GAC Aion, the electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary of the GAC Group, has officially opened its new Changsha plant in central China’s Hunan province, which can produce up to 200,000 units per year.

Notably, the new Changsha plant is touted as the world’s fastest EV plant with the ability to build an EV in just 53 seconds on average. The first model to roll off the production line is the second-generation Aion V. The Aion V is priced starting at 129,800 yuan (around $16,462) in the Chinese market.

“We’ve adopted a strategy of localizing production and supply chains, promoting the establishment of an industrial cluster around the main factory,” stated a representative of GAC Aion’s Changsha branch. “By continuously driving the development of supporting industries in the surrounding area, we aim to foster vertical integration and horizontal collaboration across resources.”

The Changsha plant is the third plant operated by GAC Aion, with the company’s two existing plants having a combined annual capacity of 400,000 units. This brings GAC Aion’s total production capacity in China to 600,000 units per year.

The new factory is touted as the first “black-light” plant in Hunan province, leveraging advanced automation and AI-powered technologies to streamline its manufacturing processes. According to GAC Aion, the plant can shorten the troubleshooting process by 25% and save 30% of the production space through the use of comprehensive simulation modeling.

Moreover, the plant’s intelligent logistics system is claimed to increase delivery precision by 40% and reduce delivery times by 25%. The plant also features the world’s most powerful robotic system for handling power batteries, with a maximum load capacity of 1.2 tonnes.

The Changsha facility is set to play a major role in the development of a large-scale automotive production base in central China. In its first month of operation, the plant plans to produce 9,000 EVs, with an estimated annual output value exceeding 20 billion yuan once full capacity is reached by 2025.

With the opening of the Changsha plant marks a new milestone for GAC Aion and the broader Chinese EV industry, it showcases the Chinese EV industry’s advancements in smart manufacturing and its ambitions to enhance further in the Chinese EV market.

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