Over the past two years, Roewe has struggled with new vehicle launches, finding itself trapped in a dual-pressure scenario of declining fuel vehicle sales and lackluster new energy ventures. Since Qian Yang took the helm as General Manager of the Roewe Brand Division in March 2025, the downward sales trend has persisted, with a year-on-year drop exceeding 40% once again this year. The JiaYue 07 represents Roewe’s hope for a brand turnaround and serves as Qian Yang’s crucial test case.

Dual Defeats: Sales Hit Rock Bottom, JiaYue 07 Steps In as Savior

On September 21, the JiaYue 07—Roewe’s flagship model for 2026—officially opened for pre-sales. Priced between RMB 137,800 and RMB 152,800, the vehicle comes in three variants: the 220 LiDAR Edition, the 320 LiDAR Edition, and the 320 LiDAR Premium Edition. Developed jointly by SAIC Roewe and Volcano Engine, this ‘AI-native’ model is marketed as the ‘world’s first AI-native vehicle’—a bold and attention-grabbing claim.

Positioned as a mid-to-large five-seater extended-range SUV, the JiaYue 07 is standardly equipped with LiDAR and Momenta R7 advanced intelligent driving technology. It offers two CLTC pure electric range options: 220km and 320km, with a maximum combined range of 1,480km. More importantly, it carries significant weight: the JiaYue 07 is not just another new model for Roewe but the embodiment of the brand’s revival mission.

Because the Roewe brand has already hit rock bottom.

In 2020, Roewe’s annual sales exceeded 400,000 units. However, terminal sales data reveals a stark decline: from January to August this year, cumulative sales reached only 62,200 units, a 42.29% year-on-year drop. In August alone, sales plummeted to just 5,285 units, far surpassing the 20% decline seen in the domestic market during the same period. Amid the collective rise of domestic brands, Roewe’s downward trajectory has been particularly pronounced.

As one of the twin pillars within SAIC’s passenger vehicle system, Roewe’s decline stands in stark contrast to the upward trajectory of its sibling brand, MG. During the same period this year, MG’s domestic terminal retail sales reached 111,600 units, surging 76.88% year-on-year. The growth dividends of SAIC’s independent sector have been almost exclusively reaped by MG, while Roewe has been left behind.

Differences in strategic approaches are a key factor behind this divergence. MG was the first to adopt an ‘All-in New Energy’ strategy, surging ahead with hit models in the new energy market. Roewe, on the other hand, pursued a more cautious ‘dual-track strategy’ of balancing fuel and electric vehicles, which laid the foundation for a slight rebound in 2025. However, this approach also sowed the seeds of future trouble: in 2025, Roewe’s fuel vehicle segment could still provide some growth, but the new energy segment failed to produce any real hit models.

Entering 2026, Roewe’s hidden troubles fully erupted. On the fuel vehicle side, the core sales model, the Roewe i5, sold only 25,200 units from January to August this year—down from over 80,000 units contributed to Roewe in 2025. The new fuel vehicle, the Roewe i6, which Roewe had high hopes for, has sold just 6,743 units since its launch at the end of April, averaging about 1,500 units per month. Officials had previously stated, ‘The sales target for this vehicle is to secure the top two positions in the compact family sedan segment.’

The performance of the Roewe i6 falls far short of internal expectations.

On the new energy front, the Roewe D6—dubbed by Qian Yang, General Manager of the Roewe Brand Division, as the ‘first step in creating a hit model’—has sold a cumulative 11,443 units this year, with 1,500 units sold in August, making it Roewe’s top-selling model for the month. The result: Roewe, which insists on a ‘dual-track strategy,’ is experiencing a ‘simultaneous retreat in both fuel and electric vehicles’ amid the overall pressure on fuel vehicles in 2026.

2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the Roewe brand, which was supposed to be a ‘year of product explosion’ in the plan, with a new model launched every three months. At the Spring Media Communication Meeting in April, a new strategy was also announced, including the launch of an AI-native premium lineup and the initiation of a brand premium transformation. However, two-thirds of the year has passed, and not only have the new product launches failed to drive a sales breakthrough, but they have also pushed the brand into a quagmire of pressure on both fuel and new energy fronts.

Repeated Failures in New Product Launches: Broken Promises of Hit Models

Roewe’s dual-track failure and sales plunge in 2026 also represent a major setback for Qian Yang in brand management since taking office. In March 2025, Qian Yang was transferred from SAIC Volkswagen to become General Manager of the Roewe Brand Division. Early in his tenure, he proposed to precisely meet the needs of niche markets and create ‘standout’ hit products in each price segment. However, after more than a year, every attempt along this path has ended in failure.

