The head of GAC Australia has called the Chinese auto brand, the latest to arrive Down Under, “China’s Toyota” – but that’s not as outlandish as it sounds.
Based on pure market position, it isn’t quite accurate – even in its home market, GAC can’t boast the exalted number-one spot Toyota enjoys in markets like ours.
But GAC could be China’s Toyota because, well, it makes China’s Toyotas. The state-owned automaker maintains joint ventures with not only the Japanese giant but also rival Honda.
“We have a very good reputation in China, also we have very good products we want to share with Australian consumers because the consumers will accept us,” Cheney Liang, deputy general manager of GAC Australia, told CarExpert.
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“In Australia, Toyota always is number one. We are the Chinese Toyota, so we believe Australian consumers will love the products, will love GAC.
“We have learned lots from Toyota and Honda. We have confidence with our products, that should be reliable products because we are the Chinese Toyota.
“Also we focus on the service, that means both sales service and aftersales service,” he added. GAC is establishing an Oceania parts distribution hub in Melbourne.
The brand is launching in Australia this month as a factory-backed operation, with a lineup of three models at first, to be sold through 12 dealerships.
It’s targeting 1000 sales this year, across the Emzoom small SUV, the Aion V mid-size electric SUV, and the large M8 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) people mover lineups, with pricing to be announced closer to their launches.
But its lineup and retail network will quickly grow, and GAC expects its sales will do the same. It will add two more models in 2026 and another three in 2027, with the aim of being a top 10 auto brand by 2028 with 33,000 sales and a 90-strong retail network.
As expected of a brand with such close ties to Toyota and Honda, GAC sells hybrids in China. While it has previously used Toyota hybrid technology, Mr Liang says GAC has now moved to its own technology.
“At the beginning, we learned the [hybrid] technology from Honda and Toyota and then we have our R&D centre, we do our research, we have our own hybrid powertrain. We have our own PHEV, also [EREVs] as well,” he said.
Like Toyota, it offers a wide range of powertrain types and has confirmed petrol, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric and extended-range electric vehicles for Australia.
“At this time, Toyota is using some technologies from the Aion V right now,” Mr Liang said, in a bit of a reversal of the old order.
This echoes what other non-Chinese brands are doing in China, with Toyota also using technology from BYD and Volkswagen Group using SAIC Motor and Xpeng technology, to name a couple of examples.
Unlike Toyota with its Lexus brand, GAC will sell its premium brand’s vehicles under the same nameplate. In China, GAC has the Trumpchi (the name is a coincidence), Aion and Hyptec brands, with the latter offering premium electric vehicles (EVs) including a supercar.
“We don’t want to have two different brands. If we just have one brand, we can choose the best products from different brands in China to provide to the customer. As I said, always the trust is the number one priority – we want to build the trust in the short term,” said Mr Liang.
GAC Australia has confirmed it’ll sell vehicles from all three brands under the GAC banner, much like GWM does.
It also has over 20 models in its global product portfolio to choose from, with everything from SUVs and people movers to sedans and a ute on the horizon.
“We have already designed the platform we call the global platform that can [support] both right-hand and left-hand [drive]. Also we have many right-hand drive markets,” said Mr Liang.
GAC’s assault on Australia follows the formation of its GAC International division in 2022; the company now competes in more than 80 countries, recently announcing entries into the UK and France, and has four overseas factories including one in Thailand.
Other brands even sell GAC-developed vehicles. The short-lived Mitsubishi Airtrek was based on the GAC Aion V, while the Dodge Attitude sold in Mexico is a rebadged GAC Empow.
