SAIC Motor Car Assembly Plant: Leveraging New Energy Vehicles

T echnically, one car is fabricated every minute at the SAIC Motor assembly plant in Ningde. The factory serves as a primary manufac­ turing and export hub for new energy vehicles. It is China’s largest automaker and functions as a highly automated, export-focused “smart factory” heavily geared toward new energy vehicles. Basically, two main car brands are produced at the factory; Roewe and MG with prices ranging between 68,000 to 102,000 Chinese yuan. The plant covers a surface area of about 1.4 kilometres square and contains five warehouses. An estima­ ted 240,000 passenger vehicles are produced annually, and the factory is designed with a production speed reaching about 63 vehicles per hour, that is approximately one car every minute. Indeed, during a visit at the factory, workers at the assembly unit have a maximum of one minute to fit in a part of the car being mounted. In case of a difficulty, there is a button that can be pressed and a song plays, calling the attention of a supervisor. There are test-run lanes for newly fabricated vehic...