Autohome Plans USD 1 Billion Second Listing in Hong Kong

SAIC Motor to Introduce Ten FCV Models by 2025

Chinese car manufacturing giant SAIC Motor aims to roll out at least ten fuel cell vehicle models over the next five years and to hit over 10,000 units in both annual FCV outputs and sales, representing a more than 10% share in China's FCV market, according to its new 'Hydrogen Strategy' announced this September.  According to Chinese media channel Gasgoo, under the newly-unveiled strategy, the company also expects the market value of Shanghai Hydrogen Propulsion Technology Co., Ltd. (SHPT), a fuel cell technology developer mainly owned by SAIC Motor, to grow to over CNY 10 billion, and is striving to form a fuel cell R&D and operation team with over 1,000 staff members by the same deadline. SAIC said that by 2025, SAIC's self-developed fuel cell system will achieve cumulative sales of more than 30,000 sets, making it a leader in domestic, independent fuel cell systems. By 2030, SAIC will become a fuel cell vehicle manufacturer with completely independent intellectual property rights and global competitiveness. Hydrogen fuel cells are becoming a favorite in the new energy field, and many auto companies are looking to seize the opportunity. Hydrogen fuel cell research and development is another segment that is getting a lot of attention. In mid-July, Great Wall Motors officially released its new brand dedicated to the segment. The vehicles produced by the brand will match the second-generation hydrogen fuel cell power system, with a driving range of up to 1,100 kilometers. Besides, GAC, Hongqi, Changan and other automakers have begun to deploy hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. However, the segment faces two significant problems: inadequate infrastructure and high costs. According to SAIC, it is currently strengthening cooperation with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain of parts, hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation, hydrogen storage, hydrogenation, etc.  Subscribe to the China NEV Intelligence Newsletter for daily updates.

SAIC Group Obtains CNY 50 Bn Credit from Export-Import Bank

SAIC Group's Net Profit Up 31.92% in 2Q 2020

SAIC Motor’s 2020 semi-annual report showed that the company managed to sell 2.049 million vehicles in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 30.2%, of which passenger vehicle sales were 1.63 million, also a year-on-year decrease of 35.8%. In the first half of this year, the Chinese market sold 10.234 million vehicles, down 17.2% year-on-year of which, passenger car sales were 7.832 million, a year-on-year decrease of 22.9%. According to the announcement, the sales volume of commercial vehicles under SAIC Motor in the first half of the year was 419,000, up 5.0%, sales of NEV's were 58,000 and vehicle exports and overseas sales were 132,000. SAIC's subsidiary vehicle companies launched more than 10 new vehicles including Roewe RX5 PLUS, Volkswagen Weiran, Cadillac CT4, and Buick GL8. According to the announcement, SAIC Volkswagen has sold 63% of its A+ models and above and SAIC GM's mid- to high-end models have sold more than 55% of its sales. SAIC Group achieved a total operating income of CNY 177.794 billion in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 0.96%. Net profit was CNY 7.273 billion, up 31.92% year-on-year. The Chinese auto giant's revenue in the first half of the year was not very optimistic with total operating revenue of CNY 283.74 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 24.60% and net profit of CNY 8.39 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 39.01%. 

Ping An Group Posts 1H 2020 Results with Several Sectors Grow Fast

Ping An Group posted its financial result for the first half of 2020 on August 27. During the six-month period, the company recorded an operating profit of CNY 74.31 billion with a small increase of 1.2%. The net income decreased year-over-year by 28.2% to CNY 75.97 billion. Even under this downturn, the company paid cash dividends of CNY 0.80  per share, which grew by 6.7% from the end of 2019.  Dissecting Ping An Group's performance by segment gives us quite a few insights. The life health insurance posted operating income of CNY 51.54 billion with a run-up of 6.4%. The premium from property insurance rose year-over-year by 10.5% and its market share went up by 0.5%. Ping An Bank (000001:SZ), recorded a 15.5% growth on revenue (check out its financial result). The technology sector performed best. At the end of June 30, the total valuation of technology companies reached over USD 70 billion with Ping An Good Doctor (01833:HK) surged by 108% and OneConnect (OCFT:NYSE) ran up by 84% (check out its financial results for 1H). The registered users of Ping An Good Doctor (read more in our latest article on the company) reached over 346 million, the daily diagnosis volume jumped up by 26.7% during the first half of the year. Online healthcare business income surged by 106.8%. What is more, the revenue of Autohome (ATHM:NYSE), an online service platform for automotive consumers, posted a slight drop of 1.6%, which still outperformed the market with vehicle sales dropping over 22.4% in China during the six-month period.  Ping An Group is one of the largest financial conglomerates in China, with the business deploying in almost all financial service fields, such as insurance, banking, asset management, securities, and technology. Some star companies in the technology sector are in the center of the public discussion. One Connect and Lufax, the two largest fintech arms of Ping An Group, now worth over USD 8.5 billion and CNY 270 billion. Ping An Group went public in 2007 on Shanghai Stock Exchange with the ticker of 601318.

