(Yicai Global) March 27 -- SAIC Maxus Automotive, an overseas brand of Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor, intends to stay away from the latest price wars in China, planning to deploy a direct sales model in Europe this year.

The "tragic" price wars this month were unexpected while the widening penetration of new energy vehicles will remain the same, Lan Qingsong, chairman of SAIC Maxus, told Yicai Global recently.

This month, nearly 40 car companies joined the race to the bottom of car prices, which however, has not majorly increased sales. From March 1 to 19, some 700,000 passenger cars were sold, down 8 percent from a year earlier and a 4-percent drop from a month earlier. Since Jan. 1, sales tallied 3.4 million units, down 18 percent from a year ago.

Facing this challenging and more competitive situation, SAIC Maxus’ strategy is to grasp opportunities overseas on the premise of guaranteeing domestic demand, Lan said. Overseas markets are far less competitive than the domestic one, he added.

In 2022, the brand sold 18,000 units in Europe, Lan said, adding that four-fifths of the total were NEVs. Since SAIC Maxus was founded in 2011, a quarter of its sales of one million vehicles were achieved overseas. The wholly-owned unit of SAIC sells its products in 73 countries and regions on six continents. In 2022, SAIC Maxus sold 191,000 units in total.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi