GAC Aion Factory Tour: The Lighthouse Plant, the Assembly Halls and Yinpai Battery in Panyu

A GAC Aion factory tour puts a delegation inside one of the very few car plants the World Economic Forum has called a lighthouse. The GAC Aion smart eco-factory in Panyu was named to the WEF Global Lighthouse Network in December 2023 and was, at the time, the only new-energy-vehicle plant on the list, recognised for steel-and-aluminium body flexible production, digital autonomous decision-making, interactive customisation and energy use. It is also, right now, a plant running well below its design capacity. GAC Aion sold 290,081 vehicles in 2025, down 22.62% on the year and roughly 40% below its 2023 peak of 480,003, and the GAC Group 2025 annual report puts the brand's capacity utilisation at 54% against a design capacity of 560,000 units. Both facts belong in the same paragraph, because the visit is worth taking precisely because of the gap between them. What a delegation walks through is the exhibition hall, the assembly shop, sometimes the welding shop, and across the same industrial park the cell workshop at Yinpai Battery, the group's own battery company. Then a meeting room, where the questions that matter get answered rather than narrated.

Key takeaways

The programme runs at the GAC Aion smart eco-factory in Shilou, Panyu District, Guangzhou, inside the GAC intelligent connected new-energy vehicle industrial park, with the Yinpai Battery plant in the same park. A standard day runs 09:00 to 15:30: exhibition hall, assembly shop, the welding shop where the host's schedule allows, the Yinpai halls and cell workshop, then a themed session. Half-day versions drop the battery plant, not the assembly shop.

The plant is the reason a delegation books it rather than a showroom visit. Construction started in September 2017, total investment was 4.7 billion yuan, the site covers 470,000 square metres, or 703 mu, planned capacity is 400,000 vehicles a year with 200,000 in the first phase, and the WEF named it a lighthouse factory in December 2023. Guangzhou's own published figures for 2023 put first-pass yield at 98.5% and throughput at 53 seconds per vehicle.

The commercial numbers are the honest part, and a good guide will not hide them. Aion peaked at 480,003 vehicles in 2023, fell to roughly 375,000 in 2024 and to 290,081 in 2025. The GAC Group reported its first full-year loss since listing for 2025: revenue of 96.542 billion yuan, down 10.43%, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of 8.784 billion yuan. Aion's capacity utilisation was 54% for the year, against a national auto-manufacturing average of 73.2% published by the statistics bureau in January 2026.

The first half of 2026 turned. GAC reported 181,600 vehicles for the Hyper-Aion business unit, up 67.08% year on year, with retail customers accounting for more than 80% of sales — the metric that matters most for a brand defined by fleet sales. The i60, launched in November 2025 as Aion's first range-extended model, has held monthly sales above 10,000, and the N60 city SUV passed 10,000 deliveries within roughly two months of its April 2026 launch.

The session is where the visit earns its afternoon. Standard themes are the GAC Production System and how mass customisation is scheduled, or the battery story from Magazine Battery 2.0 through to Yinpai's own cells. We arrange the programme end to end, including scheduling on the Chinese side and English interpretation on site.

Key visit details

Where the visit is held

At the GAC Aion smart eco-factory in Shilou Town, Panyu District, south-eastern Guangzhou, inside the GAC intelligent connected new-energy vehicle industrial park — a park of about 7,500 mu that also holds Yinpai Battery, the CATL-GAC battery joint venture, GAC Aisin transmissions and a cluster of component suppliers. From Zhujiang New Town or Pazhou the transfer is roughly an hour in normal traffic and longer at peak, which is the single most important planning constraint on the day.

Format and duration

A full day, in the order the site works to: exhibition hall, assembly shop, welding shop, the battery plant across the park, lunch, then the themed session. Half a day usually means the exhibition hall, the assembly shop and a short session. The plant runs its own industrial-tour programme by appointment in capped sessions with a guide and a safety briefing; professional delegations are routed separately, with more time on the floor and a speaker who is not reading the public script.

Who the programme suits

Five groups get proportionally more from it. Manufacturing and operations teams, because mass customisation on a mixed steel-and-aluminium line is a scheduling problem they can evaluate on the floor. Battery and supply-chain teams, because Yinpai is a live test of how far a carmaker should vertically integrate. Distributors and fleet buyers, because the model range and export footprint are procurement decisions. Investors, because the capacity utilisation figure explains the margin structure better than any slide. And city and regional delegations, because the park itself is the transferable lesson.

