SAIC-GM celebrates a transformative year with leadership changes and product launches, including the luxury GL8 Lushang and Electra L7, signaling a rapid adaptation to market demands.
August marks the first anniversary of SAIC-GM’s restructuring plan.
On August 9, 2024, SAIC-GM underwent significant personnel changes.
Lu Xiao, former Executive Deputy General Manager of Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, succeeded Zhuang Jingxiong as General Manager of SAIC-GM. Xue Haitao, former Vice General Manager of SAIC-GM Wuling, replaced Lu Yi as Vice General Manager, responsible for sales.
One year later, SAIC-GM faces a pivotal moment.
On August 27, the new luxury plug-in hybrid MPV GL8 Lushang was launched, featuring a 5C ultra-fast charging battery and a 202 km pure electric range. It also addresses the “refrigerator, color TV, big sofa” concept, offering unique competitiveness in seating, design, and materials.
Additionally, the first model of the Buick Electra family, the Electra L7, is set to debut. With a 350 km pure electric range and advanced driver assistance from Momenta, it aims to become a star player in the 200,000 RMB ($27,900) class of new energy sedans.
At this critical juncture in SAIC-GM’s transformation, we interviewed Lu Xiao and Xue Haitao in Shenzhen.
How do these leaders, with technical backgrounds and youthful marketing acumen, summarize the past year’s changes, acceleration, and pivot at SAIC-GM? Facing intensified competition from traditional joint ventures and emerging domestic players, how is SAIC-GM regaining momentum and breaking through?
Before delving into the details, here’s a summary: this might be the most “non-joint venture” and passionate interview we’ve participated in this year.
Winning the Battle
In early August 2024, when Lu Xiao was appointed General Manager of SAIC-GM and Xue Haitao took over the sales division, the company was burdened with over 300,000 unsold vehicles.
“Most of them were aged inventory, over three months old,” Xue Haitao shared. The solution was to break down the 300,000 units into “small battles.”
Lu Xiao and Xue Haitao frequently held internal mobilization and celebration meetings. Winning each “small battle” led to another.
Lu Xiao believes the team has “recovered the best foundation SAIC-GM has had in the past 28 years.”
“The team atmosphere is excellent now,” Xue Haitao added, emphasizing that cohesion was the team’s greatest gain over the past year.
Another recurring theme from Lu Xiao and Xue Haitao is speed.
In April 2024, the Buick GL8 Lushun PHEV was launched with a CLTC pure electric range of 138 km. Sixteen months later, the new GL8 Lushun was released with comprehensive upgrades in interior and power.
Lu Xiao views this as SAIC-GM’s swift response to the Chinese market’s demands post-restructuring.
During our interview, Xue Haitao showed us his phone, revealing that the new GL8 Lushun had already secured 12,312 real orders by around 10 AM on the 27th, approximately 13 hours after the launch event concluded.
Looking ahead, SAIC-GM aims to achieve a “major victory” in its transformation journey, starting with the new GL8 family.
How to judge the success of this transformation? Lu Xiao’s goal is: “We hope to achieve a brand new energy penetration rate of over 50% next year, becoming the first joint venture automaker to reach 50%.”
Currently, the GL8 family’s new energy sales account for 55%.
Chinese Buyers Put Mercedes on Edge
SAIC-GM’s accelerated transformation is underpinned by a new understanding of market logic.
On April 21, 2025, Buick’s high-end new energy brand “Electra” was launched. According to the plan, the Electra family will introduce at least six models, covering MPVs, sedans, and SUVs.
Lu Xiao emphasized that, in addition to the upcoming Electra L7 sedan, the other five models will be launched within the next eight months.
Electra itself, and its speed, embody the concept of “unleashing potential.”
These four words were Lu Xiao’s own. A more detailed explanation is the decision-making power and freedom of the Chinese team. However, he believes the underlying logic is still “Chinese consumers have the final say.”
Lu Xiao pointed out that while joint venture brands are now emphasizing “Chinese teams are responsible for new platform development,” Pan Asia has been doing this for a long time—he himself was the first Chinese engineer responsible for General Motors’ global platform vehicle projects.
Because of this, he believes SAIC-GM inherently possesses an advantage in this joint venture transformation battle—”Which joint venture automaker in China can localize and develop more than 100 vehicles?”
Furthermore, he noted that General Motors headquarters’ delegation of authority has allowed SAIC-GM’s team not only higher freedom but also greater morale.
In other words, it’s more like a startup team.
Xue Haitao added that over the past year, SAIC-GM has established more open talent promotion channels: “Whoever can win the battle gets promoted.”
Post-restructuring, SAIC-GM has implemented “goal interlocking.” Xue Haitao explained that, for example, his sales team and the Pan Asia product team sign interlocking goals, meaning deep collaboration begins at the product definition stage.
The specific process involves each team organizing their goals and then aligning them through an interlocking signing meeting. The final goals are posted on a wall in SAIC-GM’s office area.
“All our goals are on the wall now,” Xue Haitao believes the current SAIC-GM team is “full of energy.”
Discussing competition, Lu Xiao offered a strong opinion:
“I think Karl-Thomas Neumann is anxious; Mercedes-Benz’s sales drop of over 20% is still unbearable, but he hasn’t seen the essence.”
He further explained that for a luxury brand to maintain its brand and premium pricing in today’s Chinese market, “there is no solution without a Chinese market approach.”
He even emphasized that even luxury brands cannot avoid price wars.
Lu Xiao provided an example: he and Xue Haitao attended a meeting at General Motors headquarters, where the latest data showed that the average age of first-time luxury car buyers in the U.S. is 53, a figure that starkly contrasts with China’s market logic—”We are in our twenties.”
This stark difference in market logic forces traditional brands to adopt new competitive strategies. Lu Xiao admitted that even Cadillac’s CT5 has been significantly impacted by price wars.
He stated that General Motors headquarters has “fully recognized” the profound changes in the Chinese market and has entrusted SAIC-GM’s team with “all product development, definition, and decision-making rights.”
Only then did the aforementioned speed and momentum emerge.
Based on this, he believes SAIC-GM will outperform Japanese and German brands in this round of competition. “If I still had to go through German or Japanese approvals, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Ultimately, all efforts will be reflected in sales. The upcoming launch of the Electra L7 in September will be a key proof of SAIC-GM’s new model and new starting point.
Let’s stay tuned.
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