Another historic moment in the Chinese automotive industry was frozen in Shanghai! — But the real highlight of this ceremony was not the numbers themselves, but how SAIC handed the "stage" over to users.
On May 28, 2026, at the World Living Room, Shanghai North Bund. When the IM LS9 Hyper drove onto the stage as the 100 millionth vehicle produced by SAIC Motor, this constantly running Chinese automotive group achieved an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of the Chinese automotive industry: cumulative production and sales officially exceeded 100 million units.
Undoubtedly, this is a number worth recording in industry history. But what deserves more attention from the outside world is the presentation method of this delivery ceremony.As the "pioneer" among Chinese car companies to first achieve this accomplishment, SAIC left a sample for all subsequent car companies that have not yet "crossed the line" with a creative delivery ceremony.
Ten-plus complete vehicle brands, nineteen car models, fifteen delivery nodes, relayed live across Asia and Europe, constitute a phenomenon-level roadshow centered around the "full value chain". In the current situation where the Chinese automotive industry is generally trapped in anxiety over single product blockbusters, SAIC instead turned this ceremony into the best expression of systemic capabilities.
And the ultimate direction of systemic capabilities has never been about how strong the enterprise itself is, but what the user feels. The true innovation of this delivery ceremony lies precisely in transforming "systemic confidence" into a narrative experiment led by the user.
From Single Product Explosion to System Stability: SAIC's "Long Road of Struggle"
In the past few years, the most familiar successful model in the Chinese automotive industry has been "blockbuster driven": a certain car selling over 10,000 units, a certain technology debuting first, a certain press conference dominating the feeds, almost constituting the KPI for all car companies' communication work. Admittedly, this narrative logic was extremely effective during the window period of new forces rising; it amplified the dramatic nature of single-point breakthroughs and allowed consumers to quickly establish cognitive recognition of new brands.
However, entering 2026, the industry rules have quietly changed. The new force dividend period is nearing its end, the marginal effect of single-point breakthroughs is diminishing, and more and more car companies are finding that having blockbusters alone cannot save the overall downward slide of the sales curve, and talking only about technical parameters is hard to move increasingly calm consumers anymore.
SAIC's delivery ceremony at this juncture happened to land exactly at this node. It did not focus the spotlight on a certain new car, nor did it explode topics by relying on a single celebrity endorser, but used a "family portrait" of nineteen car models, ten-plus brands, covering price tiers from 50,000 to 500,000, covering passenger and commercial, covering domestic and overseas, presenting a complete industrial cross-section to the outside world.
When the IM LS9 Hyper appeared at the main venue, Huajing S was delivered in Liuzhou, MG4 EV Urban was delivered in London, Maxus eDeliver 5 was delivered in Singapore, Hongyan i Jieshi was delivered in Taiyuan, Yuejin Danna T1 was delivered in Yangzhou. The strong signal SAIC wanted to convey to the outside world — delivering 100 million units based on strength was already very clear.
A car company capable of mobilizing so many brands, so many categories, and so many overseas nodes to complete relay delivery today, and able to let the industry see actual results landing, there is only one in China — SAIC Motor.
Behind this, in addition to the rising independent brands, SAIC's joint venture brands that were painstakingly cultivated also played a key role in this ceremony.
Volkswagen ID.ERA 9X, AUDI E7X, Cadillac Kaiwei De, Buick Zhijing E7, Buick Zhijing Shijia appeared collectively. When joint venture models and independent models shared discourse power on the same delivery stage, the outside world saw a more diverse SAIC.It is both the initiator of joint venture cooperation in the fuel vehicle era, the output provider of new energy intelligence technology at present, and the integrator of global technical platforms.
For all Chinese joint venture car companies undergoing the transition of "Electrification + Intelligence" and currently seeking solutions, this is undoubtedly a timely and persuasive answer.
In fact, behind the breakthrough of 100 million new car deliveries of SAIC Motor, besides the main track of passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles are also a key "paving stone". This silent cornerstone filled the last piece of the puzzle in SAIC's layout of complete vehicles. Names of bulk users such as DHL, Jiading Bus, Henglong Sheng Industry and Trade, Di Shang Tie appearing at the main venue means SAIC is willing to leave a position for commercial business in the highest specification communication event, telling everyone that SAIC Group's comprehensive layout and system narrative focus on balance without bias.