Booking, group size and site rules

Around 30 days is the practical lead time. The programme starts at 10 participants. Foreign visitors need passport details registered with the site in advance, which is a longer process than for a domestic group, and photography is restricted on the production floor at the host's discretion. The shops are walked as viewing routes, not entered as work areas; access to any specific station is subject to the host's schedule on the day.

Why a GAC Aion factory tour is worth a delegation's day

Three questions bring most delegations to Panyu, and this site answers all three without flattering itself. What does an advanced car plant look like when it is not running flat out? What does a carmaker gain by making its own batteries, and what does it cost? And how does a brand climb out of a fleet-sales identity?

The first is answered by the numbers before you arrive, and then by what you see. A plant designed for 560,000 vehicles a year built 300,500 of them in 2025. The interesting question on the floor is therefore not how fast the line is — 53 seconds per vehicle is a published figure and the line will be moving — but how much of its flexibility actually gets used. Mixed-model scheduling, customised orders interleaved with stock builds, and a changeover cost the company claims is close to zero, are all things you can test with your eyes rather than take from a slide.

The second is answered across the park at Yinpai. Carmakers that build their own cells are making a bet on volume: batteries are roughly 40% of a vehicle's cost, and in-house cells only pay off if the factory stays full. Watching a carmaker's own cell line next door to its assembly shop makes that bet concrete — including the part of it that depends on sales recovering.

The third is answered in the exhibition hall and in the session. Aion spent 2023 selling heavily into taxi and ride-hailing fleets; the chairman has publicly defended the tag rather than apologising for it, on the argument that a vehicle used ten hours a day is the hardest durability test there is. But the brand has since repositioned around private buyers and launched its first range-extended model. That turnaround is the most transferable thing on the site for any delegation running a brand that got typecast.

Inside the GAC Aion smart eco-factory

The exhibition hall: three electrics, customisation and the connected-car data centre

The route starts in the exhibition hall rather than on the line, and it is not filler. It runs from the Aion and Hyper model line-up through the connected-vehicle data centre, the three-electric technology displays — battery, motor and electronic control — then personalisation, chassis and electrical architecture, and the energy ecosystem. The data centre is the segment executives remember: a live screen showing vehicles sold and running, with battery anomalies surfaced to owners in real time.

The customisation display is the part to press on. The plant publishes that it supports more than 100,000 specification combinations and 25 body colours on a mixed line, at a claimed 53 seconds per customised vehicle. Whether that is a commercial capability or a demonstration capability is a fair question to put to the guide: deep customisation works here because the order bank and the production sequence are planned together, which is a supply-chain achievement more than a robotics one.

The assembly shop

The assembly shop is the core of the visit. The route covers the plant overview, the GAC Production System, collaborative robotics, the adaptive line, the automatic windscreen installation line, the automatic tyre and seat installation line, the final inspection line and the SSR line — the supercar line, built in 2023 as the first of its kind in China. The shop is laid out as a loop, so one circuit covers interior, chassis and exterior assembly in build order, with the digital control centre alongside showing production, quality and logistics in real time.

What to look for is the mix rather than the machines. Battery transfer robots handling roughly 1.2 tonne packs with vision positioning, automatic glass and seat fitting, and an inspection regime the company describes as approaching zero defect. The number of robots on the floor is the question every delegation asks, and the answer varies by shop and by source — the guides put it in the hundreds for the body and assembly areas. The honest framing is that automation is high in welding and variable in assembly, where the line is built to be resequenced rather than fully unmanned.

The welding shop

The welding shop is included where the host's schedule allows and dropped where it does not. The route covers the aluminium bonnet line, the body framing line, the CMT automatic welding cell and laser inline measurement. It is the most visually automated part of the plant and the most useful for a delegation with a joining problem, because the aluminium content is what makes the flexible steel-and-aluminium claim real rather than rhetorical. Confirm it in advance and treat confirmation as provisional.

Yinpai Battery: the cell workshop across the park

Yinpai Battery Technology was registered in October 2022, funded by GAC Group with GAC Aion holding control, and sits inside the same Panyu park. Total investment is 10.9 billion yuan across 666 mu, planned capacity is 36GWh of power and storage cells, and it was described at groundbreaking as the largest power-and-storage battery project in Guangzhou. The phased plan had 6GWh of equipment in place first, then 12GWh, then a second 18GWh building, with all 36GWh lines targeted for the end of 2025 and annual output value put at more than 21 billion yuan. We have not seen a company confirmation that the full build-out completed on that schedule, and it is a good question to ask on site.

