BAIC Group 2017 Business Performance and 2018 Development Strategy Press Conference was held in Beijing Automotive Industrial Research & Development Base on January 19, 2018. Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Group, Zhang Xiyong, general manager of BAIC Group, and leaders from BAIC MOTOR, BAIC BJEV and BHAP attended the event. 

At the conference, general manager Zhang Xiyong introduced BAIC Group’s business performance in 2017 as well as its development strategy in 2018. Then, leaders from BAIC MOTOR, BAIC BJEV and BHAP also introduced the development situations respectively. In 2017, BAIC Group increased its sales proportion of high-end products and significantly improved its profitability. The annual operating income was RMB 470.34 billion, a year-on-year growth of nearly RMB 70 billion, with a growing rate of 15.8% and a profit growth of 14.4%. The internationalization strategy has achieved initial success, the company exported about 89,000 vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 27.5%. Progress was made in improving both quality and efficiency, the return on equity was 6.8%, a year-on-year growth of 0.6%. With the overall slight growth of 3.07% in China's automobile market, BAIC Group still achieved satisfactory results with its key business indicators showing steady growth, a new high in economic benefit, improved business quality and continued increase in anti-risk capability. In face of industrial challenges, BAIC Group has a growing confidence. 

Breakthroughs in Finished Vehicle Business

In 2017, BAIC Group gained a lot of brilliant achievements and achieved breakthroughs in finished vehicle business. Among them, the annual sales of Beijing Benz was about 423,000 units, a year-on-year growth of 33.3%, with an operation revenue over RMB 100 billion, a year-on-year growth of 35.9%. The performance of Fujian Benz skyrocketed with about 21,400 units sold, a year-on-year growth of 88.5%. BAIC BJEV nearly doubled its vehicle sales of 103,000 units, the highest record in history. Its market share of pure electric automobile in China is 24%, a year-on-year growth of 3.7%. BAIC BJEV has become the sales champion of pure electric automobile in China for the fifth consecutive year, which is expected to become the best-seller in the world. BAIC ORV sold about 27,000 units and doubled its year-on-year sales. After the resource integration from BAIC Group, Changhe Automobile upgraded into a second-level vehicle platform of BAIC Group. The dual-brand architecture of BAIC MOTOR and Changhe Automobile became clearer. Beiqi Foton achieved double-digit growth in production and marketing as well. Beijing Hyundai showed its strong endurance and tenacity in the dilemma. In the second half of 2017, Beijing Hyundai returned to the mainstream automobile enterprise with monthly sales of 80,000 units.

Pioneering High-tech Innovation

In 2017, BAIC Group deeply implemented its innovation-driven strategy and built a strong driving force for development through technological innovation and progress: Beijing New Energy Technology Innovation Center was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC, becoming Beijing’s first national-level science and technology innovation center. SENOVA D50, BAIC MOTOR’s first intelligent car of 2.0 era, was officially launched. In 2017, BAIC Group newly added 5,052 patent applications and 3,430 patent licensing, of which the number of invention patent applications accounted for 31%. BJ40 vehicle development project won the first prize of China Automotive Industry Awards for Science and Technology.

Embracing electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing, BAIC Group has established an open ecosystem. In 2017, BAIC Group and Daimler jointly decided to invest RMB 5 billion to establish a pure electric vehicle production base and a power battery factory. BAIC Capital has set up Ampeng China New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Fund, with a scale of over RMB 10 billion. BHAP purchased German aluminum magnet TRIMET, a major step forward in transformation and development. BAIC BJEV cooperates with CATL and Funeng to focus on the core resources of the industrial chain. BAIC Group also works together with leading IT and Internet companies such as Baidu, Yanfeng, Mi and iFLYTEK to create an intelligent and networked future.