GAC is launching in Australia this month with a small SUV and a mid-size SUV, which will compete in two of the highest-volume sales segments in our market, but it’s also lobbing with a people mover.
People movers, aka MPVs or minivans, are popular in markets like China and Japan where they’re often used as executive transportation, but they are decidedly less desirable in Australia where they’re generally perceived as family haulers for kids to get all dirty and sticky.
The plug-in hybrid GAC M8 will enter a wider people mover segment containing 17 models… but which is absolutely dominated by just one, the Kia Carnival, which last year held a whopping 74 per cent share.
And while the people mover segment has been generally trending upwards in Australia since a nasty slump in 2020, last year just 13,654 of these practical family haulers reached Australian buyers.
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That’s more than the overall sports car segment (10,633) but less than mainstream mid-size passenger cars (24,740) and light cars (26,317).
Despite this, GAC is following in fellow Chinese brand Zeekr’s footsteps by including a people mover among its model range from launch.
“Yes, in Australia there are just a few brands which provide an MPV. This is quite a similar situation in China back to maybe 10 years,” Cheney Liang, deputy general manager of GAC Australia, told CarExpert.
“Before the M8 [launched in China], it was just the [Honda] Odyssey as the most popular one. But after the M8 goes to the market, it actually expands the market, the market becomes bigger than before.
“I think after the M8 comes to the Australian market, there will be some change in the customers because at this moment for the Carnival… Most of the customers have an Asian background, but it has already changed a little bit. The Aussies start to buy [people movers].”
GAC Australia has yet to announce pricing and specifications for any of its models, though this information is expected to be released later this month.
The M8 was launched in China in 2017, with the current generation following in 2022.
Car News China reports the M8 was one of the best-selling people movers in China in 2024, behind the Denza D9; the Toyota Sienna produced by the GAC Toyota joint venture; its Granvia twin which, unlike the defunct Australian-market Granvia, is a lightly restyled Sienna produced by the FAW Toyota joint venture; and the perennially popular Buick GL8.
It also managed to outsell the Honda Odyssey by over two-to-one.
The Australian people mover market is very different. The Carnival has long dominated here, consolidating its market share as once-popular rivals like the Toyota Tarago and Honda Odyssey left the local market.
Despite the arrival in recent years of rivals like the Ford Tourneo and Hyundai Staria, nothing has been able to shake the Kia’s iron grip on the market segment.
Even a competitively priced rival from China, the LDV MIFA, hasn’t made much of a dent. Just 166 of these have been delivered this year to the end of October, with its electric MIFA 9 sibling recording a negligible three deliveries.
The M8 is expected to be more affordable than the electric MIFA 9 and its Zeekr 009 rival, the latter of which has notched up just 104 deliveries this year.
GAC’s MPV offering will stand out by offering plug-in hybrid power, something not yet present in this segment in Australia, with rivals instead offering either petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric power.
Unusually, GAC has chosen to prioritise a people mover over passenger cars, even though light, small and medium cars are more popular overall here.
“Before we decided the products coming to Australia, we had to do some research, and we saw that the passenger [car segment] market share is dropping down, so we decided to bring here the most popular – which is the SUVs first,” said Mr Liang.
“We still haven’t decided on all the models that will come in the future. It may have a chance, if the customer needs.”
GAC offers a wide variety of passenger cars across its GAC Auto/Trumpchi, Aion, and Hyptec brands.
These range from the small electric Aion UT hatchback through to the aggressively styled GAC Empow mid-size sedan, all the way up to the wild Hyptec SSR supercar.
GAC Australia will offer models from all three brands under the GAC banner, though it hasn’t confirmed which vehicles it’ll launch after the initial trio due this year – only that it’ll have eight models on sale by the end of 2027.
Engineering vehicles for right-hand drive isn’t presenting an obstacle for the brand.
“We have already designed the platform we call the global platform that can [support] both right-hand and left-hand [drive]. Also we have many right-hand drive markets,” said Mr Liang.
According to Car Industry Analysis, GAC was the 11th best-selling auto group in China in 2024. Aion was the best-selling of its three brands, finishing the year as China’s 20th best-selling auto brand with 349,550 sales – just behind GM’s Buick (367,412) and GWM’s Haval (383,857).
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