In 2021, the pace of SAIC-GM's development is steady and benign.
In the past year, the total annual sales of its three major brands Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac were 1331567 vehicles, the sales volume of high-end models increased by 5% year-on-year, and the average transaction price of each brand also showed a different increase of 6%-16%, indicating that SAIC-GM is moving towards high-end and high-value.
From the perspective of sales share, the growth rate of high-end models is obvious.
Buick brand high-end model sales accounted for 60%, star models GL8, Onco Flag, Oncoway car series have different magnitudes of growth, and the momentum is quite rapid; Chevrolet brand Of Maribal XL, pioneer and explorer three big car sales accounted for 48.3%, an increase of 15%; Cadillac brand annual sales exceeded 230,000 units, an increase of 1.4%, and set a new high in the Chinese market sales, of which the after-drive car family increased by 13.6%, CT5 increased by 37.9% year-on-year.
In terms of star items, the Buick GL8 series set a new annual sales record, with cumulative sales exceeding 1.5 million units; the Cadillac XT6 ranked first in the market segment in the market share of 400,000 large luxury SUVs.
In terms of development strategy, SAIC-GM will continue to increase electrification in 2021.
In April 2021, SAIC-GM announced its leading technology and strategic layout in the field of "electrification, intelligence and networking", and promised to invest more than 50 billion yuan in the field of electrification and intelligent networking new technologies by 2025.
Under this blueprint, SAIC-GM will bring the Ultium Aotene electric vehicle platform, which brings together the industry's high-end technology, to China. The Aoteneng platform has many advanced technologies, such as the industry's first wireless communication technology, thermal management technology with multiple patents and OTA upgrades. With the Aoteneng platform as the core, SAIC-GM has officially opened up a complete system of full-link new energy vehicles from pre-research and development, testing, procurement and manufacturing, which will bring high-efficiency and low-cost localization products.
The first model of the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform after entering China, the Cadillac luxury pure electric medium and large SUV LYRIQ, exceeded 2,000 units in one hour after the pre-sale began. In the future, it will also adopt the directly operated Cadillac pure electric IQ space and IQ APP to communicate with users face-to-face in a flexible organizational form to achieve rapid iterative upgrading of products and services. Buick brand and Chevrolet brand new energy products built on the Aotene platform will also be unveiled during the year.
In order to continue to promote the electrification strategy, SAIC-GM continues to increase new energy subsidies, and launches a new subsidy scheme in the case of a 30% decline in the national subsidy standard for new energy vehicles, providing additional corporate subsidies ranging from 2,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan to consumers of designated models, paying a deposit before March 31, and designated models can still enjoy the same value subsidy concessions as in 2021.
At the same time, the intelligent strategy is also gradually advancing. In the future, SAIC-GM will apply a new generation of VIP intelligent electronic architecture, build a VCS intelligent cockpit system, and upgrade the OTA of the in-vehicle interconnection system.
Relying on the VIP intelligent electronic architecture, most of SAIC-GM's models will complete the basic transformation of traditional cars to smart cars. The Aoteneng platform can realize the OTA upgrade of the battery management system, which is a forward-looking layout in the electric vehicle industry, and the introduction of the eighth generation of Ecotec's new 1.5T four-cylinder direct injection turbocharged engine in 2021, which won the 2021 "China Heart" Top Ten Engines, and the popularity of 48V light hybrid technology is also increasing.
Not only that, SAIC-GM will continue to upgrade the OTA of the in-vehicle interconnection system several times a year. Some models of Buick GL8 will add ILC driver command lane change function through OTA upgrades; a new generation of Super Cruise super assisted driving system will be introduced on more models; in the future, there will be a lot of models equipped with traffic congestion assistance, parking assistance will also be upgraded, and smart keys or mobile phone APP remote parking functions will be added.
The new generation of VCS intelligent cockpit system will enter the market in 2022, it integrates the world's high-end hardware configuration and industry-leading interaction technology, combined with 5G and V2X vehicle-to-road collaboration technology, will bring a more immersive human-computer interaction experience.
In September 2021, SAIC-GM launched a new division standard, which will become a new starting point for SAIC-GM to move towards transformation and upgrading. At the same time, Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac three brands and a variety of products, including J.D. Power (Jundi) 2021 9 annual survey reports won the first place, 2021 China Automotive User Satisfaction Assessment (CACSI) a number of laurels, providing a strong guarantee for user choice.
How to better summarize SAIC-GM's 2021? On the one hand, from the perspective of product sales and proportion, the growth is stable, and the transformation is moderate; on the other hand, the layout in electrification and intelligence is perfect, and the growth is radical.