SAIC Motor: the group, its brands and who controls it
Facts checked
- State-owned (municipal)
- Shanghai Stock Exchange 600104
SAIC Motor is the vehicle group owned by the city of Shanghai. Its listed company, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, trades in Shanghai under the code 600104, and control runs upward through a wholly state-owned parent to the Shanghai municipal state-assets commission. The business dates to a 1955 Shanghai parts company; the group in its present shape was assembled in 1995 and the listed company took on the whole group's assets in 2011.
SAIC sells more vehicles than any other Chinese group. In 2025 it reported 4.507 million wholesale sales, of which 2.928 million carried its own marques — MG, Roewe, IM, Maxus, Wuling and Baojun — and 1.643 million were new-energy vehicles. Overseas sales were 1.071 million, the largest export book of any Chinese carmaker, carried mainly by MG.
The group also runs the two oldest large car joint ventures in China. SAIC Volkswagen dates from October 1984 and SAIC-GM from June 1997; a third venture with General Motors and the Guangxi provincial group, SAIC-GM-Wuling, makes the cheap Wuling and Baojun models that dominate small-car sales in inland China. Both foreign partners' Chinese volumes have fallen sharply since 2017 as domestic brands took share.
SAIC's own brands cover most of the market. MG is the export badge, Roewe the domestic mainstream marque, IM the premium electric brand set up with Alibaba, Maxus (sold as LDV in some markets) the van and pickup arm, and Yuejin the truck name inherited from Nanjing Automobile. Rising Auto, an electric brand spun out in 2021, was folded back into Roewe in 2024.
Key facts
| Chinese name | 上汽集团 “SHAHNG-chee jee-TWAN” 上汽 is a contraction of 上海汽车 'Shanghai Automobile'; 集团 means 'group' |
|---|---|
| Legal name | SAIC Motor Corporation Limited |
| Ownership | State-owned (municipal) |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Headquarters | Shanghai, Shanghai, China |
| Vehicles | Cars, Commercial vehicles, Buses and coaches and Components |
| Listings | Shanghai Stock Exchange 600104 |
| 2025 vehicle sales | 4.507 million wholesale, up 12.3% on 2024; 4.67 million retail |
| 2025 own-brand sales | 2.928 million, up 21.6%, or 65% of the group total |
| 2025 new-energy vehicle sales | 1.643 million, up 33.1% |
| 2025 overseas sales | 1.071 million, up 3.1% |
| 2025 revenue | US$91.301 billion, ranked 125th on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 published on 28 July 2026 |
| Plants | 13 domestic vehicle plants across six regions plus 9 overseas assembly and knock-down factories (as stated by SAIC in 2026) |
| Markets | products sold in more than 170 countries and regions through more than 3,800 sales and service outlets (as stated by SAIC in 2026) |
| Sales by subsidiary, January–August 2026 | SAIC-GM-Wuling 916,523; SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle (Roewe and MG) 760,217; SAIC Volkswagen 432,241; SAIC-GM 300,935; SAIC Maxus 183,462; IM 51,715 |
Ownership tree
- SAIC Motor (group)
- IM Motors (brand) Held at 54%
- Maxus (brand) Held at 100%
- MG (brand) Held at 100%
- Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation (company) Controlled; the share is not published
- Rising Auto (brand) Held at 100%
- Roewe (brand) Held at 100%
- Yuejin (brand) Controlled; the share is not published
Who controls SAIC Motor?
Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission controls SAIC Motor since 1995.
The Shanghai municipal state-assets commission is SAIC Motor's ultimate controller, holding its shares through the wholly state-owned parent Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group). Published figures for the parent's holding in the listed company cluster between about 63% and 68%; no figure carrying its own date could be confirmed from an SAIC filing, so the stake is left null.
