By taking a stake in Huawang, can GAC Aion make a comeback in the C-end market?

Recently, media reports indicated that GAC Aion plans to invest in Huawang Automobile, with an equity ratio not exceeding 30%.

Data shows that in March, Huawang Automobile Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan, wholly owned by GAC Group. Feng Xingya, the chairman of GAC Group, once said, "Huawang Automobile mainly targets high - end customers in the 300,000 - yuan price range. The detailed product definition and positioning are mainly led by Huawei. GAC will support and maintain the decision - making power of the Huawang team, ensuring their rights and responsibilities in product development and definition."

In July, it was reported that Huawang Automobile has planned two models, a sedan and an SUV, with power options including pure - electric and extended - range. They are expected to be launched next year. The styles of the two new cars are similar to the most popular brands in the market above 200,000 yuan, but the positioning may be more high - end.

In the tender project documents released by Huawang Automobile, it revealed that the codes of the two models are F03 and F05. The project is located at No. 36, Longying Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou, which is also the location of GAC Aion. Previously, GAC also disclosed that Huawang Automobile is a light - asset operation company and will give priority to using the production capacity of Aion and Trumpchi brands.

Now, GAC Aion's plan to invest in Huawang Automobile allows it to leverage Huawei's development momentum in the future. As a former dark horse in the new - energy vehicle field, can GAC Aion reverse the downward sales trend as soon as possible?

1 Declining Sales

Before GAC Group's actions, GAC Aion once planned to cooperate with Huawei on a new project.

In July 2021, GAC Group announced that the company's board of directors reviewed and approved the "Proposal on the Project of GAC Aion and Huawei (Model AH8)". It agreed to the implementation of the project between its wholly - owned subsidiary, GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., and Huawei (Model AH8). According to the strategic cooperation agreement, the two sides will build a new - generation intelligent vehicle digital platform based on GAC's GEP3.0 chassis platform and Huawei's CCA (Computing and Communication Architecture), and install Huawei's full - stack intelligent vehicle solutions. They will jointly define, develop, and create a series of intelligent vehicles for the future. This project is the first mid - to large - sized intelligent pure - electric SUV jointly developed by the two sides. The total investment of the project is 788 million yuan, and mass production is planned for the end of 2023.

In March 2023, GAC Group announced that the development of the GAC Aion AH8 project was changed from joint development with Huawei to independent development. After this change, Huawei will continue to participate in the development and cooperation of the company's self - owned brand models as an important supplier.

At the 2022 performance press conference, Zeng Qinghong, the then - chairman of GAC Group, said that Huawei remains a strategic partner of GAC Group, and the two sides' projects are still advancing. Previously, GAC Group planned to jointly develop a new brand with Huawei to be launched in 2025. However, currently, GAC already has two new brands, Aion and Hyper, so there is no need to launch a new brand. After friendly consultations between GAC and Huawei, it was decided to transform Huawei into a strategic - level partner supplier through complementary advantages.

At that time, GAC Aion was still a dark horse in the new - energy vehicle field. From its establishment in 2017 to 2021, GAC Aion's average annual compound growth rate exceeded 120%. In 2022, sales increased by 126% year - on - year to 271,000 vehicles; in 2023, sales increased by 77.02% year - on - year to 480,000 vehicles, ranking only after BYD and Tesla in the new - energy field.

In this context, GAC Aion set a goal of at least 700,000 vehicles and aimed for 800,000 vehicles in 2024. However, due to the price war and the saturation of the ride - hailing market, GAC Aion's sales declined. In 2024, Aion's cumulative sales were 374,900 vehicles, a year - on - year decrease of 21.9%, only achieving 53.55% of the annual minimum target.

In order to get rid of the ride - hailing vehicle label, GAC Aion launched the Aion Tyrannosaurus (the second - generation AION V) in July 2024, with a price range of 129,800 - 189,800 yuan, mainly targeting the mainstream household SUV market; two months later, the pre - sale of the Aion RT Raptor started, with a pre - sale price range of 119,800 - 169,800 yuan.

At that time, Gu Huinan, the general manager of GAC Aion, said, "The Tyrannosaurus is one of the models with the highest intelligent driving level in China. We can't say it is far ahead, but it is definitely at the leading level. The Raptor is a product on the same platform as the Tyrannosaurus and uses the same Orin - X + lidar intelligent driving solution, so it can completely reach the intelligent driving level of the Tyrannosaurus."

