GAC Seeks Breakthrough Amid Crisis in July

After experiencing the market turmoil in the first half of the year, every car manufacturer likely has a new understanding of future development at this point. Both emotionally and logically, it is difficult to apply the previous step-by-step competition model to the current environment.

From January to July this year, it is often said that compared to private enterprises, GAC Group, as a large state-owned automaker, has felt an unprecedented market chill not seen in many years. The shadow of GAC FCA and GAC Mitsubishi’s departure still lingers, and facing an unprecedented surge in competition, the dual pressure on both its independent and joint venture segments has forced the entire group to make new adjustments.

Based on the data, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong. As of the end of last month, GAC Group's cumulative sales reached 874,800 vehicles, which is not worse than previous years. But does this mean that with the entire industry accelerating its transformation, its current situation cannot be improved? Honestly, the new leadership team led by Feng Xingya will certainly not turn a blind eye.

In fact, from the end of last year when the overall restructuring of the group began, to this year's strategic adjustments by its major subsidiaries, we might as well view everything GAC is currently experiencing as a deep squat before another leap. The intense market turbulence may be unavoidable, but as long as one is in the Chinese market, after making efforts, the market will always respond positively.

Looking back over the past few months, after the entire company moved from downtown Guangzhou back to the factory area in Panyu, numerous facts have proven that the system restructuring led by Feng Xingya has almost laid a new foundation for the future development of all businesses.

The most obvious is how both the joint ventures and independent businesses are keeping pace with the times, truly allowing people to feel the new atmosphere that belongs to GAC Group.

Sure, here is the translation: Indeed, from a segmented perspective, GAC Honda's cumulative sales of 170,000 vehicles over 7 months don't seem to align with GAC's reorganization and restart. However, it must be said that as GAC Toyota demonstrates its competitiveness in the joint venture market with the strong sales of the Leahead 3X and the praise received by the Leahead 7, I am more inclined to believe that GAC's joint venture business is exploring the right path through continuous experimentation.

Compared to the reality that GAC Honda's attempt to use the P7 to open up the path for joint venture pure electric development has not gone smoothly, GAC Toyota has accurately grasped the new consumer mindset. As bystanders, we might as well give GAC a bit more time. Once the key obstacles to development are overcome, GAC Honda will also be able to quickly follow GAC Toyota’s development trajectory and return to the fast track of growth.

Recently, there have been reports that Gao Hongxiang, who has a background as an executive at GAC Toyota, will succeed Li Jin as the Director and Executive Vice President of Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., while Li Jin will be transferred back to the group headquarters.

As we all know, since April this year, with the launch of the P7, Honda China has officially announced partnerships with industry giants such as CATL, DeepSeek, and Momenta to accelerate development in the intelligent electric field. Furthermore, last year, GAC Honda specifically constructed a new energy plant for the production of the P7.

At this point, as GAC Honda is in the critical phase of renewing the joint venture agreement, to smoothly continue the partnership by mid-2028, GAC Honda needs not only a strategic realignment but also an overall increase in sales, which is a very important indicator.

In contrast, GAC Toyota, even though the entire joint venture brand is still under siege by Chinese car companies in 2025, this kind of setback has instead prompted GAC Toyota to actively explore a brand new path.

Like the bZ4X, the bZ3X is also a pure electric SUV created by GAC Toyota for Chinese users. However, due to its deeper analysis of consumer trends and the fact that China's current economic environment is not what it used to be, the affordable and high-quality bZ3X evidently has greater potential to become a hit.

Therefore, with the sales performance in mind, GAC Toyota, which sold 402,700 new cars in the first seven months, naturally became a model for how GAC's joint ventures should develop in the future.

Recently, the next-generation model of the GAC Toyota Wildlander has finally arrived. According to the 398th batch of new car listings announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the design of the new Wildlander is consistent with the international version of the RAV4, indicating that GAC Toyota will not relax its grip on the traditional fuel vehicle business in the slightest.

The success of the next-generation Wildlander will not only determine the future trajectory of the entire Land family of GAC Toyota, but also lay the foundation for GAC Toyota's vision of balancing both gasoline and electric power.

Overall, with GAC's joint ventures now only consisting of GAC Toyota and GAC Honda, GAC hopes that both can progress together to fill the gap left by the termination of GAC Mitsubishi and GAC Fiat Chrysler. However, it must be said that compared to this, the strength and weakness of GAC's own brands still hold a more central position in GAC's business landscape.

In other words, at the beginning of this year, GAC Group announced the removal of the Hyper brand from the Aion system and decided to create a higher-end product line within the Trumpchi system—the Xiangwang series—or establish a new company named "Hua Wang" with Huawei to further keep up with the industry's development process. To a certain extent, these decisions will mark the beginning of GAC's journey toward achieving greatness in independent development.

Recently, GAC has decided to bring in new external forces for Trumpchi and Hyper. Ao Zhiyi, who has a background with Huawei Honor and XPeng and previously worked at JiYue, is now in charge of Trumpchi's marketing. Yin Shuang, also from JiYue, is leading the development of Hyper.

In July, GAC Aion's terminal sales stabilized at 26,557 units. Meanwhile, within Aion's business scope, the introduction of the brand-new i60 model and the revamped AION V, along with the relentless improvements to the charging infrastructure, aim to elevate GAC's independent advancements in the new energy industry to a higher level.

After adding 437 new self-built DC fast charging stations in July, Aion's total number of charging stations across the country reached 14,096. The key "6 vertical and 11 horizontal" highway charging network has begun to take shape, covering major economic belts and critical corridors in central and western regions of the country. Its service network covers 31 provinces and cities and 202 cities, with 1,691 self-operated stations and over 17,980 self-operated public charging stations. Additionally, it has integrated more than 1.12 million third-party charging stations nationwide, aiming to ensure users can recharge without worries.

There are still 5 months left until the end of 2025. I believe that in this not too long nor too short period, GAC will continue to strengthen the transformation efforts of all its subsidiaries based on the current strategic decisions. Therefore, any dissatisfaction will be temporary. The achievements in July are a continuation of the first half of the year, but in my view, they are also a preview of the second half's beginning. Until the end of the year, everything remains uncertain.