SAIC Motor’s new energy vehicle team impresses rivals with its performance at the 12th edition of Michelin Challenge Bibendum held in Chengdu, capital city of Western China’s Sichuan province on November 11.

At the Inter-city Rally, which also included performance tests, Roewe E50 pure electric, Roewe 550 plug-in hybrid and Roewe 750 fuel cell all took the first place in their respective category, surpassing international brands like BMW, Daimler and PSA.

SAIC was the first enterprise to win all three top awards since the launch of Challenge Bibendum. The feat also marked SAIC’s best performance since its participation in the event, and presented a powerful SAIC that had a beautiful home run for China’s new energy vehicle industry.

‘Challenge’ Bibendum

Challenge Bibendum aims to materialize clean, safe, convenient, connected, economic and practical mobility. Initiated in 1998, the event has been a professional platform to showcase new energy vehicle solutions, at which carmakers from around the world compete against one another in such areas as fuel saving and environmental protection in real conditions. The 2014 Challenge Bibendum’s central theme is “Innovation in mobility at the heart of growth and urban well-being”, and took interest in cutting edge automotive technologies across the world.

As a leading enterprise in the new energy automotive industry, SAIC is obliged to “challenge” Bibendum, and success is only assured when conditions are ripe.

It took Roewe E50 just 12 seconds to finish a race through slalom cones and the car also finished the first in the rally, beating other pure electrics like Daimler and BMW in the group. Roewe 550 plug-in completed the 178km route with use of 4.15 liters of fuel and 9.45 kWh of electricity, the lowest in the hybrid group, to take the first position. And Roewe 750, powered by a battery/fuel cell hybrid system that truly realizes zero emissions, won the top award for the fuel cell group thanks to its stable performance and dynamic power.

Sustainable mobility

SAIC pays as much attention to technologies as it does to marketing. Echoing Challenge Bidbendum’s goal of creating sustainable mobility, SAIC boasts a wide range of cutting edge alternative energy products, along with increasingly market-oriented business models.

The company has created a comprehensive layout of the new energy automotive industry chain, backed by sound technology planning, and has a clear vision of and fully confident about the sector’s future.

At the China International Industry Fair held from November 4 to 8, SAIC presented its promising smart driving and timeshare rental technologies applied to new energy cars, which caused quite a stir among visitors and the media. Through combining new energy cars with the hottest technologies and actively exploring market-oriented business models, SAIC has kept expanding its horizons in industrial application and marketing of new energy vehicles as it earnestly pursues sustainable mobility.