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An all-electric sedan from China appears on the same annual vehicle list as luxury sports cars like Porsche, Ferrari, and Aston Martin.
This summer, The Australian published its 2026 top 25 selected vehicles. In this list presented by renowned automotive critics Jeremy Clarkson and Stephen Corby, the IM Motors IM5 Performance was selected based on its performance and driving dynamics.
This is not the first time IM has received recognition from overseas professional media. Previously, the IM Motors IM5 won the Singapore The Straits Times 2025 Auto Award, becoming the first Chinese car to win the award in the 23 years since its inception. In markets such as the UK and Australia, the IM5 and IM6 have also begun accumulating actual sales and consumer reputation.
From professional media recognition to actual purchases by overseas consumers, IM's overseas performance sheet is gradually becoming richer. Behind these changes, SAIC Motor's global layout is also showing new directions: building on the existing scale of overseas markets, leveraging independently developed intelligent electric technologies, and expanding further into the high-end automotive market.
From Sales to Reputation
IM Is Beginning to Enter Overseas High-End Markets
For SAIC Motor, the overseas market is no longer a new territory that needs to be explored from scratch.
As of September this year, SAIC Motor's overseas market cumulative sales reached 1.166 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 52.4%. Among them, MG brand cumulative sales in Europe exceeded 280,000 vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 23%. As an important market for MG, the UK sales reached 18,026 units in September, a year-on-year increase of 23.7%, setting a new monthly historical record for the brand locally and ranking fourth among UK car brands in sales for that month.
Beyond scale advantages, SAIC is starting to attempt expansion into higher price segments. The IM Motors IM5 and IM6 are important products in this regard.
According to brand perception and channel characteristics in different markets, IM adopted differentiated overseas operation methods. In the UK, the two cars are sold under the names MG IM5 and MG IM6, included in the high-end product series under MG; in Australia, the IM series also entered the market with the help of MG's sales system; while in Singapore, IM Motors retained a relatively independent brand identity, operated by local dealer Eurokars.
Behind different brand presentation methods, is SAIC's hope to fully utilize existing overseas resources to open up the market for high-end products.
According to vehicle registration data from the UK Department for Transport, as of June this year, there were 2,157 IM5 vehicles and 1,267 IM6 vehicles in normal license plate status in the UK, totaling over 3,400 units. David Allison, MG UK Product and Planning Director, recently revealed in an interview with Auto Express that the IM series is expected to sell about 6,500 units in the UK in 2026, with plans to launch a third product in 2027.
New changes have also appeared in the Australian market. According to local car sales statistics, as of September this year, cumulative sales of IM5 and IM6 since entering the market have reached 1,321 units. In September this year, IM5 ranked first in the large sedan sub-segment with prices over 70,000 Australian dollars, surpassing Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series. Although the overall scale of this sub-segment is not large, for IM who just entered the local market, this has already been a breakthrough worth paying attention to.
More interesting than sales figures are consumer reviews of these models.
On the UK automotive community Reddit, a 40-something year old IM5 owner shared their driving experience. They had previously owned models from brands like Alfa Romeo, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. When switching to an all-electric vehicle, they chose the IM5 Standard Range version. What impressed them was the vehicle's acceleration performance, space, and rich intelligent configuration, especially the flexible handling brought by rear-wheel steering. They even believe this feature deserves to be equipped on more cars.
From overseas consumer reviews, it can be seen that IM has begun to enter consumer view for comparison with brands like Tesla and BMW. This is not only the process of new models opening up the overseas market, but also SAIC's attempt to find new volume in higher price segments.
No Longer Relying Solely on Price
SAIC Is Now Competing on Technology Upwards
In the past, MG was able to quickly open up the situation in overseas markets such as Europe, largely thanks to competitive prices, rich configurations, and an accurate grasp of local consumer needs.
Today, these advantages still exist, but SAIC is trying to let technology become the new competitive chip.
In the UK, the MG IM5 starts at £39,950, and the IM6 starts at £48,495. The two models enter the price range competing with products like Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. For consumers at this level, price is indeed important, but driving quality, technical level, and overall experience of the vehicle also influence the purchase decision.
An important technical label that IM has put forward is four-wheel steering and intelligent chassis.