Stakes and ventures SAIC Motor holds
These are holdings that are not outright ownership, so they are not in the tree above. A joint venture is a third company the two parents built together: the percentage is a share of that venture, never a holding in the partner.
| Holding | What it is | Share | Since | What the source says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. | runs a joint venture with | 50% of the joint venture | 12 October 1984 | SAIC holds half of SAIC Volkswagen, China's first modern car joint venture, founded on 12 October 1984. |
| SAIC General Motors Co., Ltd. | runs a joint venture with | 50% of the joint venture | 12 June 1997 | SAIC and General Motors each hold half of SAIC-GM, founded on 12 June 1997. SAIC briefly held 51% between February 2010 and April 2012. In August 2026 the partners extended the agreement to 2047. |
| SAIC-GM-Wuling | runs a joint venture with | 50.1% of the joint venture | 18 November 2002 | SAIC Motor is the controlling partner in SAIC-GM-Wuling, established in Liuzhou on 18 November 2002, and consolidates the venture's sales into its own reporting. |
Brands
| Brand | Held | Origin | Founded | Models | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 名爵MG | directly | United Kingdom | 1924 | 8 | 49 |
| 荣威Roewe | directly | China | 2006 | 1 | 3 |
| 上汽大通Maxus | directly | China | 2011 | 4 | 6 |
| 智己IM Motors | directly | China | 2020 | 2 | 2 |
| 飞凡Rising Auto | directly | China | 2020 | 0 | 1 |
| 跃进Yuejin | directly | China | 1958 | 0 | 1 |
| 五菱Wuling | via SAIC-GM-Wuling | China | 1982 | 4 | 2 |
| 宝骏Baojun | via SAIC-GM-Wuling | China | 2010 | 0 | 1 |
Joint ventures
| Venture | Partner | Since | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAIC Volkswagen | Volkswagen Group | 12 October 1984 | China's first modern car joint venture; SAIC 50%, the Volkswagen side 50% split between Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen (China) Invest and Audi AG. Builds Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda vehicles. |
| SAIC-GM | General Motors Company | 12 June 1997 | 50/50 with General Motors; builds Buick and Cadillac. The partners extended the agreement to 2047 in August 2026. |
| SAIC-GM-Wuling | General Motors Company | 18 November 2002 | Three-way venture in Liuzhou: SAIC 50.1%, GM 44%, Guangxi Automobile Group 5.9%. Makes the Wuling and Baojun brands. |
| SAIC-GM-Wuling | Guangxi Automobile Group | 18 November 2002 | Guangxi Automobile Group, the local state partner, holds 5.9%; it started at 15.9% and was diluted as GM increased its share. |
| JSW MG Motor India | JSW Group | November 2023 | SAIC's Indian company was restructured with the JSW Group as a partner and renamed. Wikipedia records SAIC's remaining holding as 49%; I could not confirm the figure from an SAIC or JSW filing. |
SAIC Motor: questions people ask
- What does SAIC stand for?
- It stands for Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, the group's older English name. The registered Chinese name is 上海汽车集团股份有限公司 (Shànghǎi Qìchē Jítuán Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd., and the letters are read individually rather than as a word.
- Who owns SAIC Motor?
- The city of Shanghai. SAIC Motor is listed in Shanghai as 600104, but its controlling shareholder is a wholly state-owned parent company that answers to the Shanghai municipal state-assets commission, so the group is a municipal state-owned enterprise rather than a central one.
- Which brands does SAIC own?
- MG, Roewe, IM Motors, Maxus (badged LDV in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), the Yuejin truck brand and the dormant Rising Auto name. Through the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture it also makes Wuling and Baojun, and its ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors build Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Buick and Cadillac vehicles for China.
- Is SAIC bigger than BYD?
- By total vehicles sold, SAIC reported 4.507 million in 2025, a figure that includes its joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors. Comparisons depend on what is counted, so this site gives each group's own published figure with its definition rather than a ranking.
- Where is SAIC based?
- Shanghai. The group's vehicle operations are centred on Anting, in the city's north-west, which is also where SAIC Volkswagen builds cars.
Related
Sources for SAIC Motor
- SAIC Motor, Company Profile. Read . SAIC's own English profile: stock code 600104, 2025 sales, Fortune ranking, plants and markets.
- SAIC Motor, SAIC Motor reports record sales in 2025. Read . Published 7 January 2026; the 2025 sales breakdown.
- SAIC Motor, Sales Volume (monthly production and sales report). Read . August 2026 and year-to-date figures broken down by subsidiary.
- Wikipedia, SAIC Motor. Read . Finding aid for the 1955 origin, the 1995 group formation and the joint-venture stakes.
- WardsAuto, GM and SAIC Motor extend China joint venture through 2047. Read . 4 August 2026; the SAIC-GM extension and the SGMW stakes.