SAIC Motor’s net profit will return to 10 billion yuan in 2025.
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On April 1st, SAIC Motor Group released its 2025 report card.
Against the backdrop of the auto industry’s widespread “increasing revenue but not profit,” this Chinese automotive giant achieved more than fivefold growth in net profits, with its operating performance showing signs of stabilization, recovery, and accelerated improvement.
However, behind this impressive financial report lies a profound transformation SAIC Motor Group underwent under the dual pressures of intensified industry competition and accelerated technological change.
Looking at the data, SAIC seems to have successfully overcome the pain of its transition period; in terms of structure, a shift from joint-venture dependence to self-driven dynamics is underway.
Explosive profit growth
Financial report data shows that in 2025, SAIC Motor Group achieved a consolidated total operating income of 656.24 billion yuan, up 4.6% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 10.11 billion yuan, up 506.5% year-on-year; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 7.42 billion yuan, up 237.2% year-on-year.
It’s important to note that the ultra-fast growth in net profits has obvious base effects. In 2024, due to industry price wars, the sluggish performance of joint-venture segments, and other factors, SAIC Motor Group’s net profit hit a recent low.
The strong rebound in 2025 is not only an actual improvement in business conditions but also shows SAIC emerging from the trough of its operations.
What’s more noteworthy is the substantial optimization of the operating structure. In 2025, SAIC Motor Group’s total vehicle sales reached 4.507 million units, up 12.3% year-on-year, with market share rising to 13.1%, a 0.3 percentage point increase year-on-year.
The growth rate of sales significantly outpaces that of revenue, reflecting that amid ongoing price wars, SAIC effectively offset the pressure of falling unit prices through scale effects.
The most indicative indicator in the financial report is the rise of self-owned brands and the relative decline of the joint-venture segment.
In 2025, sales of SAIC’s self-owned brands reached 2.928 million units, up 21.6% year-on-year, raising their share of the group’s overall sales to 65%, an increase of about 5 percentage points year-on-year. Self-owned brands have become SAIC Motor Group's undisputed core growth engine.
This transformation didn’t happen overnight.
Over the past few years, SAIC has promoted comprehensive reforms in its self-owned passenger and commercial vehicle businesses, streamlining the entire chain from product definition, design and R&D, to marketing, significantly improving market response speed.
If the rise of self-owned brands is the “surface” of SAIC’s transformation, then breakthroughs in new energy and overseas markets are its “core.”
In the new energy sector, SAIC Motor Group’s new energy vehicle sales reached 1.643 million units in 2025, up 33.1% year-on-year, with growth exceeding the national average by almost 5 percentage points.
Among them, sales of self-owned brand new energy vehicles approached 1.5 million units, up nearly 50% year-on-year. SAIC's growth in the new energy sector does not rely on just one blockbuster model but has established a full matrix layout covering multiple brands such as Roewe, MG, IM, and Wuling.
The overseas market was also a major highlight in SAIC’s 2025 financial report. Export and overseas sales for the year reached 1.071 million units, up 3.1% year-on-year, with cumulative overseas sales surpassing 6 million units.
The offensive and defensive stance in 2026
Despite the impressive financial data, placing SAIC in the broader context of the auto industry in 2025 reveals ongoing challenges.
The Chinese auto industry in 2025 is undergoing a structural shift.
This year, vehicle sales stabilized in the range of 33 to 35 million units, new energy penetration exceeded 53%, and exports reached 6.5 to 7 million units. At the same time, nearly all companies face a common problem: busier than ever, but making money has become much harder.
Data shows that in 2025, the profit margin of auto manufacturing is about 4.4%, far below the downstream industrial average of 6%.
Price wars have evolved from phased competition tactics into a long-term environmental variable, with industry profitability continuously squeezed. This scenario of “increased output but not efficiency, increasing revenue but not profit” has dragged the entire industry into an intense competitive struggle.
Although SAIC has achieved a substantial rebound in net profits, it’s still caught in these industry challenges. In 2025, SAIC’s revenue growth rate (4.6%) was much lower than its sales growth rate (12.3%), reflecting pressure from declining unit prices. Under persistent price wars, how to maintain profitability remains a long-term issue for SAIC.
Another noteworthy challenge comes from changes in policy environment.
Starting January 1, 2026, the policy of exempting new energy vehicle purchase taxes will be adjusted to “half-rate collection,” with a maximum deduction of 15,000 yuan. This policy change directly pushes car companies to accelerate cost control and supply chain optimization.
Looking ahead to 2026, SAIC Motor Group will anchor itself to intelligence and electrification as its main direction, planning to launch over twenty major new models including the Roewe i6, MG07, IM LS9 Hyper, Buick E7, and Cadillac VISTIQ.
Whether this unprecedented wave of intelligent electric products can stand out amid fierce market competition will determine whether SAIC can continue its growth momentum from 2025.
The overseas market also faces uncertainties; fluctuations in global trade policy pose potential risks to the gross margin and sustainability of overseas sales.
Overall, SAIC Motor Group’s 2025 financial report releases multiple signals. On one hand, the rise of self-owned brands, breakthroughs in new energy, and overseas expansion have formed three growth curves, marking this traditional giant’s difficult transformation; on the other hand, industry-wide profit pressure, changing policy environments, and uncertainty in overseas markets remain real challenges ahead.
In this new phase of the auto market, whether SAIC Motor Group can transform from a leader in “sales scale” to a true pioneer in “technological value” will determine whether it laughs last in this round of industry reshuffling.
SAIC’s performance in 2026 will be the touchstone for the substance of this financial report.
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