GAC Aion may be the most eye-catching new force in state-owned enterprises to build cars in 2022.
According to the latest news, GAC Aion completed a round A financing, with a post-investment valuation exceeding 100 billion yuan, and an excess of 18.3 billion yuan was completed. Under the capital winter, GAC Aion's financing was unprecedented and was rushed to invest by capital institutions. Originally, GAC Aion planned to raise 15 billion yuan in Series A, but the final financing amount exceeded 3.3 billion yuan.
Compared with , the listed stock price of LePa Motor , the market value quickly encountered a halving embarrassment, GAC Aion has become the new favorite of over-the-counter capital pursuit.
Why is GAC Aion so strong in the capital market? In the captain's opinion, there are five main reasons for this:
One of them is the steady increase in sales. Captain’s home is in Guangzhou and I am so impressed by the development of GAC Aion. As of 2022, Aian has become a phenomenal new energy vehicle spread all over the streets and alleys of Guangzhou. As long as the captain goes out and goes out in less than 3 minutes, he will definitely see a GAC Aion. What impressed the most was that when I went to
, I went to Guangzhou South Station and I saw the most was Aian. These online car-hailing cars have been continuously traveling 24 hours a day on the road, forming a huge brand communication power for Aion.
However, The main consumer of Aion is not online car-hailing owners. In Aian's car owner structure, B-end sales account for only 2%, personal online car-hailing owners account for about 10%, and 88% of Aian have been bought by non-operating individual car owners. Readers who are not in Guangzhou cannot feel the popularity of Aian, but as long as they come to Guangzhou once, they look at the streets, they are almost everywhere.
In the past September, Aion's sales exceeded 30,000 for the first time, ranking first among the new forces in car manufacturing. Four months ago, Aion's monthly sales had just exceeded 20,000 vehicles. Judging from Aian's sales data in 2022, it is steadily climbing almost every month, very stable, and is a classic small step fast running model.
Why can Aian's sales continue to grow steadily? The captain believes that one word can be summarized: "extreme cost-effectiveness".
Aion does not have hybrid models, and its sales growth mainly depends on two pure electric cars, namely the sedan Aion S and the SUV Aion Y. The starting price of Aian S is 139,800, while the starting price of Aian Y is 109,500, of which the starting price of Aian Y PLUS version is 139,800.
BYD Qin EV standard version, which is the same level as Aion S, starts at 155,800 yuan, which is 16,000 yuan more expensive than Aion S. As a pure electric SUV, the starting price of Aian Y is only 109,500 yuan, and the starting price of Aian Y PLUS version is only 139,800 yuan. This price is almost the cheapest among pure electric SUVs in China, and it has achieved the ultimate cost-effectiveness.
For most ordinary consumers, there are only two domestic pure electric SUVs under 150,000 yuan, one is Geely Geely Geely Geely , and the other is Aian Y and Aian Y PLUS. Among them, Geely's Geometric C development was not smooth, and Aian Y and Aian Y PLUS have almost become the best choices for pure electric SUVs within 150,000.
The second is the integration of the core supply chain. As a new car-making force, Aion cannot do independent research and development of three-electric systems like BYD . Its three-electric system mainly comes from Japan Electric and GAC Nideko. GAC Nideko is a joint venture established by GAC and Nippon Electric. In other words, Aian's core three-electric technology comes from Japan Electric.
This solves the stable supply problem of Aian three-electric system, but also makes Aian rely on Japanese suppliers in core technology. Considering the sharp decline in sales of Japanese cars in the Chinese market, Japanese suppliers who want to gain a foothold in the Chinese market in the future will mostly rely on local Chinese brand car companies.
Aian once considered looking for Huawei to cooperate, but Huawei parts were too expensive and were forced to give up.
Captain believes that Aion could temporarily rely on Japanese Electric in the early stages of development. But from the long run, you still have to take the three core technologies into your own hands.
In terms of battery supply, Aian implements diversified strategies. In addition to purchasing CATCH , Aian focuses on supporting China Innovation Airlines and simultaneously builds self-made battery production lines to reduce dependence on CATCH and improve battery bargaining power.
Third, state-owned enterprises endorse and government and enterprise resources are strong. Aian is backed by the wealthy GAC Group , and is a typical rich second-generation. GAC is not only paying money, people, technology, and supply chain to Aion, it is completely cultivated as a son.
In the Aion hybrid shareholding reform, GAC increased its capital of Aion by 7.407 billion, gave production equipment worth 3.557 billion, and gave 4.975 billion cash to Aion so that Aion could receive hundreds of technical talents and related technical patents from GAC Research Institute .
This makes Aian's innate resources extremely excellent, and he is a big step ahead of new forces such as Wei Xiaoli from the beginning.
The fourth is a rich reserve of technical talents. Relying on GAC Research Institute, Aian has accumulated two core technologies: First, it focuses on safe and stable magazine batteries. Second, the full stack self-developed ADiGO intelligent assisted driving system.
In terms of motors and electric drives, Aian is not entirely dependent on Japan Electric. GAC and Aion jointly established a subsidiary and successfully developed the world's first two-speed dual-motor "four-in-one" integrated electric drive, among which the motor of the application channel was also independently developed by Aion.
This system is equipped with the Hyper SSR, the first supercar brand released by Aion, with a starting price of 1.28 million yuan.
From this we can see that Aian is confident in self-developed technology. According to public information, Chinese automakers that are currently impacting the million-dollar super luxury electric car market have confirmed that there are Aion "Haobo", BYD "Starry Sky" and Geely " Lutes ". Whether it can be successful depends on the market performance in 2023.
Fifth, the mixed shareholding reform was successfully completed. In the mixed shareholding ownership reform, Aian granted 4.55% equity to the core management and technical team, which were held by GAC Aian employee equity incentive platform and GAC Research Institute technology personnel holding platform respectively. There were 794 people, with a total investment of 1.782 billion yuan, with an average investment of about 2.24 million yuan per employee.
is calculated based on a valuation of 100 billion yuan. The current value of GAC employee shareholding is 4.55 billion yuan, with an average equity value of 5.73 million yuan per person. In just one year, the equity income held by Aion employees increased by 2.55 times. Considering that Aion's development is still under rapid growth, its ultimate market is likely to further amplify, and most of its shareholders may achieve one-time financial freedom.
General Manager Gu Huinan directly mortgaged the house in Guangzhou and raised 20 million yuan to buy shares of Aian's internal employees. So far, Gu Huinan has made a net profit of 31 million.
employees invested in shares, which greatly increased the enthusiasm of Aian employees. Aian and his employees were tied to a boat, prospering and losing. Employees holding shares will not feel that they are selling their labor, but are working for themselves.
Judging from Aian's market performance, Aian's mixed shareholding reform has achieved initial success. In the A round of financing, 53 strategic investors took away 17.72% of their equity with an investment of 18.3 billion, and GAC still holds absolute control with 76.89% of their equity.
From the above five points, Aian, as China's largest new energy vehicle unicorn, has a valuation of twice the market value of Xiaopeng . There is almost no suspense when logging in to Science and Technology Innovation Board . Aian's internal employees and external capital have a high degree of certainty in their future.
In the field of pure electric, Aian is already a dark horse that has emerged. If all capitals cannot get on the bus at this time, there will be no chance in the future.
