GAC Aion’s 2023: Electrification is gaining momentum and steady development continues to move forward

In the two years of 2015 and 2016, new domestic car-making forces grew explosively, and car manufacturing began to develop another path.


Electrification, intelligence, design concepts and the creation of a sense of technology are essentially different from traditional models and lay the foundation for the future development direction of electric vehicles. The wave of electrification has set off, and traditional car companies have seen their future. In response to the call for energy conservation and emission reduction from relevant departments, representatives of the domestic automobile industry have stepped forward to embark on the path of electrification transformation.




#In 2017, GAC officially announced the establishment of the GAC New Energy brand and released GAC’s first pure electric model, Trumpchi GE3. In 2019, the well-known GAC The electric sedan AION S has also been launched on the market.


At that time, GAC New Energy’s automobile business was not called Aian, but it was at the 2020 Guangzhou Auto Show that GAC New Energy officially changed its name to Aian. The emergence of the Aian brand has ended the chaotic state of GAC's new energy product line. Aian focuses on pure electric vehicles, while GAC Trumpchi is ready to play the role of "Toyota's replacement".


Aian's people-friendly approach is well known, and its models are well-known and have undergone intense tests by online ride-hailing drivers. It is almost a "make no mistake" choice in the automobile market. GAC Aian is rooted in the basic market of online ride-hailing. Its monthly delivery volume has been stable at around 30,000-40,000 vehicles. It has long been ranked high in the sales ranking of new energy vehicles, second only to BYD.





In 2023, GAC Aian’s December sales were 45,900 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 53%; the cumulative sales in 2023 were 480,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 53%. An increase of 77%. Aian was once considered the second largest "new car-making force" after BYD, but Aian's 2023 lacks the most important exposure and attention at this stage.


Making steady progress, Aian and Haobin step out of the "online car-hailing" circle



One thing that needs to be acknowledged is that the Aian brand will not be the best in 2023 There are not many big moves, but to maintain its own product iterations. Haobin Hyper, which was born out of Aian, is the same in Xiaotong's view.


In 2022, Aian held a press conference with as much information as NIO Day: on the one hand, it promoted the renewal and upgrade of Aian brand and brought a new high-end brand Hyper Hao Platinum. On the other hand, through the new electrification architecture, intelligent technology, advanced manufacturing concepts, power battery technology and the first million-dollar supercar Haopu Hyper SSR, it has supported the brand structure and laid the foundation for Aian's subsequent high-end route.




HaoBo started with the Hyper SSR. It has a high starting point. The pure electric supercar can better demonstrate the upper limit of a brand's technical capabilities. According to the official statement, it is "independent" A 100% Chinese supercar designed, independently developed, and independently manufactured.” It doesn't matter how much the Hyper SSR, which starts at 1.286 million yuan, sells for, but the emergence of a million-dollar supercar gives consumers a preconceived feeling - unlike a brand that sells online ride-hailing services.


GAC Aian, which is oriented towards the pure electric field, does not need to consider the development of fuel/hybrid versions. All its models are "pure-blood" electric vehicles, so there is no such problem. It is said that fuel vehicles have "transitioned". AION S, AION Y, and AION V are the most popular "triangle arrays" of Aion. Their outstanding large space, cost performance, and reliability have won the favor of online ride-hailing drivers, and they have also become a popular choice on the road comparable to Toyota Ralink and Nissan. The existence of Xuanyi.





But Aian "succeeded" and "failed" in hailing rides online.


Perhaps everyone does not put cost-effectiveness and reliability in the most important position. In this era of pursuing personalization and youth, the online ride-hailing services running on the streets are not prominent enough among the car groups. . With traditional interiors and car controls, Aian's early models still have a hint of "electric gasoline vehicles", and the label of "online ride-hailing" has followed Aian to this day.


In the past two years, the new models of Aian have undergone significant changes in design language, with younger appearance designs, more lively color schemes, and interior design and vehicle control systems that have caught up with mainstream demand. The emergence of the new AION S PLUS and AION S MAX is more like the changes that Aian hopes to break away from the online ride-hailing circle and face the family car market.


It’s a pity that Aian and Haobin lack Internet voices. The scolding wars between car company executives never involve Aian and Haobin, which is inevitably a bit embarrassing.





Xiaotong believes that Haopin Hyper is also a strategy for Aian to get rid of the stereotype of online ride-hailing. The emergence of Hyper GT and Hyper HT is the realization of Aian's high-end technology decentralization for mass production, proving to the outside world that it has the ability to produce high-end pure electric models.The new series changes the look of "taxi", and also has special configurations such as scissor doors and gull-wing doors, making it more suitable for the younger mainstream consumer market.


It can be said that Aian Haopin's layout focuses on making progress while maintaining stability. It is not in a hurry to expand the scale. Stabilizing the market and delivering are the best.





