A new Chinese electric car company will soon enter the South East Asian (SEA) market as GAC’s electric car brand, Aion has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thai company Gold Integrate. Aion will set up its SEA headquarters in Thailand and the company plans to produce its cars there too.
The GAC brand is already present in SEA, with Malaysia included as well. In Malaysia, the brand is officially distributed by WTC Automotif, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warisan TC Holdings Bhd. Aion is GAC’s EV division and its entry into Thailand will be its first debut outside of China. With Thailand being the largest automobile manufacturer and exporter in SEA, it is no surprise as to why it is chosen as the headquarters for the region.
The Aion EV brand has been around for close to 5 years now (first as a sub-brand of GAC and later as a marque) and its lineup consists of fully-electric options like the Aion S, V, Y, LX, Hyoer GT, and Hyper SSR. The most outstanding vehicle in its lineup in terms of electric range would be the Aion LX Plus which boasts 1,008 km (NEDC) of pure electric range from a huge 144.4kWh battery pack. As for ludicrous EV performance, the brand has the Hyper SSR which apparently does 0-100km/h in 1.9 seconds.
Besides the two EVs with outstanding numbers, Aion’s lineup also consists of the Aion S which is a Civic-sized electric saloon, the Aion V which is a compact SUV, and the Aion Y which is a compact SUV with a tall roof. The brand already has quite the lineup to penetrate the SEA market.
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Aion says that in just 5 years, it has built an average annual compound growth rate of over 120%. In 2022, sales volume reached 271,200 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 126%, with annual revenues of 38.7 billion yuan (approx. RM24.9 billion).
With Aion soon setting up a base in Thailand, it may eventually enter the Malaysian market too. After all, the GAC brand is already officially here.
