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Tencent News "High Beam"

Author Ao Dun

Edited by Yang Hao

As China's largest automobile group, SAIC Motor welcomed a new management team this month, with Wang Xiaoqiu as chairman and Jia Jianxu as president. This change has aroused widespread attention in the industry about its future strategic direction.

On July 29, SAIC Motor held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Chairman Wang Xiaoqiu was unable to attend the meeting due to important official duties, and the new president Jia Jianxu made his debut. The shareholders' meeting reviewed the proposal to re-elect the company's directors. The board of directors of SAIC Motor nominated Jia Jianxu to be re-elected as a director of the company's eighth board of directors, with a term of office consistent with that of the current board of directors.

During the shareholders' meeting, SAIC Group did not disclose details of its long-term strategic planning. However, as the new management team spoke out for the first time, Jia Jianxu continued his outspoken style as a "younger generation" and frankly answered market-related questions such as the second half of the year's performance targets, new products, reform measures and globalization strategies.

Grasp the core technology and "get out of the awkward period of transformation as soon as possible" 

In the first half of 2024, the Chinese auto market experienced its most competitive half year, with major brands engaging in a full-scale fierce competition from price to product. In the first half of the year, SAIC Motor achieved cumulative sales of 1.827 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 11.81%, of which the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were 461,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%.

"All sectors of SAIC Group will firmly grasp the opportunity and work hard to increase market share." When talking about market expectations and plans for the second half of the year, Jia Jianxu analyzed that from the perspective of the overall market, the market in the second half of the year will definitely be larger than the first half of the year. SAIC Group will focus on three tracks: fuel vehicles, pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles based on core technologies such as DMH super hybrid and solid-state batteries.

In terms of technology research and development and products, Jia Jianxu revealed that SAIC has launched a 500-day production plan for all-solid-state batteries. In May this year, SAIC announced that its all-solid-state batteries based on polymer-inorganic composite electrolyte technology will be mass-produced in 2026, with higher energy density, energy density exceeding 400wh/kg, volume energy density exceeding 820wh/L, and battery capacity exceeding 75Ah.

Talking about transformation and reform measures, Jia Jianxu said that SAIC Group has a very deep degree of vertical integration, including multiple businesses such as auto parts and finance. Today, many companies are copying SAIC's business model. This depth also brings challenges to the transformation.

"SAIC will not actively enter into a price war, but it will face the price war and provide consumers with better cost-effective products." In Jia Jianxu's view, the price war in the first half of the year is ultimately challenging SAIC Group's deeply integrated business. "If there is no depth, there will be no space. We must meet the profit increase requirements put forward by shareholders and the cost-effective requirements of consumers at the same time. This is what we must do."

According to official disclosures, SAIC has invested nearly 150 billion yuan in research and development over the past decade and has obtained more than 26,000 valid patents. In Jia Jianxu's view, the fundamental transformation is to get out of the awkward period of transformation as soon as possible and to bring marketable products to every market as soon as possible. "Each continent has different solutions, because each country and each region has different energy strategies, different population structures, and different personnel needs. We must provide them with marketable products."

It is worth noting that SAIC is the first domestic automaker to launch joint venture projects. In the first half of this year, SAIC and its partners launched a number of joint venture technology co-creation projects, shifting from "technology introduction" to "technology co-creation".AudiSigned a cooperation agreement to jointly develop a number of high-end smart electric vehicles for SAIC Audi and jointly develop the Advanced Digitized Platform intelligent digital platform; On June 27, SAIC and Volkswagen signed a new product technology cooperation agreement to jointly develop 3 plug-in hybrid models and 2 pure electric models.

