Shanghai (ZXZC)- GAC AION, the new energy vehicle (NEV) subsidiary of GAC Group, announced on Wednesday its monthly sales stood at 10,206 units in the first month of 2023.

As the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday fells in Jan., the company’s sales performance took a hit accordingly. Its Jan. sales shrank 36.34% year on year, and also tumbled 65.99% from Dec. 2022.

AION S Plus; photo credit: GAC AION

The NEV manufacturer sold a total of 271,156 vehicles through 2022. Except for Jan. Feb., and Apr., the other nine months of last year all witnessed GAC AION’s sales volume exceed 20,000 units.

The company is ambitious to sell 500,000 vehicles this year, indicating an annual target of an over 80% year-on-year sales surge.

In January, GAC AION announced an all-around strategic cooperation with Horizon Robotics, a Chinese leader in computing platforms for intelligent vehicles. Under the agreement, GAC AION will build cutting-edge intelligent products based on Horizon Robotics’ Journey series chips, and focus on the R&D and application of intelligent driving and smart cockpit interactive platform, in a bid to provide users with a smarter onboard experience.

Currently, AION vehicles equipped with Horizon Robotics’ Journey 2 chip have gone into mass production. Besides, the two companies are exploring the possibilities based on the entire Journey chip series, including the Journey 5.