SAIC: Strategies for own-brand growth
New Indonesian and Thai plants for Wuling and MG brand production
2016/02/22
- Summary
- SAIC-GM-Wuling's Wuling / Baojun brand: Baojun MPVs and SUVs record strong sales
- SAIC's Roewe and MG: Aiming for a turnaround by launching new brand strategies and SUV models
- R&D strategy: developing new-energy vehicles and connected cars
- Overseas strategy: establishing new production plants in Indonesia and Thailand; jointly developing new models with GM for emerging countries
- The production capacity of each SAIC plant
- Sales of domestic SAIC brands in China
Summary
The SAIC Motor Group is the leading passenger-car and commercial-vehicle OEM in China. The Group has several affiliated brands, such as joint ventures (JVs) with non-Chinese OEMs like SAIC Volkswagen (with Volkswagen AG) and SAIC GM (with General Motors). Other group members include SAIC GM Wuling, which builds Wuling- and Baojun-brand vehicles; and SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle, which builds MG- and Roewe-brand vehicles. This report focuses on the brand operations of SAIC's Chinese passenger-car brands.
The SAIC Group sold 5.86 million units in 2015, which is a 5.0% year-over-year (y/y) increase. It is projected that the Group will aim for sales between 6.4 and 6.5 million units in 2016. While SAIC VW's and SAIC GM's unit sales have been decreasing, those of SAIC's own independent brand vehicles have been growing, with a 12% y/y increase to 1.98 million units in 2015.
Baojun's 730 MPV and 560 SUV were both big hits with consumers. Their sales increased 2.8 times y/y to 500,000 units in 2015. Sales of MG's SUV, the MG GS, have also been robust, increasing 31.1% y/y to 72,000 units.
As a result of fierce competition from non-Chinese brands, SAIC's strategy for its own brands is to differentiate them, by launching SUVs and MPVs, which have proven to be popular in the Chinese market and introducing new powertrains.
Moreover, investments in new-energy vehicles (NEVs), which have seen increasing sales in China, are to be expanded. SAIC announced plans to invest CNY 20.0 billion invest by 2020 and have annual sales of Chinese brand new-energy vehicles (NEVs) to 200,000 units.
SAIC is also expanding overseas, and is planning to build plants in Indonesia and Thailand. It plans to develop and launch models jointly with GM, which will be sold not only in China, but also in Brazil, India, and Mexico.
SAIC Group affiliated passenger-car brands
| SAIC-GM-Wuling | A JV between SAIC, GM and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co Limited that builds Wuling and Baojun passenger cars, and some commercial vehicles. It mainly builds low-cost MPVs and micro vans. |
|---|---|
| SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle | Builds Roewe and MG vehicles. It mainly sells sedans and competes with non-Chinese brands. |
| SAIC Maxus Automotive Co., Ltd. | Builds MPVs for the Maxus brand, and small buses. Formerly SAIC Motor Commercial Vehicle |
| SAIC GM | JV with GM |
| SAIC VW | JV with VW |
SAIC Group's unit sales (wholesale base)
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passenger cars |
SAIC own-brand | 580,478 | 1,006,939 | 1,218,204 | 1,309,785 | 1,492,918 | 1,655,695 | 1,771,467 | 1,983,728 |
| SAIC GM | 444,756 | 708,356 | 1,012,057 | 1,185,585 | 1,363,532 | 1,542,558 | 1,723,939 | 1,724,976 | |
| SAIC VW | 490,087 | 728,238 | 1,001,357 | 1,165,827 | 1,280,008 | 1,525,008 | 1,725,006 | 1,805,633 | |
| Passenger-car total | 1,515,321 | 2,443,533 | 3,231,618 | 3,661,197 | 4,136,458 | 4,723,261 | 5,220,412 | 5,514,337 | |
| Commercial vehicles | 163,148 | 201,924 | 249,022 | 234,548 | 294,950 | 350,077 | 363,287 | 349,160 | |
| Total | 1,678,469 | 2,645,457 | 3,480,640 | 3,895,745 | 4,431,408 | 5,073,338 | 5,583,699 | 5,863,497 | |
(Provided by MarkLines Data Center)
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