Chinese car maker BAIC Group reported robust growth in the first half of this year, with its revenue rising 9.5 percent year-on-year, as well as net profit going up 17 percent.

During the same period, the company delivered 1,203,000 vehicles, an increase of 7.6 percent from the previous year.

The company's implementation of transformation and upgrading to result in high-quality development is working, BAIC Group said.

Innovative development to expand market

The company said it sticks to high-end manufacturing and products.

In the first half of this year, Beijing Benz Automotive, or BBAC, a joint venture between Daimler and BAIC, saw a 19.6 percent year-on-year increase in car delivery to 252,000 units, due to the company catching opportunities in a fast-growing luxury car market.

Fujian Benz Automotive, a joint venture co-invested by Daimler, BAIC Motor and Fujian Motor Industry Group, also posted strong sales performance with car models V-class and Vito selling 13,000 units in the first half of this year, for 40 percent year-on-year growth.

Moreover, Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture between Korean car maker Hyundai and BAIC, returned to the mainstream as its sales reached 380,000 units in the first half of this year, rising 26.2 percent from the same period in the previous year.

BAIC Group also strengthened on independent innovation, and sped up to develop new energy vehicles.

The company said it continues to hold the leading advantage in the new energy vehicles market. In the first half of this year, the company sold 54,000 new energy vehicles, surging 78.5 percent year-on-year, and the market share ranked at the top spot in China and third in the world.

The company's new energy SUV EX360 is the most popular car in its market segment since it started to sell in March, BAIC Group said. And there still are about 10,000 of the vehicles to be delivered.

As a trump card, the company's own brand of off-road vehicle saw a remarkable growth of 37 percent year-on-year, to 14,000 units in the first half of this year.

Opening-up and cooperation to boost new energy vehicle industry

Currently, the BAIC Group has created its 2025 strategy to fully turn to new energy vehicles.

The company said it has been determined to become the world-class scientific and technological innovation center of the new energy vehicle, and the world-class new energy vehicle manufacturer by 2025.

In March, led by BAIC Group, China's first National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center was founded.

To carry out the new energy vehicle strategy, BAIC group has cooperated with many firms and made deals.

In February, BAIC Group announced an investment of over 11.9 billion yuan with Daimler to build a second production facility in Beijing to produce luxury electric cars.

In March, the company teamed up with Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing to cooperate in developing new energy vehicles.

In June, it signed an agreement with Canadian global automotive supplier Magna International to set up joint venture to develop a high-end smart battery electric vehicle, and produce BAIC's high-end electric car brand ARCFOX in Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu province.

Also in June, BAIC Group cooperated with Chinese car maker Brilliance to boost new energy vehicle industry development in China.

Strategy transformation to stimulate new point

The strategic emerging business of BAIC Group has maintained a good development momentum.

BAIC Mobility, a travel service provider of BAIC Group, positively builds a full chain ecosystem through making full use of Internet Plus and big data.

The economy scale in BAIC Mobility's MOREFUN (a car sharing platform) saw steady growth, and in the first half of 2017, it was launched in many cities in China, with 5,500 operating vehicles, a 72% online rate, 1,200 operating network, 360,000 registered numbers (about 155,000 of them are active numbers) and 490,000 total orders.

And Beijing Travel (travel service) now has 7,072 vehicles, 443 operational branches, 50,000 members and 10.43 million kilometers of driving distance.

Many other projects, such as the "intellectual property investment and operation center of China automobile industry", undertaken by BAIC were all approved or launched successfully.

Fight for 2018 - Improve quality and increase profit

The following BAIC priorities were published in the communication meeting: the Beijing Mercedes-Benz Shunyi factory will be the key construction project, and BAIC also plans to build a high-end intelligence factory and a new energy power system base in Yizhuang, Beijing.

BAIC will build an R&D ecosystem to accelerate the implementation of the comprehensive new energy strategy.

They will stick to the three-parallel line (EV, PHEV and fuel cell) technical route, while charging and switching modes will be developed simultaneously.

What's more, they will enhance the deep integration of new technologies and ecological development of new energy industry, promote intelligent network layout for charging and changing electricity power, and build an information service cloud platform.

They will coordinate the synergetic development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, non-capital functional dispersal, and national capacity structure adjustment and resource optimization in an orderly manner.

They also will deepen state-owned enterprise reform and promote asset securitization.

In 2018, BAIC will strengthen independent innovation and reform unceasingly to achieve the goal of strategic transformation.