GAC builds Toyotas and Hondas for China while racing ahead on electric cars
Many Chinese drivers of a Honda or Toyota are actually driving a car built by GAC Group, a state-owned company in Guangzhou. It began as a machining plant in 1948. Today its electric brand Aion ranks third in the world for battery cars behind only Tesla and BYD.
Guangzhou Automobile Group traces its roots to the Tongsheng Machining Plant, founded in 1948. It became a joint-stock company in 2005 and by 2021 was China's fifth-largest carmaker, selling 2.144 million vehicles that year. Much of its volume comes from joint ventures with foreign firms. GAC Honda, a fifty-fifty partnership, has built Hondas for Chinese buyers since 1999, and GAC Toyota does the same for Toyota.
The company grew by acquisition and listing. In 2009 it took a 29 percent stake in the SUV maker Changfeng, reportedly a condition imposed by the state ahead of a planned venture with Fiat, and bought the rest by 2011. In 2010 it replaced its old backdoor listing through Denway Motors with its own Hong Kong listing and bought a majority of Gonow, a maker of SUVs and pickups. That December it launched its own brand, Trumpchi, whose first model was based on the Alfa Romeo 166; abroad, Trumpchi cars are sold under the GAC Motor name. A Shanghai listing followed in 2012.
Electric vehicles have become central. Aion began in 2017 as GAC New Energy and took its present name in 2020. By 2023 it had produced 480,003 vehicles, making it the third-largest battery electric brand both in China and globally. A premium spin-off, first called Hyper and renamed Hyptec in 2024, started with the SSR sports car. In late 2023 GAC announced work on all-solid-state, cobalt-free and sodium-ion batteries, aiming to put solid-state cells into cars by 2026, and it developed the first ammonia-powered car engine.
Partnerships continue to shape it. GAC teamed with Huawei in 2023 on a new high-end electric brand, and the resulting Qijing, or Aistaland, marque launched in September 2025 with the GT7. Its commercial vehicle arm, once a joint venture with Hino, was taken over outright in 2024.
Source: GAC Group
