SAIC Motor, Alibaba to team up on new retail business

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC Motor and the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group entered into a cooperation agreement on November 8 to jointly boost the digital transition for automotive retail business, the automaker announced via its WeChat account.

As part of the cooperation, SAIC Motor will join the 10-billion-yuan subsidy program launched by Tmall, Alibaba's B2C online retail platform, so as to provide substantial subsidies for buyers of such brands as Volkswagen, Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac.

Photo credit: SAIC Motor

To be specific, a car purchase subsidy is offered as a commodity on Taobao, Alibaba's online shopping website. Consumers can get the right to use the subsidy by paying only one yuan. Notably, the subsidy will always be available regardless of any other discounts.

On November 11, the world's biggest shopping event, Tmall will roll out plentiful cash handouts for such hotter-selling models as Chevrolet's Menlo and Malibu XL (49,999 yuan per car), SAIC VW's Phideon (5,888 yuan per car), the Cadillac XT6 (5,000 yuan per car), the Buick Velite 6 (5,000 yuan) and the Chevrolet Malibu XL (5,000 yuan per car).

In 2015, SAIC Motor and Alibaba Group invested a total of 1 billion yuan to establish Banma Network, a provider of Internet car total solutions. Both parties jointly launched in 2016 the Roewe RX5, the world's first Internet Car embedded AliOS-based Banma System, which attracted consumers with an innovative intelligent travelling experience.

In August 2019, both parties deepened their strategic cooperation for the next generation intelligent-connected vehicle (ICV). Under the agreement, they would restructure Banma Network Technology, making Alibaba the largest shareholder of Banma. Besides, their collaboration would extend to cover such areas as mobility service platform, autonomous driving and automobile-related cloud, etc.