May 28, 2026, at the North Bund World Living Room in Shanghai, SAIC Motor welcomed its global 100 millionth user. Thus, China's automotive industry saw the birth of the first automotive group with cumulative production and sales surpassing 100 million vehicles.
100 million vehicles is a number, and even more so, a history. In 1955, the Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacturing Company was established, marking the start of Shanghai's automotive industry. In 1958, workers hammered out the first "Phoenix" sedan with hammers, achieving the "zero breakthrough" in Shanghai's sedan manufacturing. From that era of hammering and knocking, to 2026 when high-end intelligent electric vehicles equipped with full-by-wire chassis and AI large models rolled off the production line; from 1983 when Santana started joint venture cooperation and established a modern automotive industrial system, to 2025 when overseas cumulative sales broke 7 million units, with products distributed in over 170 countries and regions — these 100 million vehicles weave together the complete process of China's automotive industry from nothing to something, from weak to strong. During this process, SAIC Motor was both a witness and the main driving force.
The Chassis of 100 Million Vehicles Comes from Full System Capabilities
100 million vehicles is not the merit of a single brand, but the result of SAIC Motor's whole value chain synergy. January to April 2026, SAIC Motor's cumulative sales reached 1.302 million units, ranking as China's top automaker by sales volume for four consecutive months. Among them, independent brand sales were 910,000 units, accounting for nearly 70%; new energy vehicle sales were 412,000 units; overseas market sales were 459,000 units, a year-on-year surge of 50.2%. These three data sets reveal SAIC's current growth logic: independent brands taking the lead, electric leadership, and global breakout.
On the day of the handover ceremony, more than a dozen brands and nineteen model lines under SAIC coordinated through the method of "Global Relay Handover". Independent brands covered diverse scenarios such as personal mobility, family life, commercial operations, and logistics transportation; the joint venture sector focused on showcasing the phased results of "Joint Venture 2.0". Starting from the Shanghai main venue, the handover scenes were lit up successively in multiple domestic cities such as Nanjing, Liuzhou, and Taiyuan, and in countries like the UK, Indonesia, and Singapore. This delivery method spanning mountains and seas and crossing continents is underpinned by a complete global value chain closed loop.
SAIC's system capabilities are reflected at multiple levels. At the parts and logistics end, Anjie Logistics owns 42 roll-on/roll-off ships, with 8 international routes covering Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with an annual transport capacity exceeding 10 million vehicles. At the R&D and manufacturing end, SAIC has over 100 parts production bases and over 3,000 dealer networks overseas, having built 3 major R&D and innovation centers in London and 4 manufacturing centers in Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan. At the product and market end, SAIC's products and services are distributed in over 170 countries and regions, with multiple independent brands continuing to lead in overseas markets. In 2025, SAIC released the overseas "Glocal Strategy", moving from "Product Going Global" to "Value Chain Going Global" — this means SAIC is no longer just exporting products overseas, but establishing a complete ecosystem of R&D, production, sales, and service locally, allowing "China Intelligent Manufacturing" to truly take root globally.
Running through this journey is SAIC's long-held concept of "Understand Cars, Understand You Better". Understanding cars represents the ultimate pursuit of core technologies — from the Santana localization community to Joint Venture 2.0 technology co-creation, from the country's first full-by-wire chassis to solid-state/half-solid-state batteries and AI large models onboard vehicles. Taking solid-state batteries as an example, SAIC has completed the mass production installation of half-solid-state batteries, while the next generation of all-solid-state batteries is accelerating implementation, with energy density and safety achieving a leap. Regarding AI large models, SAIC deeply integrates large language models with vehicle control, enabling the car machine not only to "understand speech" but also to "understand scenarios", actively recommending routes and adjusting cabin environments for users. Understanding you means precisely implementing every frontier technology into travel experiences that users can perceive and enjoy. 100 million vehicles represent both the concentrated fulfillment of trust from 100 million users and a phased answer SAIC has given to China's automotive industry's "from big to strong".
The Sample of Joint Venture 2.0, How to Build Power for the Next 100 Million Vehicles
SAIC Motor's 100 million vehicles is the result of synergy between three major sectors: independent brands, joint ventures, and overseas markets. Among them, the joint venture sector not only contributed significant sales volume but also explored a new path of "Joint Venture 2.0" first in the new energy transformation. As the joint venture enterprise established earliest and contributing the most cumulative sales to the group, SAIC Volkswagen is the core practitioner of this path.
In the grand narrative of 100 million vehicles, SAIC Volkswagen is a name that cannot be bypassed. It not only laid a solid foundation for manufacturing and supply chains for the group, cultivating the first batch of local suppliers from the Santana localization community to today's efficient production network covering the country, but also pioneered a new paradigm of "Joint Venture 2.0" in the new energy era.
ID. ERA 9X is the representative work of this paradigm. As the first 9-series flagship SUV globally by Volkswagen, it deeply integrates "German Heritage + Chinese Wisdom": equipped with EA211 Golden Range Extender, Xingyun Intelligent Driving Assistance System (Global Premiere of Momenta R7 Reinforcement Learning World Model), Yunqi Smart Cockpit, and other nine black technologies. One month after launch, ID. ERA 9X cumulatively delivered over 7,000 units, successfully entering the 300,000 yuan level and above extended-range large-end SUV market top three.
Notably, the 6,999th owner of ID. ERA 9X — former national team player Yang Chen, happened to become the user of the 99,999,999th complete vehicle of SAIC Motor. Yang Chen was the first Chinese player to compete in the Bundesliga, and his choice, to some extent, is also a metaphor: the combination of German heritage and Chinese power is producing new chemical reactions on the new energy track. This coincidence also symbolizes the deep binding of the joint venture sector and the group's overall destiny.
But the significance of ID. ERA 9X goes far beyond sales volume. It marks a fundamental shift in the joint venture model — from past "Technology Introduction" to "Technology Co-creation". In the past, joint venture brands mostly introduced globally mature products into China, and localization modifications were often limited to lengthening wheelbases and adjusting configurations. Now, SAIC Volkswagen uses Chinese user needs as the origin, collaborating with Chinese local intelligent partners (such as Momenta), to define products in reverse — the Chinese team leads the development of smart cockpits and intelligent driving systems, while the German team is responsible for chassis, powertrain, and manufacturing processes. Both parties run parallel from the beginning of development, rather than "first a global car, then localization". Products under this model are not only more aligned with Chinese consumers' usage habits but may even possess the possibility of feeding back Chinese innovations globally.
For SAIC Motor, the significance of Joint Venture 2.0 lies in: it is no longer a simple profit contributor, but an important force in the group's transformation that can stabilize the base and open up incremental space. In today's context where independent brands are soaring, the renewal of the joint venture sector provides the certainty of "dual-wheel drive" for the group's next 100 million vehicles.
100 million vehicles is a phased answer to SAIC's 70-plus years of development, and even more so, a new starting line facing the intelligent and electric future for "a second round of entrepreneurship". In 2014, SAIC took the lead in comprehensive transformation to new energy, and at that time there were still many doubts in the industry; twelve years later, from independent to joint venture, from passenger to commercial, from domestic to overseas, SAIC has formed a vigorous momentum. Just like the theme of this handover ceremony — "Together on the Road to 100 Million", for the next 100 million vehicles, SAIC will walk on this road together with global users and global partners.
