Saic falling behind ambitious targets

Shanghai-listed Saic Motor —which has boasted the highest Chinese auto sales for the last 17 years — has set high goals for 2023, aiming to sell 6mn cars. It is targeting a 40pc year-on-year increase in sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs), the vast majority of them EVs, to 1.5mn.

It achieved 46.5pc growth in NEV sales in 2022 to over 1.07mn, which it says ranks it the world’s largest. But after the first third of the year, it is lagging its targets on both NEVs and ICEs.