SAIC in the fast lane with vehicle sales

SAIC Motor, China's largest automaker, still has confidence in its annual sales despite the many uncertainties faced this year.

The company is running toward its sales target of 6 million vehicles which was proposed at the beginning of the year, and is striving to achieve an annual sales growth outpacing the general market.

For the longer term, SAIC plans to reach 1.5 million vehicles in overseas sales by 2025, of which its MG brand is expected to contribute overseas sales of 1.1 million vehicles, SAIC said at its annual general meeting held on Friday.

In terms of product strategy, it will continue to strengthen product competitiveness by utilizing product highlights such as Vehicle-to-Everything and active safety systems.

It is also planning to build global models to increase market share, and to further enhance brand image with high-end electric vehicles.

At the meeting, SAIC announced its focus on building "seven technical pillars" for the development of new intelligent electric vehicles, including three major vehicle technologies and four key systems.

The financial report showed that in 2021, SAIC achieved total revenue of 779.85 billion yuan (US$116.52 billion), up 5.1 percent year on year. It also posted net profit of 24.53 billion yuan which advanced 20.1 percent from a year earlier, and basic earnings per share of 2.12 yuan, up 21 percent.

In terms of sales, in 2021 it achieved 5.464 million vehicles in wholesale and 5.811 million vehicles in retail sales, generally representing a year-on-year growth of 5.5 percent.

Among them, sales of self-owned brand vehicles reached 2.857 million units, up 10 percent year-on-year, for the first time accounting for over a half of the company's total sales (at 52.3 percent), while sales of new energy vehicles reached 733,000 units, a surge of 128.9 percent.

It also posted 697,000 vehicles in overseas sales, soaring 78.9 percent from a year earlier.