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May 28, inside the Shanghai North Bund World Living Room, the atmosphere was fervent. Meanwhile, the footage on the large screen at the Chengdu Jixiang Buick branch venue, thousands of miles away, jumped in sync with the main venue. As the IM LS9 Hyper slowly drove into the center of the stage, and as Momenta CEO Cao Xudong received the car key from the Chairman of SAIC Motor, applause rang out on the scene — this was not only the moment of delivery to the 100 millionth user of SAIC Motor, but also the first time a vehicle enterprise in China's automotive industry welcomed a cumulative production and sales volume breaking 100 million vehicles.

As an automotive editor, witnessing this historical node at the Chengdu branch venue, the feeling was quite complex. Over the past few years, China's automotive market has experienced a transition from growth to stock, with price wars, elimination battles, and surging trends of going global alternating on stage. Against this broad backdrop, a local car enterprise able to cross the threshold of 100 million vehicles must necessarily possess a deep logic beyond a single product cycle or any single tech explosion.

SAIC's history almost overlaps with China's automotive industry history. In 1955, the Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacturing Company was established; in 1958, workers hammered out the first "Phoenix brand" sedan with hammers. Over the subsequent seven decades, SAIC witnessed the entire process from nothing to something, from weak to strong. In 1983, the first Santana was hand-assembled off the line, opening the curtain of China's automotive joint venture cooperation, and also driving the establishment of a modern parts system.

In 1997, Shanghai GM was established, the "Shanghai Speed" of building a factory and launching cars in 23 months is still talked about by the industry to this day; the China's first joint venture professional automotive design and R&D center built at the same time marked SAIC's transformation from pure manufacturing to building technical capabilities. In 2006, the independent brand Roewe was born; in 2016, the world's first Internet car Roewe RX5 went on sale; in 2020, the high-end smart electric brand IM Motors was established. This timeline clearly outlines the evolution trajectory of a car enterprise from learning, chasing, parallel, to local leading.

But historical accumulation is just the foundation. The achievement of 100 million vehicles requires the continuous release of system capabilities. SAIC's system architecture covers six major sectors: whole vehicles, parts, mobility, services, finance, international business, and innovation technology, forming a tightly coordinated full value chain closed loop. In January-April 2026, SAIC's cumulative sales reached 1.302 million units, ranking first among China's car enterprises for four consecutive months, with independent brands accounting for nearly 70%, new energy vehicle sales reaching 412,000 units, and overseas market sales of 459,000 units, a year-on-year growth of 50.2%. These data indicate that SAIC's growth does not rely on the pulling power of a single sector, but is the result of multiple engines including independent and joint venture, passenger and commercial, domestic and overseas all working simultaneously.

Specific to the product level, the full brand matrix displayed at the delivery ceremony site was impressive. For independent brands, Shangjie Z7, Huajing S, Roewe M7, MG4 Semi-Solid State Battery Version, Wuling Starlight 560, Maxus eDeliver5, Hongyan Heavy Trucks, Yuejin Dana T1, Sunwin All-Electric Bus, Iveco Juxing EV, and other models cover full scenarios from personal travel to commercial operations, from urban logistics to public transport. Joint venture brands concentrated on displaying the results of "Joint Venture 2.0": Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X global premiere equipped with Momenta R7 Reinforcement Learning World Model, delivery exceeded 7,000 units in one month after launch; Audi E7X plans to become Audi's first global model achieving L3-level autonomous driving landing; Buick Zhijing E7 is built based on the "Xiaoyao" Super Fusion Architecture, delivery broke 10,000 units in one month after launch. From "Market for Technology" to "Technology Co-creation", SAIC's role in joint venture relationships has undergone a substantive shift.

Accumulation at the technical level is the core power supporting this system's operation. The first 100 million vehicle delivery model, IM LS9 Hyper, can be regarded as a concentrated presentation of SAIC's technical accumulation over seven decades. It is equipped with full-line drive-by-four-wheel steering first in its class, 520-line ultra-vision LiDAR, NVIDIA Thor Chip, Full-Domain 800V High-Voltage Platform, and Star Super Extended-Range System, comprehensively pre-installing redundancy capabilities for L3 and above high-level intelligent driving. SAIC Gold Badge Hurricane Tri-Motor first launch has propelled it into the Performance 3-Second Club, and the "Intrinsic Security" technology jointly premiered globally with Purple Mountain Laboratories expands the car safety boundary from traditional physical safety to the field of information and system security. It is worth noting that the 100 millionth user is exactly Momenta CEO Cao Xudong, SAIC's core strategic partner in the intelligent driving field. The intelligent driving technology deeply co-created by both parties has empowered multiple independent and joint venture brands. This coincidence of "Partner Becomes Car Owner" reflects SAIC's open and collaborative industrial philosophy in the era of smart electric vehicles.

Globalization layout is another important dimension of SAIC's system capability. As the earliest and largest representative of China's automotive enterprises "Going Global", SAIC has over 100 parts production bases and over 3,000 dealer networks overseas, building London's 3 major R&D innovation centers and Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan 4 manufacturing production centers. Anji Logistics possesses 42 Ro-ro ships of various types, with 8 international routes covering Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Currently, SAIC's products and services are spread over more than 170 countries and regions, with cumulative overseas sales breaking 7 million units. MG has ranked as the European sales champion for Chinese brands consecutively for 11 years, with 2025 European annual sales breaking 300,000 units, becoming the first Chinese car brand with cumulative sales breaking one million in Europe and the UK. In March this year, MG held a Tech Day in Frankfurt, Germany, premiering the world's semi-solid state battery and Hybrid+ Hybrid Technology, the latter's overseas monthly sales has broken 20,000 units. After launching the overseas "Glocal Strategy" (Global + Local) in 2025, SAIC is accelerating from "Product Going Global" to "Value Chain Going Global".

If technology and systems are rational hard power, then user stickiness is emotional soft power. At the delivery ceremony, SAIC displayed multiple sets of user stories: Guode APP Founder Luo Zhenyu as the Huajing S No. 001 Experience Officer, from praising Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving in the New Year's Eve Speech to entering the factory to witness the offline; Former German National Team Player Yang Chen chose ID.ERA 9X, because its Golden Extended Range and Long-termism Philosophy coincided; London Intern Doctor Natalia inherited her grandfather's MG sentiment; The returning couple brought MG memories from their time in the UK back to the domestic market; Public Welfare Blogger Liu Jia provided haircutting and companionship to left-behind children in Guangxi Mountainous Areas for five consecutive years, Buick provided assistance immediately, he was moved by Zhijing E7's "Full Score Cabin". These stories have no deliberate emotional stirring, but clearly convey one message: SAIC's user stickiness does not come from marketing scripts, but comes from products and services responding to real needs in different scenarios.

Returning to the initial question: Why was SAIC able to become the first car enterprise in China to break 100 million cumulative production and sales? The answer may perhaps be summarized in a few elements without shortcuts — sufficient long time accumulation, sufficiently wide system coverage, sufficiently deep tech investment, and sufficiently fine user insights. These elements taken out individually, many car enterprises are doing, but those able to continue for over seven decades and maintain balanced development in various dimensions are not common.

100 million vehicles is a milestone, but also a new starting point. In 2014, SAIC was the first to fully transform to new energy; twelve years later, from the "Leading the Pack" of "Smart Power Transformation" to "Thousands of Horses Galloping" of independent and joint venture, passenger and commercial, domestic and overseas, SAIC has consistently carried the user concept of "Know Cars Better, Know You Better" throughout. From 1955 to 2026, from the first user to the 100 millionth user, SAIC's next journey is just beginning.

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From an industry perspective, SAIC's 100 million vehicles is not only a breakthrough in scale numbers, but also marks the capability leap of China's automotive industry from "Joint Venture Dependence" to "Independent Dominance". It is worth noting that SAIC did not rely on a single hit product or short-term trend, but through seven decades of systematic construction, formed hard-to-replicate comprehensive advantages in dimensions such as technology, manufacturing, supply chain, and globalization. The next-generation tech cluster represented by IM LS9 Hyper, as well as the cumulative sales of over 7 million in overseas markets, prove that SAIC already possesses the basic base to compete on the same stage with multinational giants. After 100 million vehicles, how to convert scale advantages into continuous innovation efficiency and brand premium will be the core proposition of SAIC's "Second Entrepreneurship".