SAIC Motor Corp and PetroChina Company Ltd signed an agreement on October 9 in Beijing to upgrade their existing collaboration and tap new business opportunities in the “Internet-plus” era.

Under the deal, the two companies will deepen cooperation in car sales, refined oils and auxiliary products. On the other hand, they will continue to push ahead with the construction of Chexiang Home service outlets as well as a co-branded prepaid card program in China. It will be based on the “full-life-cycle” service chain for car owners under SAIC.

Also, SAIC and PetroChina will explore mutually-beneficial cooperation opportunities which may arise in such fields as big data, Internet cars, new energy cars, third-party payment and Internet finance.

Earlier this year, the two industry giants began their first-ever ‘romance’ in the automotive aftermarket. On January 8, Chexiang.com, the online-to-offline one-stop automotive e-commerce platform under SAIC, signed a cooperation framework agreement with PetroChina Sales Co. They initiated major moves in tapping the automotive aftermarket based on Chexiang’s rich experience and quality resources in after-sales maintenance and car beauty as well as PetroChina’s self-operated filling station networks.

In July, SAIC Maxus joined hands with PetroChina in launching a brand-new motor life experience, “New Journey, Hearty Enjoyment”, allowing interested users to experience a unique self-drive tour enabled by VIP recreational vehicles and fuel filling support offered to them.

In August this year, Chexiang rolled out the SAIC-PetroChina prepaid card program and began to pilot one-stop services ranging from fuel filling to car care and maintenance.

The offline service chain brand Chexiang Home was launched by SAIC on September 20. According to plans, Chexiang Home outlets focusing on communities will cover the whole country within five years in order to offer powerful offline services integrated with the Chexiang.com platform. In addition, relying on filling stations run by PetroChina the networks will be expanded at a faster pace, with the aim of making services of one-stop aftermarket readily accessible to users.

In four years, from 2010 to 2014, China saw a rapid growth in car sales which has laid a solid foundation for a trillion-yuan automotive aftermarket. Both SAIC and PetroChina are pursuing innovation and transformation to upgrade their products and services.