The traditional auto-maker has accelerated its push into the NEV industry with a new NEV plan.
Tachometer of a SAIC EV. Image credit: SAIC
SAIC President Wang Xiaoqiu said at the 2020 World New Energy Vehicle Conference that SAIC will continue to invest in the three technical segments: pure electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cells. He further added that SAIC plans to launch nearly 100 new energy products within the next five years.
Wang disclosed that in the above-mentioned new energy product plan for the next five years, there will be nearly 60 independent new energy models, no less than 20 plug-in hybrid products and 10 hydrogen fuel cell products.
He believes that the acceptance of new energy vehicles by private users, especially users in cities with known travel restrictions, is rapidly increasing and that the plug-in hybrid is a vital choice to meet users' needs at this stage.
SAIC started focusing on the NEV field around 10 years ago. In 2012, Roewe, a SAIC subsidiary, released its first pure electric car, E50, with its new energy vehicle research and development investment reaching CNY 6 billion. In June of this year, Chairman of SAIC, Chen Hong, pointed out that SAIC and Volkswagen plan to jointly invest CNY 140 billion in the next five years, aiming at the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry, new energy vehicle track and intelligent networking.
At present, SAIC Group's two subsidiaries, Wuling and SAIC (Passenger cars), have ranked among the top ten in monthly sales of new energy vehicles. According to the August sales data released by the China Passenger Car Association, Wuling ranked first in the sales ranking of new energy automobile companies with 18,312 units sold, an increase of 110.53% over the same period last year. As for SAIC (passenger cars), it sold a total of 3346 units, ranking ninth. "