Following BYD And Geely, GAC Enlivens Japan's Electric Car Market With Aion UT And Aion V

AION Indonesia officially presents its newest model, AION V at the 2024 Gaikindo Jakarta Auto Week (GJAW) event. (Photo: Afrizal / VOI)

JAKARTA China's automotive manufacturer, Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC), is preparing to enter the Japanese electric vehicle (EV) market in the summer of 2026. This step continues the global expansion wave of Chinese EV producers, after BYD and Geely, who first entered Sakura Country.

According to a Nikkei report, quoted on Thursday, December 11, GAC will market the Aion brand EV through a local dealer network. For starters, it is targeted to have 200 orders in the first year, before increasing to 2,000 units by 2027.

Aion sales in Japan will be managed by M Mobility Japan based in Nakano, Tokyo. Two models will spearhead the launch, namely the Aion UT compact hatchback and the Aion V SUV.

Aion UT is priced at 3.3 million yen (equivalent to Rp352 million), while Aion V starts at 5 million yen (Rp 534 million). Both support CHAdeMO fast charging standards widely used in Japan.

In the early stages, sales focused on corporate customers who needed a fleet of business vehicles. GAC, which was founded in 1997 and has a joint venture with Toyota and Honda in China, launched the Aion brand in 2018 as a fully focused line on electric cars.

The company recorded a total sales of 2 million vehicles in 2024. However, the pressure of competition in the domestic market made GAC sales from January to September 2025 drop 11 percent to 1.18 million units.

Aion's sales also weakened 20 percent in the same period with a total of 180,000 units. To balance the increasingly dense domestic market, GAC is aggressively expanding its move abroad since 2023.

Thailand is the first entry point into Southeast Asia, followed by plans to expand to the UK by 2025, then Japan as its next target. The company sees Japan's EV market as still relatively small, but promises for the use of the corporate.

Competition in Japan has also become increasingly dynamic as other Chinese manufacturers such as Geely's Zeekr. BYD, which has been present since 2023, recorded 3,508 units sold during January 'November 2025, up 64 percent compared to the previous year.

BYD has also launched Racco, a small electric vehicle with sliding doors tailored to Japan's consumer preferences. Even so, EV adoption in Japan is still lagging behind other developed countries.

As of November 2025, EV sales only reached 55,380 units or about 1.5 percent of total new car sales. Local producers are now starting to move, with Toyota presenting a revised version of bZ4X, Nissan preparing the latest generation Leaf, and Suzuki preparing to release its first EV, e-Vitara.

GAC will debut in 2026 with Aion UT and Aion V for corporate consumers, before expanding the market to retail in 2027. Aion's entry is expected to tighten competition, as well as test the appeal of Chinese brands in one of the most conservative automotive markets in the world.