SAIC Motor has ranked the highest on the list of the Fortune 500 magazine for the most important global companies. This is the 13th consecutive time the company makes the list. The company ranked 41st on the magazine's list, with sales revenues of $113.86bn for fiscal year (FY) 2016. SAIC Motor is considered the largest company for car manufacturing in China. It also ranks seventh among all global car manufacturers, ahead of many prominent brands, such as BMW and Hyundai. In a car market with so many changes, SAIC Motor focuses on developing cars with the advantage of communication as well as smart driving technologies, all of which help promote the international brand's position. Currently, SAIC has a prominent position internationally with a sales network in 15 countries and a main zone connecting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Africa, Europe, and North America, where the company has an innovations centre in Silicon Valley. As part of its international focus, SAIC is working to expand its presence in the Middle East. After it opened its regional office for the Middle East in the free zone of Jabal Ali in Dubai in November 2015, the brand also inaugurated a regional training academy and launched the new MG 360 model in the market while working on launching several other models throughout 2017. As a leading company in car manufacturing, especially hybrid vehicles with electric charges, with fuel cell technology, and entirely electric all at the same time, the company's three technologies have earned it as a global position in the automotive sector. In the first half of 2017, SAIC Motor launched model Roewe RX5: the first electric multi-use SUV in the world that can be driven for a distance of 425km and a fast charging ability of up to 80% of the total battery within only 40 minutes. Roewe Vision first made an appearance in the Shanghai International Automotive Exhibition. It is a vehicle that has a full electric driving range of more than 500km with an acceleration from 0-100km/hour in only 4 seconds. The volume of connected automotive sales is estimated at 80% of the total amount of passenger vehicles in SAIC Motor. The sales are made from selling model MG ZS, which is planned to arrive to the Middle East later in 2017, in addition to the models of Roewe RX5 and Roewe i6. In June 2017, SAIC Motor joined China Mobile and Huawei, the leading companies in the sector of communications, with the goal of developing new communication technologies in SAIC's vehicles. Until June 2017, SAIC Motor was able to develop two generations of smart driving vehicles platforms, where it merged the connected vehicle platform with 5G communication technology. It has also carried out a study on self-driving technologies and tested vehicles on aggregated distances of 36,000km. "The Middle East is a region that has good potential for future planning. SAIC Motor's rank of Fortune 500's list this year is considered a proof of our capabilities as a brand with future planning," said Tom Lee, the CEO of SAIC Motor Middle East. He added that the company will continue to develop vehicles with new energy and ones connected to the internet. "This will promote our global position in the Middle East while we continue to focus on being pioneers in the world in the field of innovation and leading the future of automotive driving," he noted.
