After Selling 30 Million Cars, GAC Finally Figured Out One Thing

On July 16, GAC Group held a grand event at its Trumpchi factory in Guangzhou — celebrating the rollout of the 30 millionth vehicle.

What does 30 million represent? In the history of the Chinese automotive industry, no more than one hand of automakers have reached this number. It took GAC 29 years from the rollout of the first Accord in 1997 to now.

But the interesting part of this event was not the number itself, but the state GAC presented.

The star rolling off the line was not a traditional fuel car, but a right-hand drive Trumpchi M8 PHEV. The recipient was not a domestic dealer representative, but a Thai car owner.

The identity and destination of this vehicle speak louder than the number 30 million.

Selling to Thailand

A detail at the venue was worth noting: Vehicles numbered 29,999,995 to 29,999,999 rolled off the line in sequence. They were GAC Honda P7, GAC Toyota bZ7, GAC Qijing GT7, GAC Aion N60, and GAC Hyper S600, all New Energy Vehicles.

This was not just a rollout ceremony; it was clearly GAC flexing its muscles. The joint venture sector, the independent sector, pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and right-hand drive vehicles, the entire New Energy vehicle matrix appeared collectively. GAC wants to say one thing: Regarding electrification, I am serious.

In the first half of this year, GAC Group sales reached 773,100 vehicles, a 2.35% year-on-year increase, with New Energy Vehicle sales growing by 68.8%. Overseas exports exceeded 120,000 vehicles, a significant 132% increase year-on-year.

The growth rate is impressive, but the base is still relatively small. In the current era of deep industry reshuffling, GAC needs to run faster.

Quality is the Bottom Line, What Cannot Be Lost

GAC Chairman Feng Xingya said a sentence at the event: “Quality is the bottom line GAC will never cede.” Listening to this sentence today, it is actually quite weighty.

In the past few years, the Chinese automotive industry engaged in fierce involution, competing on price, specs, and computing power. But some things are hard to compete on, such as the quality control system.

GAC's quality management system has its uniqueness: integrating Honda's Total Quality Management (TQM), Toyota's Production System (TPS), plus the pragmatic DNA in Lingnan culture. This system ensures that GAC's joint venture and independent brands have long been at the forefront of the industry in product reliability.

Data also supports this: The Star Spirit Safety Guard System covers nearly 2 million users, avoiding 6.28 million potential travel risks; the Magazine Battery has cumulatively equipped 1.5 million vehicles, with safe driving mileage exceeding 160 billion kilometers.

In today's era where the industry madly piles on specs and configurations, "no breakdowns" has become a scarce value.

After 30 Million, Where to Go?

Feng Xingya announced a policy at the event: Launching the "30 Million Vehicle Rollout · Renewal and Gratitude Season". GAC's six major brands — Honda, Toyota, Trumpchi, Aion, Hyper, Qijing — will launch their respective policies around new purchase, trade-in, and extra purchase.

This is an action on the service level. More worthy of attention is GAC's next technology roadmap.

In the powertrain field, GAC's "Star Source Power" will cover three technology roadmaps: extended-range, plug-in hybrid, and Super Twin Engine. The pilot production line for all-solid-state batteries has been completed, and the Quark Electric Drive motor has exceeded 99% maximum efficiency.

In the intelligent networking field, the Star Spirit architecture is connecting six systems: intelligent driving, cockpit, powertrain, chassis, body, and vehicle connectivity. The goal is "one brain for unified command". The partner list is also long — Huawei, CATL, Didi, Tencent, Alibaba.

As of now, GAC has cumulatively invested over 62 billion yuan in R&D, with a global R&D team exceeding 6,800 people.

This level of investment is considered quite substantial among traditional automakers.

In Conclusion

30 million units is a milestone, but for GAC it is more of a watershed.

In the past 29 years, GAC relied on joint ventures for foundation, quality for reputation, and supply chain advantages and manufacturing capabilities to walk to today step by step. But for the next 30 million units, relying on these alone is not enough.

New energy transformation cannot be slow, intelligentization cannot lag behind, and the overseas market must be conquered. This is the same test faced by all traditional automakers.

GAC's choice is: Quality cannot be lost, but technology cannot be slow, rhythm cannot be chaotic, and the global market cannot be abandoned.

It looks like an attack on all fronts, but the logic is actually simple — to catch up on necessary courses as soon as possible while holding the bottom line.

After 30 million, the real test has just begun.