Technology
Intelligent Factory
Where your AION is actually built, and how intelligent that build really is.
Technology
Where your AION is actually built, and how intelligent that build really is.
For both conventional and new energy vehicles, intelligence runs through GAC’s entire manufacturing process. The state grades intelligent plants on a five-level maturity scale, and the GAC AION Smart Ecological Factory was graded on completion.
Reached on completion
Level 3
Reached in part
Level 4
Target for 2025
Level 5
The plant broke ground in September 2017. It is a world-class digital plant built around the Internet of Things, big data and customisation, running on comprehensive clean energy: a smart micro-grid, photovoltaic and other clean sources, and an electric energy storage system.
The plant in numbers
Gross investment
RMB 4.7 bn
Floor area
470,000 m²
Planned capacity
400,000 a year
First-phase capacity
200,000 a year
Four firsts
To suit lightweight materials such as aluminium alloy, the plant runs the world’s first aluminium riveting and spot welding switching technology on a steel-aluminium hybrid production line. The AION S body combines high-strength steel with aluminium alloy for world-leading levels of safety and light weight.
The first vehicle plant in China to run production process analysis and decision-making through a global data cloud platform, lifting both production efficiency and quality control. Data is acquired, analysed and judged, and the line acts on it.
Through C2B customisation, the plant is the first in the world to involve customers deeply in vehicle design and manufacturing. In the GAC NE app, 16,800 configurations can be built for the AION S and 60,000 for the AION LX, and customers can watch their own car being made.
A solar roof of 52,000 photovoltaic panels covering 85,000 square metres generates 16.77 million kWh a year, around 15% of the plant’s full-load consumption, backed by 1,000 kWh of first-phase battery storage. Water-based LASD spraying cuts benzene and aldehyde VOCs inside the vehicle by 49%, and zirconium green film technology removes harmful emissions.
Conventional vehicles
Built to world-class industry standards, the Yichang plant is GAC’s model for the intelligent manufacturing of conventional vehicles: high-efficiency, high-quality, energy-saving and environmentally friendly. Four disciplines are integrated into one line.
Production automation
Information digitalisation
Intelligent management
Ecological intelligent manufacturing
Available now
AION UT and AION V both come off the same intelligent production line.