SAIC Records CNY 274.5 Bn in Revenue for 1H 2020

Autohome Announces Cooperation With SAIC Maxus Automotive to Create a New Auto Retail Model

The Dilemma of Traditional OEMs: SAIC’s Incomplete Transformation

Key points SAIC has a rich accumulation of connected vehicle technology. SAIC and Alibaba founded the connected vehicle unicorn Banma. With Alibaba’s support in IoT technology, SAIC has led the way in all things related to connected vehicles among traditional manufacturers. SAIC’s plan for its position in the coming autonomous driving age is not clear. Compared with its competitors in the Chinese automobile market, SAIC is very conservative in the application of high level autonomous (L4 or above) driving technologies. It also does not have a concrete plan for collaboration with tech giants, which is quite common for Chinese OEMs. SAIC Motor is the largest Chinese automobile manufacturer. Its total vehicle sales have historically taken around a quarter of the whole Chinese market. SAIC has accumulated rich techniques in automobile manufacturing. Its domestic brand ROEWE has long been famous for its high-quality economical passenger car models. In the mid-end and high-end market, SAIC mostly relies on its joint venture brands SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC GM, and SAIC GM Wuling. In recent years, the sales of joint venture brand cars accounted for more than 80% of SAIC’s total sales. A high proportion of sales coming from joint venture brands is not a positive signal for Chinese manufacturers. The high margins of joint venture brand cars are diminishing due to the fast development of Chinese domestic automobile brands such as Geely and Great Wall Motor. The improved quality of domestic car models has made international brands less attractive. With an emphasis on modern electronic vehicles (EV) and intelligent vehicle technologies, domestic brands are getting rid of the label of shoddy production, impacting SAIC’s revenue. In 2020, SAIC’s market share has reduced to about 20%, which is spurring SAIC to transform and upgrade its manufacturing. Compromise or progress? Working with Alibaba The emerging intelligent vehicle is the greatest opportunity for Chinese domestic brands to compete with international giants. Traditional OEMs are working closely with leading technology corporations and startups in the commercialization of the technologies. SAIC chose to collaborate with Alibaba and its subsidiaries. In 2015, SAIC and Alibaba founded joint venture Banma, an IoT startup that focuses on connected vehicle service, with each party holding a half share.  Banma’s software system is based on Alibaba’s cloud system YunOS, which has accumulated rich experience of voice assistance service from Alibaba’s robotic customer service and smart hardware. SAIC has equipped Banma on most of its models since 2016, which helped it go ahead in connected vehicles. Since 2019, Banma has been updated to version 3.0. Banma is now open to many Chinese OEMs including Dongfeng Motor, Changan Automobile, etc., which is out of most analysts’ expectations that SAIC agreed to share its LoT driving systems with its competitors. In 2018, Banma finished its CNY 1.6 billion round-A financing. Leading investors included several VCs that are independent of Alibaba and SAIC. This event has been viewed as a signal that Banma will be more open to the Chinese automobile industry, and also a commitment to stay neutral. Becoming a third party connected vehicle platform provider for more manufacturers benefits Banma’s long term development, but inevitably weakens SAIC’s advantages to its competitors. Banma is not an exclusive provider for SAIC. Those who own technology and algorithms, in Banma's case, Alibaba, is the winner in the new decade of the auto industry. SAIC will not have a leading position when working with technology companies in the coming intelligent vehicle age. However, as one of the main shareholders of Banma, SAIC is always the first manufacturer to receive the benefits from the connected vehicle unicorn. Autonomous vehicles are hardly SAIC's gift As a vanguard of connected vehicle technology’s application in the Chinese automobile industry, SAIC’s development of further autonomous vehicles is still in the mist. Compared with emerging forces in the autonomous industry like NIO and Xpeng, SAIC is quite conservative with respect to autonomous intelligence technology. SAIC’s models have equipped at most L2 autonomous driving systems. Compared with connected vehicles, high-level autonomous driving technologies have much more uncertainty in the short future. The technological limits and regulatory barriers have impeded L4 and above autonomous driving technologies to be applied in the next few years. The connected vehicle, on the contrary, is mature with developed navigation, driving assistance, and recreation functions. SAIC, being a top traditional automobile manufacturer in the Chinese market, will find it reasonable to pay more attention to technology with more practical significance. It seems that SAIC plans to develop future autonomous driving technologies mainly on its own. SAIC’s AI lab for autonomous driving now has more than 100 researchers. It has invested several autonomous driving software and hardware startups including algorithm providers AutoX, Plus.ai, and sensor manufacturer meta wave. Unlike other traditional OEMs like Great Wall Motor, SAIC has no much specific long term collaboration of autonomous vehicles with tech giants. It is widely believed that tech giants’ innovation and accumulation in related technologies are vital qualities for traditional OEMs to upgrade the manufacturing system to the intelligent vehicle age. Developing independently may cause the falling behind of SAIC’s autonomous driving technology. (More details about Great Wall Motors autonomous driving development plans with Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu here.) SAIC’s passive attitude towards autonomous driving may also result from its past failure with the Marvel X model. In 2018, SAIC released Marvel X, its signature EV model with the most cutting-edge technologies that the company had developed, making it one of the first passenger models with L2 autonomous driving technology. As a model targeting Tesla Model X, Marvel X lost the battle against NIO ES8 in the Chinese market. In 2019, Marvel X was almost forgotten by the market, with aggregate sales of less than 6000. Entering 2020, SAIC did not show much focus on high-level autonomous driving, with related models released mainly comprising concept cars.

SAIC's Cumulative Sales Volume in 1H 2020 Decreases 25.77% YoY

Suning: During the Festival, Additional CNY 5 Billion Subsidies to be Released

DiDi to Increase 100,000 Shared Bike in Beijing

BYD DiLink Signs Agreement with Chinese IoV Service Provider Zhidaohulian

Ford's Fully-Electric Version of Mustang to Enter China in 2021

NIO to Subsidize CNY 100 Million for DC Charging Piles

Great Wall Motors Export Targets to Increase by 7.7%

GAC Trumpchi M8 Debuts at Beijing Auto Show

Changan Modifies its Logo Aiming to Become a 'Smart Travel Technology Company'

Li Auto’s New Car Plan Leaked

Polestar Plans to Boost the Number of Showrooms this Year