles followed a completely independent upward curve: June sales growth reached 52.79%, about 4.9 times the industry average, making it the only head manufacturer to cross the 50% growth threshold; cumulative sales growth for the first half was 28.37%, about 3.4 times the industry average level. Currently, the brand has achieved comprehensive breakthroughs in five major segments: light vans, light trucks, pickups, new energy, and overseas exports. Relying on self-developed technology, a full-category matrix, systematic overseas expansion, and ecosystem-based user operations, it has carved out a high-quality transformation path that is actionable and replicable, becoming a benchmark for industry transformation.

Data Source: CAAM

Leading All Tracks in Segmentation, Breaking Out from the Existing Market

Light Van Track

Light vans are the fundamental base of SAIC's light commercial vehicles and also its most dominant segment in the industry. Against the backdrop of industry growth of only 5.4% in the first half, Maxus light vans overall market share stabilized above 27%, making it the head brand with the largest share and largest increase in the light van industry. Cumulative sales reached 61,144 units in the first half, leading Changan by over 7,200 units and JMC by over 10,000 units, with the leading advantage continuing to amplify. Maxus light vans maintained a significant lead in June, with hot sales of 13,902 units in the month, surging 62% year-over-year; among them, the Dahon series sold hotly with 7,207 units in June, soaring 218% year-over-year, continuing to lead the new energy light van track.

Relying on the synergy of the Maxus and Iveco dual brands, SAIC Commercial Vehicles light vans achieved comprehensive first place in domestic insurance registration, exports, and total sales data. Unlike competitors relying on single fuel vehicle models to move volume, SAIC Commercial Vehicles light vans simultaneously deployed pure electric, super extended range, and other routes, accommodating both urban short-distance distribution and cross-city long-distance transport. Domestic city distribution demand combined with overseas logistics orders provides dual support, offering stronger adaptability and resistance to pressure in the market.

Light Truck Track

In the first half of this year, the light truck industry sales growth was weak. Most brands' electrification remained in the stage of simply adding batteries to fuel chassis, known as "fuel-to-electric conversion," but SAIC Maxus Forland defied the trend to achieve a significant sales increase. It carved out a differentiated route, using a native electric light truck architecture to adapt to electric drive, battery swapping, and extended range from the chassis stage. Native electric drive chassis completely solves the range and load-bearing shortcomings of modified models, greatly enhancing product competitiveness.

In June, Forland light vans sold hotly with 5,258 units, up 54% year-over-year; cumulative sales from January to June reached 23,864 units, with a year-over-year growth rate of 48%. Among them, new energy vehicles totaled 12,971 units, up 65% year-over-year. Electrification penetration rate and growth magnitude significantly lead peers, achieving dual optimization of sales volume and product structure during the industry downturn.

Pickup Track

The highlights of the pickup track lie in premiumization and model innovation. In the first half of 2026, cumulative domestic pickup sales were 343,000 units, up 9.4% year-over-year. This belongs to the few stable growth tracks in the industry, but the overall growth rate is flat.

As the brand with the number one high-end pickup exports in China, Maxus pickup growth resilience far exceeds the industry average. Maxus pickups ranked first in total exports in May, and in June, sold hotly with 7,871 units, a 83% surge year-over-year! What also holds industry-transforming significance is its marketing reform: the industry's first 7-day free trial model, breaking the limitations of traditional short-term test drives at the store, handing over real operational scenarios such as heavy load, long-distance, and off-road to users for experience. In the past, the pickup industry highly depended on dealer promotion, with high user decision costs. This new model centered on user experience is reconstructing the conversion logic of the pickup market.

Self-Developed New Energy Technology, Building a Moat

The leading advantage in new energy transformation is SAIC Commercial Vehicles' core moat. From January to June, the overall penetration rate of domestic new energy commercial vehicles was 30.4%. SAIC Commercial Vehicles' five major brands' overall penetration rate in the first half reached 47%, and in June, it was as high as 60%, leading the industry by nearly 17 percentage points; new energy sales volume in the first half surged 69% year-over-year, with June's single-month new energy growth at 80%, and electrification transformation progress leads the entire industry by a significant margin. Among them, Sunwin buses were the first to achieve 100% new energy across the entire series; Forland light trucks' new energy sales accounted for more than half in the first half; Maxus monthly domestic new energy penetration rate broke through 50% multiple times.

Unlike the industry's common model of outsourcing three-electric systems, SAIC Commercial Vehicles relies on self-developed bases such as Hongtu 2.0 electric architecture and StarStack pickup platforms, combined with deep co-research with CATL and Huawei, to build a complete independent technical system. For example, the Maxus Dahon super extended range light van has a CLTC comprehensive range of 1260km, solving range anxiety for pure electric models while greatly reducing long-distance fuel costs, becoming one of the optimal solutions for commercial new energy; equipped with CATL's Tianxing batteries featuring 7,000 times ultra-long cycle life, and an 8-year/600,000km ultra-long warranty, forming obvious advantages in product reliability and actual usage value.

Global Expansion Model Upgrade, Opening New Growth Space

The overseas market was the largest source of incremental volume for commercial vehicles in the first half of 2026. From January to June, domestic commercial vehicle cumulative exports were 664,000 units, up 32.5% year-over-year. SAIC Commercial Vehicles' overseas sales reached a new high in June, with single-month exports of 14,071 units, surging 70% year-over-year. Cumulative overseas sales from January to June were 65,183 units, up 33% year-over-year, outperforming the market average again, with products covering over 100 countries and regions worldwide.

Overseas benchmark orders continued to land in the first half: Kuala Lumpur Auto Show won a large order for 300 new energy light vans in Malaysia, creating the record for the largest single new energy light van order in local history; G50 PHEV went on sale in the Philippines in April and sold hotly immediately, with orders breaking 1,000 units within two months of launch; DHL Group cumulatively bulk purchased 2,500 pure electric light vans, with Maxus being the first Chinese car brand to enter the DHL German Postal delivery fleet; new pickup intention orders in Australia and Chile exceeded 800 units, with Venezuela and Chile consecutively securing bulk mining area pickup orders, with vehicle sales in many Southeast Asian countries continuing to rise.

SAIC Commercial Vehicles abandoned the industry's low-price volume overseas expansion model, shifting to an integrated output of technology, service, and ecology. Relying on product strength and localization support, it deepened its presence in the overseas market and continuously widened long-term growth space. This systematic overseas expansion strategy also provides an actionable reference path for high-end overseas expansion of domestic commercial vehicle brands.

Conclusion

The market performance in the first half is sufficient to show that the commercial vehicle industry has bid farewell to the era of rapid expansion based on dividends. Single hit products or single tracks are hard to support long-term development. Only by building a mature, complete system of technology, products, services, and global expansion can one maintain rhythm and breakthrough steadily amidst market volatility. The simultaneous rise in multiple tracks by SAIC Commercial Vehicles in the first half proves that its overall growth far exceeding the industry average is not accidental, but the result of continuous deep digging and steady iteration in multiple fields.

Shifting from purely scale expansion to high-quality value growth, SAIC Commercial Vehicles has carved out a pragmatic and feasible transformation path. Not only has it solidified the foundation for long-term development for itself, but it has also provided a new reference direction for the industrial upgrade and global development of Chinese commercial vehicle brands.