#It’s just that as the transformation of traditional car companies further deepens, they have shown stronger momentum. Although Aian is still the "new car-making force" second only to BYD and has a large enough "chassis" to support it, new forces such as Weilai, Ideal, and Leapmotor are coming fiercely. It is a good thing to move forward stably, and more importantly You still have to open your legs and run faster to avoid being caught up by latecomers.


Farewell to "Double Engine", Trumpchi vigorously embraces "new" energy



After bidding farewell to electric vehicles for the time being, GAC Trumpchi has long served as the "Toyota Motorcycle" "substitute" role.


Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrid has long been famous. When driving, HYBRID relies on motor drive at low speeds and direct engine drive at high speeds, significantly reducing overall fuel consumption. This system generally only exists in Toyota's high-end models, ranging from Highlander and Prado to Camry and Ralink, which all have HYBRID versions.





# Some consumers may not know that GAC Trumpchi’s models actually have the same gasoline-electric hybrid version of Toyota, the M8 Grandmaster Models such as the Toyota Edition, Shadow Leopard, and GS8 are all equipped with it, but the engine and other parts are different from Toyota. Their positioning strategy is the same as Toyota's, and HYBRID is also sold as a high-end version.


Considering that Toyota’s mid- to high-end models are often “forced to pay more”, GAC Trumpchi has become a “Toyota replacement”.


The difference is that although GAC has a close relationship with Toyota, this HYBRID system will naturally be controlled by others. Additional purchasing costs are necessary, and the quota that can be matched to GAC every month may depend on Toyota's attitude. Xiaodong once learned that due to Toyota's restriction of HYBRID's procurement indicators, the delivery of the gasoline-electric hybrid version of the GS8 and M8 series was affected.




Perhaps GAC has already prepared. In 2023, it will launch the second PHEV model again on the market, which is the plug-in hybrid version of the M8, the E9. The naming method distinguishes two versions: plug-in hybrid and fuel (oil-hybrid). Compared with the HYBRID version of the M8, the E9 can be charged, can be green-labeled, and has a stronger electrification foundation, which solves the pain points of the ordinary version. The self-developed PHEV finally breaks through the "shackles" of HYBRID.


Today, GAC Trumpchi still sells HYBRID models, but it can be seen that the focus of sales and marketing has shifted to self-developed PHEV.


The delivery of the E9 means the success of GAC Trumpchi's transformation into a plug-in hybrid system. According to official data, the car will sell 13,349 units in 2023, becoming a new benchmark for high-end MPVs. In the same year, GAC Trumpchi struck while the iron was hot and also launched the ES9, a PHEV version of the GS8, and the Trumpchi E8 PHEV for the Honda Odyssey.




GAC Trumpchi has made a magnificent turnaround. Although it has not completely transformed into electrification, it has firmly taken root in the PHEV field and relied on self-developed power systems to achieve breakthroughs. Toyota's HYBRID gasoline-electric hybrid system has surpassed the index limits in terms of product capabilities.


Accelerate the energy layout, GAC hits the new highland of 1000V



BYD has a saying that Xiaotong agrees with - without charging piles, there will be no electric vehicles.


Just like gas stations support fuel vehicles, energy is the factor behind the rise of electric vehicles. Vigorously embracing new energy, the electric vehicles owned by Aion Haobin (GAC) cannot do without their own charging facilities. Not long ago, the opening event of Haopin Super Charging and Swapping Center and the press conference of GAC Energy’s 2024 “Ten Thousand Piles Plan” were officially launched.





GAC Group announced that it will accelerate the promotion of high-quality charging and swapping operations in 2024 and accelerate the layout and construction of 1000V high-voltage platform supercharging terminals with the goal of Starting from 10,000, there is no upper limit, and the number of private pile users exceeds 1 million at the same time. Previously, GAC's Inpa battery factory was completed and launched magazine battery 2.0 technology, which is believed to be available for market application in the near future.


Following Weilai, GAC has also started its own dual-line layout for charging and swapping, which is also the goal GAC aims to achieve in 2024.


Ultra-fast charging and battery swapping systems are two-pronged, and GAC has begun to build its own energy replenishment ecosystem. As a car company with a "big family and big business", it has more advantages in terms of construction and layout conditions.However, in Xiaotong’s view, the battery swap ecosystem still needs a standard that is compatible with the entire electric vehicle industry. When every electric car that supports battery swap can share the same battery, and the entire industry builds a battery swap ecosystem, then battery swap can Showcase your strengths.




But when Haopin lays out battery-swapping models, I believe they are already ready to build battery-swapping stations, but this is not simple. There is already a new car-making force that has spent a lot of energy and time in this area and has worked alone for many years to achieve the scale it has today.


There is no doubt that GAC is the automobile group that most actively embraces new energy besides BYD and Geely. This will be of great help in catching up with the new trend of automobiles in the future.

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