In 2025, when the Roewe D6 was launched, Qian Yang emphasized that it was the ‘first step in creating a hit model.’ The industry benchmark for a hit model is at least 10,000 monthly sales, but the D6 has fallen significantly short of this definition, both at launch and in its normalized performance this year. When the Roewe M7 DMH was launched in the second half of 2025, Qian Yang expressed confidence and determination to break the 10,000-unit mark, stating that it would happen by December at the latest. However, after reaching over 5,000 units in October of that year, sales quickly faded and have since continued to decline, with monthly sales averaging less than 1,000 units in 2026.

The same is true for fuel vehicles. Zhang Liang, Deputy General Manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicles and General Manager of the Sales Company, had previously stated during the pre-sale of the new Roewe i6 that the vehicle’s core positioning was as an entry-level family sedan, with a sales target of ‘securing the top two positions in the compact family sedan segment.’ However, in the A-class sedan market, where the top two sellers have monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units, the Roewe i6, with an average monthly sales volume of 1,500 units, has little hope of achieving this goal.

Objectively speaking, Roewe’s ‘dual-track strategy’ has its practical rationale: even though the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China has exceeded 50%, fuel vehicles still account for nearly half of the market share, and there is still room to tap into the low-cost, essential demand market. Roewe’s sluggish performance in the fuel vehicle segment this year is also in sync with the market’s deep adjustments—the continuous downward shift in the price range of new energy vehicles is diverting essential users from fuel vehicles, coupled with weak consumer demand, collectively driving the overall scale of fuel vehicles to shrink at an accelerated pace.

However, the problem is that Roewe’s allocation of core resources to the fuel vehicle segment coincided with a period of severe industry contraction, amplifying the brand’s sales pressure.

Moreover, the cycle of ‘setting targets and failing to deliver’ time and again points to more than just product definition capabilities. When an automaker repeatedly sets high expectations for the outside world but repeatedly delivers low results, the issue is no longer just a pricing or configuration mistake for a single model but a disconnect between the marketing system and real market demand, a misalignment between brand perception and user mindset—which are precisely the hardest parts to fix in the short term.

Brand Turnaround, Qian Yang’s Self-Proof: The Double Gamble of the JiaYue 07

Under various internal and external pressures, the JiaYue 07 has shouldered the heavy burden of ‘must win, cannot lose.’ However, when the competition is taken into account, the JiaYue 07’s opponents are equally formidable. With a starting price of RMB 137,800, the JiaYue 07 offers a standard combination of LiDAR and advanced intelligent driving, which is indeed a step up in its price segment, but it faces a group of competitors that have already been market-validated and have mature user perceptions.

From the outset, the JiaYue 07 has a decent hand, with official information revealing that it secured over 10,000 orders in the first hour of pre-sales. However, there is still a significant gap between this figure and the final delivery conversion rate.

For Qian Yang, the JiaYue 07 is a battle he cannot afford to lose—from the D6 to the M7 DMH, every ‘hit model promise’ led by Qian Yang has failed to materialize, and this is already the third chance. Whether Roewe can turn the tide with the new model remains to be seen. However, what is certain is that, after repeated failures in previous new product launches, Roewe does not have much time left for further trial and error.

It should be noted that Qian Yang is not the only one involved. Standing behind the JiaYue 07 is a newly appointed leader. On July 28, Lu Xiao, former General Manager of SAIC General Motors, succeeded Wang Jun as General Manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicles, overseeing both the Roewe and MG brands. During his tenure at SAIC General Motors, Lu Xiao led the company out of operational difficulties, achieving continuous profitability, and spearheaded the launch of Buick’s ‘Zhijing’ new energy sub-brand.

Now, transitioning to the independent sector, Lu Xiao faces a daunting task list, with the most challenging item being to pull the Roewe brand out of the quagmire. ‘Ten years ago, the Roewe RX5 was launched in Yunqi Town, with Chairman Wang Xiaoqiu personally introducing it; ten years later, we are launching the JiaYue 07 in Beijing, representing Roewe’s return to the visibility of mainstream Chinese users and the first new answer delivered in this era,’ Lu Xiao stated in a media interview.

Clearly, both the new model and the new leader face significant challenges. At the product level, the JiaYue 07 must carve out a niche in a fiercely competitive market segment, with uncertain chances of success. At the brand level, Roewe’s repeated failures with new models in recent years have exposed a disconnect in the marketing system and a blurring of external perceptions of the Roewe brand, all of which remain to be sorted out by the SAIC Passenger Vehicles management team, with Lu Xiao at its core.

For Lu Xiao, this is the first report card since taking office and the first litmus test to see whether he can inject the system capabilities accumulated in the joint venture sector into the independent brand.

‘Chinese automakers can no longer simply ‘churn out models’ and rely on full spectrum coverage to compete in the market; what matters more in this era is to make one model a success at a time,’ Lu Xiao said. For Roewe, for Qian Yang, and even for Lu Xiao, the JiaYue 07 carries different levels of significance. However, whether they can ‘make one model a success at a time’ will not be answered in the rhetoric of the pre-sale launch event but in the monthly terminal insurance registration figures after the market launch.