Taking the IM5 as an example, when turning at low speed, the rear wheels can rotate in the opposite direction to the front wheels, allowing a sedan with a length close to 5 meters to have more flexible turning performance; at higher speeds, front and rear wheels rotating in the same direction helps improve lane change stability. For consumers, technology is no longer just a term on a specification sheet, but an experience that can be directly perceived during parking, U-turns, and driving.
On the high-performance version, the IM5 Performance dual motor comprehensive maximum power reaches 572 kW, with 0-100 acceleration taking only 3.2 seconds. Some high-spec models also use an 800-volt high-voltage platform, with DC fast charging peak power reaching up to 396 kW. Advanced electric drive, recharging technology, and chassis control capabilities jointly constitute the product foundation for IM to participate in overseas high-end electric vehicle competition.
These capabilities are gaining attention from overseas professional media.
Australian automotive critic Stephen Corby gave positive reviews to IM5 Performance's acceleration performance, body control, and handling quality during the test drive. Singapore The Straits Times' annual car review was also impressed by the IM5's driving quality. Judges recognized not only power performance, but also overall vehicle driving texture and the fusion of traditional car driving experience with new technologies.
For a long time, European high-end car brands have established deep market cognition in areas such as chassis tuning, driving quality, and performance. Today, IM being able to enter the evaluation vision of overseas professional media with these capabilities shows that SAIC is helping Chinese cars gradually break the fixed impression of mainly relying on price and configuration to participate in competition in the past.
July this year, SAIC MG held a technology conference in London, UK, concentrating on displaying technologies such as Hybrid+ hybrid, semi-solid-state batteries, and intelligent driving. In September, among vehicles sold by MG in the UK, models using hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric power systems accounted for 91.6%. Since the beginning of this year, its pure electric vehicle sales increased by 65.2% year-on-year, significantly higher than the 30.3% increase in the UK's overall pure electric vehicle market.
From hybrid technology for mainstream consumers to digital chassis, advanced electric drive, and fast charging capabilities in the high-end market, SAIC is converting its own technical accumulation into overseas market competitiveness through different brands and products.
In the past, SAIC allowed more overseas consumers to recognize the product value of Chinese cars through MG. Today, IM is further demonstrating the technical strength of Chinese cars in performance, driving control, and intelligence.
From Products Going Out
To Brands Truly Going Up
A high-end model entering the overseas market can bring attention. To make high-endization a sustainable business, it requires support from brand, channel, service, and product systems together.
This is also where the advantages accumulated by SAIC Motor's multi-year global layout lie.
Looking back at SAIC's development overseas in recent years, from models like MG3, MG ZS, MG4 helping the MG brand take root in the mainstream car market. By 2024, MG launched the Cyberster all-electric convertible sports car, strengthening the brand image with sports performance and design language. Until now, the IM5 and IM6 entered the mid-to-high-end sedan and SUV markets, further expanding the price range SAIC can cover overseas.
Currently, MG has entered 34 markets in Europe, with over 1,300 dealer partners. In the UK and other markets, IM is able to accelerate product introduction with the help of MG's existing brand awareness, sales channels, parts supply, and service capabilities. While in Singapore, IM faces consumers independently with the IM Motors brand, sharing some operational resources of local dealer groups with MG.
This differentiated layout reflects SAIC's ability to integrate brand and channel resources according to the characteristics of overseas markets.
In terms of after-sales service, this year, MG strengthened the parts distribution system construction in the UK, achieved overnight delivery to participating dealers, and the first parts supply satisfaction rate exceeded 96%. At the same time, the UK Longbridge Technology Training College completed its expansion, doubling its scale, providing technical support for after-sales services of more models.
These investments that seem less eye-catching than technical parameters are exactly an indispensable part of high-end products entering the mature automotive market. This actually formed a two-way support: on the one hand, SAIC's independently developed intelligent electric technology provides product competitiveness for IM to enter overseas high-end markets; on the other hand, MG and other brands' globally operational resources accumulated over many years can help these high-end models reach local consumers faster.
From MG building scale in overseas mainstream markets, to Cyberster strengthening sports image, to IM5 and IM6 entering the high-end electric vehicle market, SAIC's global path is further extending.
IM's preliminary achievements overseas are exactly a microcosm of this change. What it shows is not only that Chinese high-end intelligent electric vehicles are gaining more recognition in the international market, but also means that SAIC is relying on long-accumulated autonomous technology and global operational systems, moving from scale competition to higher-level value competition.