What a delegation sees is the exhibition hall and the cell workshop. The hall covers GAC's battery history, R&D capability, the digital platform, process engineering and the AI and big-data stack. The cell workshop is a viewing route over electrode and cell assembly. Yinpai was named in the first batch of China's nationally recognised excellent-level smart factories in 2024, and in 2026 it showed a 587Ah semi-solid-state storage cell — evidence that the plant is being pushed towards storage as well as traction batteries.

What the 2025 numbers actually show

The headline figures are the ones a delegation should have before arriving, because they shape every question in the room. GAC Aion sold 290,081 vehicles in 2025, down 22.62%. Group-wide, GAC sold 1,721,500 vehicles, down 14.06%, of which new-energy vehicles were 433,600, down 4.64%. Group revenue was 96.542 billion yuan, down 10.43%, and the net loss attributable to shareholders was 8.784 billion yuan, the first full-year loss since listing.

Capacity is the number that explains the rest. The 2025 annual report gives Aion a design capacity of 560,000 vehicles against output of 300,500, a utilisation rate of 54%. GAC Toyota ran at 76%, GAC Honda at 59%, Trumpchi at 46%, and the group as a whole at roughly 60%. The national statistics bureau put China's auto-manufacturing capacity utilisation at 73.2% for 2025, so several of these plants sit well below their industry.

The consequence is arithmetic rather than narrative. With fewer vehicles absorbing the same fixed cost, GAC reported that per-vehicle labour, depreciation and other fixed costs across its own brands rose by roughly 40% in 2025, and that per-vehicle gross profit of about 2,200 yuan in 2024 swung to a gross loss of about 8,300 yuan. A delegation that understands this before the session asks better questions in it.

The ride-hailing question and the reset

Any honest account of GAC Aion has to deal with fleet sales. Industry data cited in Chinese coverage puts Aion at roughly 220,000 of about 850,000 new taxi and ride-hailing vehicles registered in China in 2023 — around a quarter of that market and, by the same reporting, roughly 45% of Aion's own sales that year. That dependence is the most cited explanation for what happened next: when ride-hailing fleets saturated, a brand whose volume rested on them lost a third of it over two years.

The company's answer has two parts. The first is a defence rather than an apology: GAC's chairman has argued publicly that a ride-hailing vehicle is a means of production, used ten or more hours a day, and that operators buy on durability, comfort and energy cost. The second is a genuine pivot. Aion launched the i60, its first range-extended model, in November 2025; relaunched the brand in April 2026 around a family-buyer proposition with a new logo; and pushed driver assistance hardware downmarket, with the N60 offering lidar as standard from a presale price of 115,800 yuan.

The reset is working on the metric that matters. GAC reported that retail customers accounted for more than 80% of Hyper-Aion sales in the first half of 2026, against a base in which fleet sales had been close to half. Hyper and Aion were merged into one business unit at the end of 2025 with full decision rights across R&D, production, sales and service, and new-model development cycles have shortened from 26 months to 18 to 21.

Batteries: from Magazine Battery to Yinpai

Aion's battery story runs through two things a visitor can see. The first is the Magazine Battery family, the pack architecture behind the brand's safety claims: company materials state that Magazine Battery 2.0 has been installed in more than 1.3 million vehicles with no spontaneous combustion across more than 50 billion kilometres driven. Those are manufacturer claims rather than audited figures and are worth labelling as such; the published figure as of late 2023 was more than 650,000 vehicles.

The second is ownership. Aion's move into its own cells was driven by cost and supply security when battery materials were expensive and CATL dominated supply. In-house cells only make sense at scale, which is what makes the volume dip uncomfortable — and it means the plant next door has to find demand beyond its parent. Yinpai's push into storage reads as a hedge against exactly that.

Note the distinction between the two battery companies in the park, because it confuses visitors. Yinpai is GAC's own, controlled by GAC Aion. The CATL-GAC joint venture in the same park is a separate entity with its own shareholders and production history. Ask which one you are being shown.

What different teams take away

For manufacturing and operations teams — how a mixed steel-and-aluminium line is actually sequenced, what deep customisation costs in changeover time, where automation stops and people start, and how the control centre is used for real decisions rather than dashboards.

For battery and supply-chain teams — the case for and against a carmaker owning cell production, what a 36GWh line looks like at partial utilisation, how storage demand is being used to fill it, and how in-house and joint-venture supply are balanced inside one group.

For distributors and fleet buyers — the current model range including the range-extended i60 and the N60, the export footprint and which markets Aion is already in.

For investors — why a lighthouse plant and a 54% utilisation rate can both be true, what the capacity figure does to unit economics, and whether the shift to retail buyers is durable. Aion completed its joint-stock restructuring in 2025 but no listing has been confirmed; GAC's chairman said in 2025 that it was not the right moment to push a listing.

