GAC Group

Developed internally by Dongfeng.

Well, battery swapping now extends across China's six major traditional state-owned vehicle manufacturers, FAW, Dongfang, Chang'an, SAIC, GAC and BAIC, all launching models on CATL's ChocoSeb technology.

Cherries also launched a battery swapping version of the iCarb.

Well, CATL has built more than 2,000 swap stations for passenger vehicles and wants to get 3,000 by the end of the year.

All right, let's head to China for another boxy off-road SUV.

Uh, this time it's from GAC Trumchi as they showcase the US7 available in four different variants.

Daniel, another boxy SUV from China.

Yes, and this was a surprise because when they, when they announced this in China-

Correct.

Yeah.

So this is from GAC.

Now, we know that GAC, the brand is in China with the Tan Chong Group, and they've got two vehicles here, the M-Cool and the M-Zoom, and they're selling quite well.

It may not actually matter to most people, but that's just come out at really aggressive pricing as well.

And there's also a, a, a GAC.

I keep...

Can I say this? GAC, I keep calling it GAC and I keep getting in trouble off their PR.

[laughs]

But I can't help it.

It's not a GAC.

[laughs]

And He Tao by now left the company.

And He Tao and Xia Heng originally came from GAC, so the Guangzhou Automobile Group.

And He Xiaoping came from the software and internet world.

So not traditional automotive because he previously co-founded UC Web in 2004 already.

Just emerge somewhere else.

Actually, that reminds me of GAC, because I'm sure Fan Zhang was a Mercedes man years and years ago.

So there is a Mercedes connection to GAC.

It's quite interesting.

And

Fan is still sort of...

He's still the head honcho.

He's GAC group design boss, and then D10 will be GAC motor.

And lots of brands.

We've got BYD, Cadillac, Chery, Forezen, Forthing, Genesis, Geely, GAC, GWM, Hyundai, I-COR.

We've got news about I-COR or I-CAR very shortly.

IM, Lepas, MG, MotoJuku, Polestar, Subaru, Wei Ji, and Zeekr, amongst many others.

And we're lucky with, uh, the Aion brand.

We're, uh, the parent company is a company called GAC, uh, an established Chinese, um, OEM.

And last year they actually built two, built two million vehicles and sold two million vehicles.

They're not a new market entrant.

And I think with, you know, what I find really interesting is that this is a, it, it is something that will cultivate that trust and transparency as well between where the vehicle's been, what it's done, to make sure that it has that life cycle kind of maintenance with trusted providers as well.

Yeah, and I think trust comes out as a new brand.

Again, GAC, a lot of, uh, consumers wouldn't necessarily know about that brand.

Last year they delivered two, 2 million vehicles in, mainly in domestic market China, but into other, other markets.

Here in the UK, Nissan's Sunderland plant will make cars for Chery.

Magna in Austria is gonna make GAC cars and XPengs.

Geely is famously forming a joint venture with Ford to use their underutilized Valencia facility.

Geely says the Ford joint venture will start in the first half of 2027 with two Geely EV models and three Ford multi-energy vehicles, that sounds like combustion to me, uh, scheduled to be in the line by 2028.