Vehicle sales topped for 16 consecutive years SAIC Motor's net profit in 2021 increased by 20.1% year-on-year

Reporter Xia Zhibin Shi Yingjing reported from Shanghai

In 2021, after multiple unfavorable factors such as lack of cores, epidemic, power rationing and sharp increases in raw material prices, SAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd. (600104. SH, hereinafter referred to as "SAIC") handed over a brilliant "report card".

According to the annual report, SAIC Motor's vehicle sales in 2021 were "steady and progressive", achieving batch sales of 5.464 million vehicles and terminal retail sales of 5.811 million units in the whole year, an increase of 5.5% year-on-year, and vehicle sales remained the first in the country for 16 consecutive years.

(Image courtesy of SAIC Motor)

In terms of financial performance, SAIC Motor achieved a total operating income of 779.85 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 5.1% year-on-year, a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 24.53 billion yuan, an increase of 20.1% year-on-year, and a weighted average return on net assets of 9.2%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over the previous year. This also means that the quality of SAIC's economic operation has been significantly improved.

The reporter of China Business Daily noted that independent brands, new energy vehicles and overseas markets have become the "new troika" driven by SAIC. In 2021, SAIC Motor's annual sales of its own brand vehicles reached 2.857 million units, an increase of 10% year-on-year, accounting for more than 50% of the company's total sales for the first time, reaching 52.3%.

In terms of new energy vehicles, SAIC Motor sold 733,000 units in 2021, an increase of 128.9% year-on-year, ranking first in China and top three in the world. Overseas sales reached 697,000 units, up 78.9% year-on-year, and vehicle exports remained the first in the domestic industry for six consecutive years.

SAIC Motor said that the company will continue to give back to shareholders with "large-scale" dividends, and intends to pay a cash dividend of 6.82 yuan (including tax) for every 10 shares, with a total distribution of 7.847 billion yuan (including tax), and the company's total cash dividends in 2021 account for 35% of the net profit attributable to the parent company (including repurchase).

Multi-party plus electric intelligent layout

In recent years, under the industry wave of "new four modernizations" (electrification, networking, intelligence, and sharing), the intelligent electric track has ushered in a high-speed period of development, and various car companies have increased their layout in the field of new energy vehicles, and SAIC Motor is no exception.

Time back to March 6, 2020, Zhiji Automobile's front-body auto "L project" was officially launched, which was defined as SAIC's "No. 1 Project", carrying the heavy responsibility of the group's mechanism reform and innovation and brand upward breakthrough.

In 2021, the first batch of experience version products of L7, the first product of Zhiji Automobile, were officially rolled off the production line, and the company's new generation of three-electric system, as well as the "cloud-tube-end" full-stack solution such as intelligent car electronic architecture and service-oriented SOA software platform, achieved application landing.

In addition to Zhiji Automobile, SAIC Motor's Feifan Automobile, Robotaxi Project and "5G+L4" Smart Heavy Truck Project have made many progress.

Specifically, Feifan Automobile accelerated the development of the R7 project of the first pure electric B-class SUV product, and explored the customization, self-learning and self-growth of products through the combination of soft and hard, high and low selection, and data drive.

The first batch of 60 self-driving taxis in the Robotaxi project have launched demonstration applications in Shanghai and Suzhou, providing assistance for the company's L4 level autonomous driving technology to be mass-produced as soon as possible in the passenger car scenario.

The "5G+L4" smart heavy-duty truck project completed the annual transportation task of 40,000 TEUs and the "one tow four" formation driving in Yangshan Port, and the AIV (container intelligent transfer vehicle) project achieved batch demonstration operation, and established Shanghai Youdao Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd. to accelerate the commercialization of L4 level automatic driving technology in commercial vehicle scenarios such as ports, factories and trunk logistics.

In terms of electrification, SAIC Motor will accelerate the development of fast-charging, quick-replaceable and upgradable platform-based batteries and new generation of electric shafts, 800V electric drives and battery pack systems in 2021.

The reporter noted that Jie Hydrogen Technology released a new generation of fuel cell stack M4 and P4 system products, key performance parameters have ranked among the forefront of the world, built the world's first 10,000-unit "roll-to-roll" membrane electrode production line, the localization level of core components continued to improve, and jointly with SAIC Hongyan to launch the world's first "10,000-vehicle" hydrogen energy heavy truck industry chain project in Ordos.

In addition, SAIC Motor has also cooperated with domestic and foreign partners such as Qingtao to accelerate the research and development of solid-state battery products and the application of vehicles; the company has also promoted the "separation of vehicle and electricity" project through cooperation to accelerate the layout in the fields of power exchange, energy storage and lithium battery recycling.

In terms of intelligent networking, SAIC Motor said that the company grasps the development trend of "data determines experience and software-defined automobile", focuses on building five major centers of software, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, network and data security, zero beam technology releases galaxy full stack 1.0 solution, Lianchuang Electronics "6i" intelligent driving core components (intelligent steering system, intelligent braking system, intelligent driving decision control system, intelligent vehicle network terminal system, intelligent tire safety system, Intelligent control system) to promote large-scale application, Zhonghaiting high-precision electronic map became the first commercial product approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In addition, SAIC Motor has also deepened cooperation with strategic partners such as Horizon and Momenta, and accelerated the implementation of the localization strategy of vehicle-grade chips, with a total of 75 chips completed localization development and entered the mass production and application of the whole vehicle.

"The company also draws an investment strategy map, innovates the strategic direct investment model, focuses on strategic key areas such as new energy, intelligent network connection, and chips to make industrial investment, deepens the combination of industry and finance, and enhances the empowerment of innovation." SAIC motor said.

This year, the company aims to sell more than 6 million vehicles

"In 2022, SAIC Motor will adhere to the general tone of 'seeking progress in stability, the key is in progress', improve the quality of economic operation, fully tap the growth potential, firmly grasp market opportunities, continue to improve the production and marketing structure, prevent and resolve various risks and challenges, and continuously enhance the resilience and quality of economic operation; seek truth in reform and innovation, continue to promote the landing of major strategic projects, continue to consolidate the base of electric intelligent network technology, further deepen the reform of market-oriented institutional mechanisms, and better stimulate the vitality of the team." SAIC motor said.

For the development plan for 2022, SAIC Motor said that the company strives to sell more than 6 million vehicles, an increase of more than 10% year-on-year; the sales growth rate of independent brands strives to reach more than 20%, accounting for more than 50% of the company's total sales; the sales of new energy vehicles exceed 1.1 million, the growth rate strives to exceed 50%; overseas sales exceed 800,000 vehicles, and the growth rate strives to exceed 20%.

However, recently affected by the epidemic, Shanghai's automotive industry chain has pressed the "pause button". In the face of the sudden epidemic "spring cold", SAIC Motor regards epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic as "the most important thing", and takes active actions at the first time to provide logistical support for epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic and provide practical support for people's livelihood needs: more than 100 special vehicles for epidemic prevention, including negative pressure ambulances, nucleic acid detection vehicles, sample transfer vehicles and disinfection vehicles, were produced and delivered at the first time.

At the same time, SAIC Motor has also urgently built and operated a number of emergency supply transfer stations for important materials in the Yangtze River Delta, implemented closed-loop management and "contactless" delivery throughout the process, opened up the "blood vessels" of freight in the Yangtze River Delta region, and realized cross-regional interconnection of materials in the industrial chain supply chain; guaranteed the distribution of more than 40,000 vegetables to the public, and transported 4.5 million emergency relief materials; and set up an epidemic prevention and security team to fully meet the travel needs of frontline medical personnel in Shanghai. In addition, SAIC's employees in Shanghai took the initiative to sink the community and support the frontline, and actively participated in the community epidemic prevention volunteer service for nearly 80,000 people.

SAIC Motor said that the current epidemic prevention and control situation in Shanghai is generally stable and good, in order to comprehensively promote the prevention and control of the epidemic and economic and social development, SAIC Motor Group's SAIC Passenger Vehicles, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, United Electronics, Anji Logistics and other vehicles, parts and logistics enterprises, have completed the resumption of work and production stress tests in key areas such as personnel protection, supply chain guarantee, logistics guarantee, closed production management and epidemic prevention measures.

The reporter learned that on April 18, SAIC Motor opened the stress test of resuming work and production at the Lingang Passenger Vehicle Base; on April 19, the first car after the stress test was opened rolled off the production line. As of April 23, more than 700 vehicles including zhiji, feifan, Roewe and MG have rolled off the production line to meet the domestic and export order needs.

At the same time, in order to accelerate the ramp-up of production capacity, only in terms of supply chain, SAIC Passenger Vehicle Lingang Base conducted a comprehensive survey of the production capacity, inventory and raw materials of 400 suppliers.

It is worth mentioning that in the first quarter of this year, SAIC Motor achieved vehicle sales of 1.22 million units, an increase of 6.8% year-on-year, while actively preventing the epidemic, achieving production and sales "outperforming the market"; achieving a total operating income of 182.47 billion yuan; and achieving a net profit attributable to the shareholders of listed companies of 5.52 billion yuan.

SAIC Motor said that at present, many enterprises in Shanghai have officially launched the stress test of resuming work and production. Among them, leading enterprises such as SCO Group are the traction, with points and chains, and are orderly driving the whole industrial chain to resume work and production in a coordinated manner. Saic's stress test is not only a signal for the gradual recovery of vehicle production, but also involves upstream enterprises in the industrial chain, which will accelerate the restart of the automotive industry chain.

(Editor: Quartzing Proofreader: Yan Jingning)