Alibaba and SAIC-backed Venture Begin Mass Production of First Electric Vehicle

IM Motors, a joint venture backed by Alibaba Group and SAIC Motor, has now begun the mass production of its first electric vehicles and will put them on sale later this month.

According to the Weibo account of Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Investment, on February 28th, IM Motor’s first smart electric vehicle IM L7 was officially put into production in SAIC’s smart factory in Lingang New Area, southeast Shanghai. The IM L7 will hit the market on March 29 and deliveries will start in April.

In November 2020, SAIC Motor, Alibaba and Shanghai Zhangjiang Group jointly built IM Motors with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan. Among them, SAIC holds 54% of shares, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Group each hold 18%. Shanghai Yuanshi Automotive Technology and Shanghai Yuanren Automotive Technology hold 10% in total.

In April last year, IM Motors officially released the first pure electric medium and large car IM L7 which was pre-sold at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, with a pre-sale price of 408,800 yuan. The car will be equipped with 12 high-definition cameras to safely navigate urban roads, enable high-speed driving and precision automatic parking. At the end of last year, the first batch of 200 beta versions of IM L7 were officially delivered.

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In addition, Banma, backed by SAIC Motor and Alibaba Group, told The Beijing News that its intelligent console system will be installed in the IM L7.