For city and regional delegations — how a 7,500-mu park was assembled around an anchor plant, what it takes to attract cell, transmission and component suppliers into one district, and what happens to that district when the anchor's volumes fall.

Sample visit programme

This is the shape of a standard full day, and it is the order the site works to. Half-day versions keep the exhibition hall, the assembly shop and a short session.

A lighthouse factory and a plant running at 54% of its design capacity are the same building. The useful question for a visitor is not which one is true, but what the gap costs.

Two variations change this shape. A manufacturing delegation usually trades exhibition-hall time for more time in the welding shop and the control centre. A battery delegation usually trades assembly-shop detail for a longer session at Yinpai. Both are settled during planning.

Where a GAC Aion factory tour can be arranged

GAC Aion sits in Shilou, Panyu, in the south-east of Guangzhou, and that is where the programme above runs. It works as the manufacturing anchor inside a Guangzhou tech tour, the natural frame for a city whose itineraries run from vehicle plants to electric aviation.

Most delegations pair it with one or two other stops. An XPeng visit is the obvious comparison — another Guangzhou electric-vehicle maker, a different generation and a different product thesis, and the two together say more about China's EV market than either alone. An EHang factory tour adds electric aviation in the same city. Because Panyu is about an hour from the centre, put it first or last in the day.

Practical notes for the day

Decide the session theme before you book. The speaker comes from the team that owns the subject, so the production-system route and the battery route are staffed by different people. Asking for both in full produces a rushed hour.

Bring someone who reads a production line. The exhibition hall is legible to any executive. The parts that repay attention — changeover cost, resequencing, what the control centre actually decides — need a manufacturing or quality engineer in the room. A delegation composed entirely of general managers will spend the session watching robots.

Plan for interpretation and for terminology. GAC Production System, Magazine Battery, CMT welding and range-extended architecture do not translate cleanly, and the terms that carry the meaning are the ones with no common equivalent. Professional English interpretation is part of how we run the programme rather than an optional extra, and a glossary goes out with the pre-visit material.

Treat the distance as part of the programme. Panyu is roughly an hour from central Guangzhou in normal traffic and longer at peak, and the park is large enough that moving between the vehicle plant and the battery plant is a transfer rather than a walk. Delegations that combine this with two more visits in the same day consistently report that the value drops.

Questions before a GAC Aion factory tour

Where is the visit held? At the GAC Aion smart eco-factory in Shilou Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, about an hour from Zhujiang New Town or Pazhou, with the Yinpai Battery plant in the same industrial park.

Is this a working factory? Yes. The assembly shop is a production line running to the day's build schedule, not a demonstration cell. The exhibition hall and the cell workshop are viewing routes, and welding is included only where the host's schedule allows.

Can we walk onto the line? No, not as a matter of course. The shops are walked as marked viewing routes alongside the line. Access to any specific station is at the host's discretion on the day and should not be built into the agenda as a commitment.

Can we take photographs? On the production floor, photography is restricted and permitted only at the host's discretion. The exhibition hall is usually more permissive, but ask before raising a camera.

Is English interpretation provided? Yes. English interpretation on site is part of how we run the programme, and it matters most in the session, where manufacturing and battery terminology carries the meaning. A glossary goes out with the pre-visit material.

Can we include the Yinpai Battery plant? Yes, in the full-day programme, and it is the part most delegations would otherwise miss. It is a short transfer inside the same park, combining the exhibition hall with a viewing route over the cell workshop.

What is the minimum group size? The programme starts at 10 participants. Larger delegations are workable and we plan the route split and the room around the number you bring.

How far in advance should we book? Around 30 days is the practical lead time. Foreign visitors need passport details registered with the site in advance, the plant runs by appointment, and the session speakers come from active production and engineering teams, so the date is the binding constraint.

Is GAC Aion listed? No. GAC Group is listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong; GAC Aion completed a joint-stock restructuring in 2025 and remains unlisted, with no listing plan confirmed as of 2026.

Who should be in the room? A manufacturing or quality engineer alongside the commercial decision-makers. The session assumes a working knowledge of production systems, and delegations that bring only general managers get materially less from it.

Arranging your GAC Aion factory tour

We arrange the visit for you end to end: the introduction to the host, the scheduling on the Chinese side, the session theme, visitor registration, transport from your hotel and back, and English interpretation on the day. Tell us your dates, your delegation size and which theme your team needs, and we will confirm what can be arranged. Start at chinatechvisits.com/company-visits.