Handing the stage back to users: What did this ceremony get right?
If defined in one sentence, this one hundred million vehicle delivery ceremony should be: it is not a press conference, but a "flowing history public class" with users as the protagonist and global relay as the form.
Traditional automotive industry milestone activities are often "enterprise shows" of leader speeches, product presentations, and data displays. But SAIC this time completely subverted this inherent mode. Starting from the main venue at the World Living Room, Shanghai North Bund, connected to domestic multi-cities and overseas delivery sites such as the UK, Indonesia, Singapore via Oriental TV global live broadcast, crossing the Asia-Eurasia continent, spanning multiple time zones, completing a truly meaningful "decentralized" relay delivery.
The core innovation of this ceremony lies in three "Firsts":
First, let users become the absolute protagonist. The 100 millionth user was Momenta CEO Cao Xudong — the setting of "Partner turns into Car Owner" expanded the concept of "User" from consumers to ecosystem partners; the "Ten-Year Trust Agreement" of two generations of Roewe owners, London intern doctor Natalia inheriting her grandfather's MG sentiment, post-85s Village Secretary Pang Fuqiang delivering food for left-behind elderly people using Wuling Rongguang... Behind every delivery action was a true life story. SAIC did not arrange any leader's long speech; all time was handed over to the "delivery" core action and user narrative behind the delivery.
Secondly, replace "centralized stage" with "global relay delivery". From 99,999,996th to 100,000,013th "relay delivery" created real-time suspense and participation; users of different skin colors, different languages, different models appearing successively under the same theme constituted a brand communication event with great impact. This "decentralized" ceremony design has no precedent in Chinese car brands.
Third, define the delivery ceremony itself as "content". Ceremony is news, is communication. SAIC did not rely on traditional press releases, but let the images of global relay, users' true emotional resonance, and the visual spectacle of full category stage presence become the most communicative content themselves. This pioneered a new narrative method of integration between Chinese car brands and media — from "What enterprise says, media writes", to "What media and users jointly witness, what moves them".
The underlying logic of this ceremony is the concentrated fulfillment of SAIC's "Knows Cars and Knows You Better" user concept: not the enterprise standing in the center of the stage telling users "how strong I am", but inviting users onto the stage, letting the world see "how far we have walked together".100 million vehicles is not a cold industrial number, but the total temperature of 100 million trusts. This activity creativity centered on users, with emotional resonance as the core, and global relay as the form, left a "SAIC Sample" with great reference value for how Chinese car brands should do milestone communication.
More Difficult than Delivering 100 Million Vehicles is the "Sustainability" of System Growth
Behind this grand new car delivery ceremony, the author believes that the truly scarce place in SAIC's "100 million milestone" lies in the "sustainability" of system growth.
In fact, SAIC's legendary car making story began with the breakthrough from zero to whole, and was formed through strategic maneuvering and open cooperation.
From the establishment of Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Parts Manufacturing Company in 1955, to the successful trial production of Phoenix sedan in 1958, to the manual assembly and delivery of the first Santana in 1983, 23 months factory construction and vehicle production by Shanghai General Motors in 1997, 2006 Roewe birth, 2016 Roewe RX5 opened the internet car era, 2020 IM Motors establishment. Every node on SAIC's timeline corresponds to an industrial upgrade of the Chinese automotive industry.
Nowadays, this continuous "startup" already belongs to "rare assets" in the current Chinese automotive industry.
Most car companies either start from joint ventures, or start from new forces, or start from a certain major transformation. But there are few leading enterprises that can tell the complete development story of "from nothing to something, from weak to strong" in the independent and joint venture dual lines with technology, brand, products, and even more subdivided behind them.SAIC's 70-plus years of development history, condensed, is almost a development history of the Chinese automotive industry, and it is precisely this point that constitutes the heaviest historical footnote of the 100 million new vehicle delivery milestone.
