The Maxus Story

SAIC's MAXUS Datong vying for global market

2011-04-12

SAIC Group recently unveiled an international commercial vehicle brand -- MAXUS Datong. MAXUS Datong takes up not only the mission of SAIC's commercial vehicle brand, but also the Chinese people's expectation for an international commercial vehicle brand.


In 2010, the sales volume of China's car market exceeded 18 million vehicles. As a global top 500 enterprise, SAIC has established long-term and favorable partnership with many well-known automobile manufacturers. Moreover, SAIC has the experience of successfully building up such brands as ROEWE and MG. Its development of an international commercial vehicle brand has been awaited with positive expectation.


Entering the 12th Five-year Plan, the industry in general predicts that China's commercial vehicle market will enjoy a favorable market prospect for a rather long time to come. Many aspects will further drive the demands for commercial vehicles, such as the rapid growth of China's infrastructure construction, increasing national freight transport demands, continuous urbanization, and the thriving urban logistics industry. The development of SAIC's commercial vehicle is undoubtedly keeping pace with the times.


As a matter of fact, SAIC has been attaching great importance to the development of commercial vehicles. An important development rule that has been upheld by SAIC is "To accelerate the development of passenger vehicles while strive to make breakthrough in commercial vehicles". Since October 2006 when SAIC Commercial Vehicle Department was set up, SAIC has spent years in importing and absorbing technologies, consolidating industrial advantages, and optimizing industrial structure, and has established a complete vehicle products line that covers heave-duty truck, light-duty truck, and large-medium and small-sized buses. In terms of technology reserve, the powerful R&D capability of SAIC Commercial Vehicle Technology Centre and the Auto Engineering Research Institute of Nanjing Auto is being recognized. In terms of essential car parts, Shanghai Diesel Engine Co. and SFH will provide systematic support. SAIC' Commercial Vehicle is well prepared to be big and strong. Its development of an international commercial vehicle brand is just taking advantage of the trend.


In February 28, SAIC unveiled the MAXUS Datong brand that is positioned to be an international brand. This is not a new brand. The MAXUS brand owned by LDV is one of the top commercial vehicle brands in Europe. MAXUS has an experience of near a century in the development of commercial vehicles. Its technology reserve is tremendous. Also, with innovations, it has been leading the international commercial vehicle market. MAXUS vehicles can be found all over the world.


With SAIC's 6 main systems -- R&D System, Lean Production System, QC System, Suppliers System, Dealers System, and international leading Information System--, over 30 years of vehicle manufacturing experience, many years of successful joint-venture experience and international brand building experience, and a large group of professionals that cover every link in the industry, MAXUS Datong is standing on a higher and more solid ground.


Presently, SAIC Commercial Vehicle will use MAXUS Datong as its core brand to formulate its global commercial vehicle market strategy. SAIC Commercial Vehicle has constructed the Wuxi Manufacturing Base that is lean, flexible, digitalized, and domestically leading. SAIC Commercial Vehicle continues to optimize the structure of its business system and products system. In the meantime of building up a domestically leading commercial vehicle sales system, it also makes efforts to consolidate MAXUS's original overseas sales network.


SAIC has clearly marked out the development roadmap for MAXUS Datong: centered on the three core values of "technology, trustworthiness, and enterprising spirit", providing specialized products that suit market demands based on MAXUS Datong's understanding about the market and SAIC's passenger vehicle resources.

richardk wrote:If they want to look for an area that is full of previous customers - the Isle of Man has loads of quite modern MAXUS vans on the road...perhaps they could be MAnXUS vans?