Obviously, GAC Aion wants to open up the C - end market through intelligent driving functions, but the sales results are not satisfactory. According to data from Chezhuzhijia, in 2024, the best - selling model of GAC Aion was still the AION Y targeting the B - end market, with sales of 156,500 vehicles; followed by the AION V with sales of 37,900 vehicles; and the AION RT with sales of 14,800 vehicles.

In February 2025, the pure - electric hatchback Aion UT was officially launched, with a price range of 69,800 - 101,800 yuan. Xiao Yong, the person in charge of GAC Group's Aion Marketing Department, once revealed that the UT is a volume - driving model, and the break - even point for economies of scale is a monthly sales volume of 15,000 vehicles, using scale to suppress costs.

In the first seven months of 2025, GAC Aion's sales were 129,800 vehicles, a year - on - year decrease of 16.05%. Looking at specific models, the AION Y sold 49,900 vehicles; the AION RT sold 29,800 vehicles; the AION UT sold 23,700 vehicles; and the AION V sold 18,600 vehicles. Among them, since its launch in February, the AION UT has had an average monthly sales volume of less than 4,000 vehicles.

Judging from the current results, although GAC Aion has paid more and more attention to the C - end market from the Aion Tyrannosaurus, Aion RT Raptor to the Aion UT, the results are not satisfactory.

2 GAC Allocates High - Quality Resources

With GAC Group's adjustment of its self - owned brands, the luxury pure - electric brand under GAC Aion has also started independent operation.

In January 2025, GAC Group officially established the Self - Owned Brand Marketing Department to coordinate the marketing business of the three self - owned brands, Trumpchi, Aion, and Hyper. It has three brand - specific marketing departments, forming a structure of "unified management and separate brand operation". This also means that Hyper has started independent operation and is separated from Aion.

Currently, in the production and sales reports released by GAC Group, self - owned brands are still only divided into GAC Trumpchi and GAC Aion. Hyper is not yet independently reflected in the financial statements.

Data shows that GAC Aion launched the luxury pure - electric brand Hyper in 2022 and has successively launched the pure - electric super - car Hyper SSR with a starting price of 1.286 million yuan; the pure - electric sedan Hyper GT, the pure - electric SUV Hyper HT, and the Hyper HL for the mainstream market.

Among them, the Hyper HL was launched in April 2025, positioned as a new luxury family intelligent SUV, with a price range of 269,800 - 319,800 yuan. Gu Huinan, the general manager of GAC Aion, once said, "This car has almost gathered all of GAC's efforts and technologies"; Feng Xingya, the chairman of GAC Group, even emphasized, "In the next three years, GAC Group will support the Hyper brand with an unlimited determination, investing GAC Group's top human, material, and financial resources into Hyper."

In the first seven months of 2025, Hyper's cumulative sales were 7,996 vehicles, among which the cumulative sales of the Hyper HL were only 1,517 vehicles.

In June, GAC Group held a media communication meeting at its Panyu headquarters. Feng Xingya, the chairman of GAC Group, emphasized that the group's resource allocation will be tilted towards strategic priorities rather than being evenly distributed. In the new - energy vehicle transformation stage, investing heavily in the new - energy direction is a strategic requirement, and GAC's subsidiaries have reached a consensus on this. Therefore, GAC Group will continue to inject high - quality resources into GAC Aion and the Hyper brand to fully support their development. In the future, Aion plans to separately develop the taxi (B - end) business into a new category and focus on the C - end market, while Hyper is positioned as a high - end new - energy brand. Through this strategic layout, GAC Group will further promote the high - quality development of its self - owned brands.

At the same time, Feng Xingya also said that GAC Group's current core task is to focus on increasing GAC Aion's valuation and find a suitable time for capital operation, which may include continuing to promote listing or acquisition by the group in various forms.

As one of GAC's self - owned brands, GAC Aion also needs to further enhance its competitiveness. In GAC Group's 2025 semi - annual performance forecast, it is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company in the first half of 2025 will be between - 182,000 yuan and - 2.6 billion yuan. It stated that the reasons for the loss include that the sales of several key new - energy models launched during the reporting period are still in the climbing stage and have not reached the planned targets, and the profits of multiple main models have declined due to the price war; the implementation of the integrated operation reform of self - owned brands needs time to show results, and the company is still continuously promoting the improvement of new product development efficiency and cost control in various fields during the reporting period.

Now, GAC Group's cooperation with Huawei to create Huawang Automobile targeting the market above 300,000 yuan has attracted wide attention. Whether GAC Aion's investment in Huawang Automobile can obtain technological empowerment and drive sales growth remains to be seen over time.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Visibility in the Auto Circle". Author: Wei He. Republished by 36Kr with permission.