GAC Aion builds second plant with 200,000 production capacity

GAC Aion, the electric car offshoot of the Chinese GAC Group, is building a second plant with a capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year. With the new plant, whose construction is to be completed by December 2022 according to Chinese media, GAC Aion would double its production capacity.

++ This article has been updated; please continue reading below. ++

As the portal Gasgoo reports, the construction of the second plant is said to have been approved by the GAC board. The investment is said to amount to 1.81 billion yuan (equivalent to around 252 million euros), the sum is to be raised entirely by CAG Aion itself.

The report does not say where the second plant will be built. Together with an expansion of the first plant to an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles, GAC Aion will then be able to produce a total of 400,000 e-cars annually.

The doubling of the production capacity of the first plant announced in April 2021 seems to have already been completed. This is because with 123,660 vehicles sold in 2021 as a whole (including 16,675 units in December), GAC Aion has already exceeded its original capacity of 100,000 vehicles.

GAC Aion was spun off as a separate brand from GAC in November 2020, replacing the previous GAC New Energy division. The brand has since launched five all-electric models: the Aion S, Aion LX, Aion V, Aion Y and Aion LX Plus.

In addition, the Aion LX Plus, with an NEDC range of around 1,000 km, is now launching in Chinese dealerships. This model was presented at the Guangzhou auto show in November. The battery has an energy content of 144.4 kWh and an energy density of 205 Wh/kg. The Aion V is also supposed to have a range of 1,000 kilometres according to the NEDC. However, thanks to a graphene battery.

Update 14 October 2022

GAC Aion, the electric car offshoot of China’s GAC Group, has put its second plant into operation a little faster than planned. Announced in January, the second factory with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles doubles GAC Aion’s total capacity to now 400,000 electric cars annually.

In the future, multi-shift operation is expected to further increase the combined production capacity up to 600,000 units per year, GAC Aion announced via its WeChat account. Such a multi-shift system could soon become necessary, as in September, GAC Aion sold more than 30,000 vehicles in one month for the first time. Extrapolated to twelve months, this would correspond to 360,000 vehicles, which is already quite close to the current production capacity.

It is unknown how quickly GAC Aion will be able to scale up production in the plant that has just gone into operation.

gasgoo.com (factory), cnevpost.com (production numbers), gasgoo.com (update Oct ’22)