Among them, the historical node that determined SAIC's big stride towards the "Electrification + Intelligence" transformation was the crucial year 2014. That year, when senior leaders investigated SAIC's development, they clearly proposed the general policy of "Developing new energy vehicles is the only way for China to move from an automotive giant to an automotive power". This general policy was deeply understood and put into action by SAIC senior leadership, and SAIC immediately launched a comprehensive new energy transformation. This thus opened the prelude to SAIC Group and even the national automotive industry "changing lanes to overtake".
12 years later in 2026, SAIC officially welcomed the user delivery of the 100 millionth new car globally. Behind this, the efforts SAIC made and the results achieved in the new energy sector can be said to be world-renowned.
Looking back 12 years ago, new energy transformation had not yet formed a consensus in the domestic industry circle. Disputes over technology routes, changes in subsidy policies, and shallow market acceptance made many companies hesitate on the transformation rhythm.SAIC decisively chose this path of early transformation. Its R&D investment, capacity layout, and the establishment of innovation systems have always been at the forefront of the industry.
Sprinting in the new energy track has achieved SAIC Group leading today in the intelligence and electrification new era.
Latest data shows that from January to May 2026, SAIC Motor achieved cumulative complete vehicle sales of 1.651 million, continuing to firmly stay at the industry head. Among them, independent brands January-May cumulative sales 1.173 million, year-on-year growth 8.6%, the proportion of group total sales broke 70% for the first time, reaching 71.1%; new energy vehicles January-May cumulative sales 595,000, year-on-year growth 13.2%; overseas market January-May cumulative sales 589,000, year-on-year surge 45.9%. Independent, new energy, and overseas working together simultaneously, pushing SAIC to continue upward during cycle crossing, and also writing a powerful footnote for the new journey after the 1st hundred million delivery. These numbers answer the question of whether long-termism can still run faster in the Chinese automotive industry.
In addition, another supporting point of SAIC's strategic determination comes from its deeply internalized global layout. Over 100 parts production bases overseas, over 3,000 dealer networks, 4 overseas production centers, and Anji Logistics with 42 own roll-on roll-off ships. Most of these assets were not formed suddenly in the past two or three years, but the result of continuous investment over the past ten years or even twenty years.
And from the brand side, MG won the Chinese brand sales champion in Europe continuously for 11 years. In 2025, annual sales in Europe broke 300,000 units. In March 2026, MG released SolidCore semi-solid-state battery and Hybrid+ hybrid technology at Frankfurt, marking that SAIC's globalization logic switched from "product going global" to "technology and value chain output". Without over ten years of local operation accumulation, this switch cannot be accomplished.
In addition, the 100 millionth user SAIC chose is just its current most dazzling supply chain partner Momenta CEO Cao Xudong. Giving the milestone user role to the founder of a intelligence driving technology company, the signal SAIC wants to convey is very clear, that is, SAIC does not understand "User" narrowly as consumers, but includes ecosystem partners together into the user ecosystem.
And this posture can also be seen as a continuation of the Shanghai-style cooperation culture foundation established by SAIC since the Santana localization community period: Open, Co-creation, Mutual Foundation.In the current industry more inclined to "Vertical Integration" and "Full-Stack Self-Research", SAIC chose to take down the technology walls, letting partners become part of the community. Alone you go fast, together you go far. The truth of this seems to become even more weighty on this 100 million milestone commemoration.
Final Thoughts:
In this milestone event that can be called a grand event of Chinese automotive industry, the 100 million new car delivery achieved by SAIC, although it is a specific number, but the meaning it possesses in the entire industry cannot be summarized by a specific measurement.
And behind the achievement of delivering 100 million new cars, SAIC, like other Chinese automotive enterprises, is also facing new questions. In new competition dimensions, whether able to mobilize full categories, whether able to cross passenger and commercial, whether able to integrate domestic and overseas, whether able to let joint venture and independent coordinate under the same roof, will become a new ruler to measure car companies' real strength.
For SAIC itself, delivering the 100 millionth new car is just a stage answer, and also a new starting line. The market after 2026 will not be exceptionally tolerant of it because of this number, but for SAIC itself, it also does not need "special treatment", but strives to prove through this ceremony, this Chinese automotive leading enterprise that has walked for over 70 years, still maintains the strategic determination of open cooperation, and still has the practical ability to transform strategic intent into industrial action.