"I leaveSAIC VolkswagenWhen the two sides signed the agreement, three technical cooperation agreements were signed. The results will be gradually reflected from 2025, and new products will be launched soon. "Jia Jianxu said that in the process of joint ventures, the foreign party used to bring technology and good products to the Chinese market; the next step is for both Chinese and foreign parties to jointly empower the joint venture with technology and provide the best products to our consumers in the Chinese market. Because Chinese consumers' demand for cars, including the demand for power solutions for cars, has changed a lot, which is very different from overseas. "From the perspective of foreign parties, it used to be a new trick. Global models must sell well in China. Now it has changed a lot."

Jia Jianxu said that in the future, SAIC's DMH technology, solid-state battery technology and even autonomous driving technology will be implemented in European-branded cars and sold in the Chinese market. "In fact, this is a big thing for us at SAIC."

Although he did not disclose the second half of the year and long-term financial targets, Jia Jianxu said that he had a plan in mind and must convert what he said today and the strategy into numbers as soon as possible. "I have always talked about three 'methods': first, you must have ideas. People living in this world must have ideas; second, you must have methods; and third, you must have practices." In Jia Jianxu's view, only ideas are in the sky, and only methods have not yet been implemented. There must be practices, "so that we can turn the strategies and everything we say into reality. This is very important to us."

"Entering urban warfare and street fighting" to speed up the construction of factories in Europe 

The overseas market is a key battlefield for SAIC Motor. In the first half of this year, SAIC Motor delivered 554,000 vehicles to customers in overseas markets, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%.MGSuccessfully surpassedTesla, entering the top 20 in brand sales.

However, on July 4, the European Commission officially announced the preliminary anti-subsidy ruling results, announcing that SAIC's anti-subsidy tax rate is 37.6%. Combined with the current 10% tariff on imported cars, SAIC Group's total tariff will be as high as 47.6%.

SAIC Motor has already filed several rounds of defense against the above measures. On July 22, SAIC Motor said that on July 19, at the request of SAIC Motor, the European Commission held a special hearing on anti-subsidy investigation at the EU headquarters in Brussels. SAIC Motor submitted a defense opinion on the preliminary anti-subsidy ruling to the European Commission to actively safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. SAIC Motor said that it is expected that the European Commission will make a final ruling on November 2.

Regarding the current situation of the European market, Jia Jianxu said that the popularity of the MG3 HEV model is beyond imagination. "According to market research, European consumers are very enthusiastic about HEV. SAIC's HEV products will be in short supply. We may encounter production capacity problems in the short term. Some orders will not be delivered until the first quarter of next year."

At the annual shareholders' meeting at the end of June this year, Wang Xiaoqiu said that the anti-subsidy tariffs had an adverse impact on SAIC's electric vehicle exports to Europe. "However, you can see that the electrification rate in Europe ranges from 90% in Norway to 2%-3% in some southern European countries. The electrification rate in Northern Europe is high, but there are still a large number of gasoline vehicles in southern Europe. This year, MG3 HEV will be launched in Europe. The advantages of this car are low fuel consumption and low emissions, and it will enter the European A-class car market. Other MG models will also be launched this year."

Jia Jianxu said that Japanese automakers are the best at HEV, but the HEV models we are about to launch in Europe have technical performance that exceeds that of our competitors. "We are not only targeting the oil-hybrid market, but also the European plug-in hybrid market and the European fuel vehicle market, so that we can truly expand our market."

SAIC Motors said earlier that it would optimize its global production and sales layout in the future, including markets such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia, to balance possible fluctuations in the EU market. Jia Jianxu said that SAIC is accelerating the pace of selecting sites and building factories in Europe, and will soon come up with a global layout strategy. Globalization is what SAIC is determined to do.

"We have no choice. SAIC has already gone out and landed on the beach. We are no longer going to experience landing battles, but urban and street battles," Jia Jianxu said. "We want to use the best products to bring the best driving experience to all our consumers around the world."

Jia Jianxu revealed that SAIC Motor will announce specific measures for the second half of this year. "We must change, and I think SAIC Motor has basically walked out of the awkward period of transformation, which is very important to us."