Budaya

May 28, 2026, SAIC Group held a special vehicle delivery ceremony at Shanghai North Bund World Living Room. What makes it special is not how many leaders came, but because the protagonist changed to users, accurately speaking, it is SAIC's 100 millionth user globally.

100 million vehicles. This is a number never touched by a Chinese automotive group. From 1958 when workers hammered out the first Phoenix sedan with a hammer, to 2026 when over ten brands and nineteen models under its umbrella were delivered synchronously across continents, SAIC took 68 years to write itself into a new coordinate of the Chinese automotive industry.

Behind the 100 Million Vehicles, It's Not Just About Selling More

When many people see "100 million vehicles", their first reaction is: SAIC really sells a lot. This is not wrong, but only half right.

In the first four months of 2026, SAIC sold a cumulative 1.302 million vehicles, taking the crown as the top-selling car enterprise for four consecutive months. Among them, the share of independent brands is close to seven-tenths, new energy vehicles sold 412,000, and the overseas market surged 50.2% year-on-year. These numbers are indeed beautiful, but more worth looking at is the structure: independent brands account for 70%, overseas sales account for more than one-third. This shows SAIC is no longer the enterprise that relied on joint ventures for passive wins back then.

Starting from the localization of Santana, to Roewe creating the Internet car category, to the concentrated launch of high-end smart electric products like IM, Shangjie, and Huajing S, SAIC has taken a road that most traditional car enterprises are walking, but few walk smoothly: while stabilizing the core business in the joint venture sector, let independent brands truly stand up. Today, the outline of this road is quite clear.

Global Relay Delivery Is Not a Show, But Real Skill

The most interesting design of this delivery ceremony is "Global Relay". Outside the Shanghai main venue, delivery scenes in Nanjing, Liuzhou, Taiyuan, as well as the UK, Indonesia, Singapore and other countries and regions were lit up successively. Completing cross-continental, multi-brand, large-batch synchronized delivery on the same day tests not planning ability, but the hard strength of supply chain and channels.

SAIC has over 100 parts production bases overseas, over 3,000 dealer networks. It has built three R&D innovation centers such as London, as well as four production and manufacturing centers in Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan. Anji Logistics 42 Ro-Ro ships, 8 international routes connected Southeast Asia, Europe, Americas. The facts stacked out by these numbers are: SAIC is one of the few Chinese car groups that truly has global operation capabilities.

MG has been the top-selling Chinese brand in the European market for 11 consecutive years. In 2025, annual sales in Europe broke through 300,000 vehicles, and cumulative sales broke one million in the UK and European markets. This is not a small-scale export, but a head-on confrontation in mature markets. In March this year, the semi-solid-state batteries and Hybrid+ hybrid technology released by MG at the Frankfurt Technology Day, overseas monthly sales have already broken 20,000 vehicles. From "Product Going Global" to "Value Chain Going Global", SAIC's Glocal strategy is being realized.

What Truly Matters Is Whether "Understanding You" Can Be Done Properly

SAIC proposed a slogan called "Know Cars, Know You Better". The first half is basic skills, the second half is the dividing line.

At this delivery ceremony, SAIC did not invite celebrities to endorse, but found real users to tell stories: Luo Zhenyu from Dedao APP, as Huajing S Experience Officer No. 001, talked about Qiankun Intelligent Driving from the New Year's Eve Speech to walking into the factory to witness the launch; former national football player Yang Chen chose ID. ERA 9X, with the reason that Golden Extended Range and Long-termism concepts fit; charity blogger Liu Jia shaved the hair of left-behind children in Guangxi mountainous areas for five consecutive years, Buick not only assisted him, but he himself was also moved by the Zhijing E7 cabin. These stories are not big on their own, but put together, they spell out the signal SAIC wants to convey: Users are not the end point of payment, but the starting point of R&D and service.

Product itself. Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X globally launched Momenta R7 Reinforcement Learning World Model, one month after launch delivery broke 7,000 units; AUDI E7X plans to become Audi's first L3 level landing model globally; Buick Zhijing E7 based on "Xiaoyao" Super Fusion Architecture, one month after launch delivery broke 10,000. The common point of these products is: technology no longer stays on the parameter sheet, but becomes experience perceived by users.

100 Million Vehicles is a Period, Even More a Colon

To be honest, this number of 100 million vehicles is not rare among global automotive giants. Toyota and Volkswagen have long been members of the "100 Million Club". But for the Chinese automotive industry, this is the first time a local enterprise has crossed this line, the meaning is different.

What is more important is not the celebration, but how to go next. SAIC itself is also very clear, positioning this 100 million vehicle delivery as the "starting line of second entrepreneurship". From the establishment of Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacturing Company in 1955, to the present day where the full brand matrix moves forward together in the global market, SAIC has proved that traditional car enterprises can also complete the "turning the elephant around". But the battle of intelligent electric transformation has only reached the halftime, the next competition will be more cruel, semi-solid-state batteries, AI large model onboard, L3 level autonomous driving landing, every item is a tough fight.

100 million vehicles are the answer sheet SAIC gave to the past, and also the test question given to the future. The tools for answering are already here: full value chain system, global layout, dual engine of independence and joint ventures running in parallel. Whether it can be answered well depends on how deep the sentence "Know Cars, Know You Better" can be implemented.