{"id":869465,"date":"2026-08-26T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869465\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:16:12","slug":"would-this-work-in-australia-gac-swaps-dumpy-electric-suvs-for-sleek-700km-ray-7-tesla-model-3-fighter-ev-central","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869465\/","title":{"rendered":"Would this work in Australia? GAC swaps dumpy electric SUVs for sleek 700km Ray 7 Tesla Model 3 fighter \u2013 EV Central"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re getting used to GAC serving up a collection of relatively dumpy SUVs and people-movers in Australia, but now check this out.<\/p>\n

The Chinese giant\u2019s Aion electric brand has revealed the sleek Ray 7, a near-five-metre-long electric fastback packing up to 700km of claimed range and an extraordinary amount of Huawei technology.<\/p>\n

Fresh from its online unveiling on August 19, the Ray 7 has made its first major public motor show appearance at Chengdu and looks dramatically different to the upright Aion V SUV, compact Aion UT hatch and big-face M8 people-mover already sold in Australia.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Australia\u2019s EV price war heats up! Cheaper GAC Aion UT coming to take on BYD Atto 1 and Geely EX2<\/a>
READ MORE: 2026 GAC Aion UT Review: Cheap electric city car brings big space and solid driving manners, but what about the ownership experience?<\/a>
READ MORE: Radical GAC electrified dual cab ute confirmed and detailed for Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

And unlike plenty of eye-catching Chinese-market EVs, there is at least a plausible route to Australian showrooms.<\/p>\n

GAC launched here late in 2025 and Aion is currently its core Australian brands, although there is no confirmation yet that the Ray 7 will be built in right-hand drive or offered locally.<\/p>\n

\"GACGAC Aion Ray 7.<\/p>\n

The five-seat Ray 7 is the first member of Aion\u2019s new Ray family and measures 4960mm long, 1900mm wide and just 1455mm high, with a 2920mm wheelbase.<\/p>\n

Its low-slung proportions, fastback roofline and full-width front lighting give it a dramatically sportier appearance than the Aion models we\u2019ve seen so far, while 14 separate aerodynamic measures help deliver a claimed drag coefficient of just 0.22Cd.<\/p>\n

GAC is pitching the Ray 7 at younger buyers and obvious Chinese-market competition includes the hugely successful Xiaomi SU7, Zeekr 007 and Tesla Model 3.<\/p>\n

For now, there\u2019s just one motor specification confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Ray 7 uses Huawei\u2019s DriveONE integrated electric drive system, with a rear-mounted permanent-magnet motor developing 180kW.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a headline-grabbing output by modern Chinese EV standards, but efficiency is a bigger part of the pitch.<\/p>\n

GAC claims energy consumption as low as an extraordinary 9.7kWh\/100km under the Chinese CLTC test, helping deliver up to 700km of claimed range.<\/p>\n

Lithium iron phosphate battery cells are supplied by CATL and incorporated into GAC\u2019s Magazine Battery 2.0 technology. Chinese regulatory filings have also detailed another version using cells supplied by GAC-owned Yinpai Battery.<\/p>\n

\"GACGAC Aion Ray 7.<\/p>\n

GAC hasn\u2019t yet published battery capacity.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more interesting technology beneath the Ray 7.<\/p>\n

It rides on a dedicated rear-wheel-drive EV platform and uses aluminium-intensive double-wishbone front suspension and a five-link rear end, backed by front and rear anti-roll bars and FSD adaptive dampers.<\/p>\n

Chinese reports from the launch also claim Alfa Romeo chassis-tuning expertise has been employed during the Ray 7\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the braking system that is potentially the Ray 7\u2019s most significant piece of technology.<\/p>\n

GAC says it is the first production vehicle to use Huawei\u2019s EMB \u2013 or electromechanical braking \u2013 technology as part of a new chip-level integrated drive-and-control architecture.<\/p>\n

Rather than using a conventional hydraulic connection between the brake pedal and the wheel brakes, the Huawei system uses electrical signals and electromechanical actuators at the wheels.<\/p>\n

GAC claims the Ray 7 can stop from 100km\/h in 33 metres and says the architecture incorporates redundancy to maintain braking capability in the event of system failures.<\/p>\n

Huawei\u2019s iTRACK intelligent torque-control technology is also employed to rapidly manage wheel slip on low-grip surfaces.<\/p>\n

The Huawei involvement extends into the Ray 7\u2019s extensive driver-assistance hardware.<\/p>\n

There are 27 sensors, including a 192-channel roof-mounted LiDAR unit and three 4D millimetre-wave radars.<\/p>\n

\"GACGAC Aion Ray 7.<\/p>\n

GAC says the assistance software shares its technology base with WeRide\u2019s Level 4 robotaxi development, although that does not make the Ray 7 a Level 4 autonomous car.<\/p>\n

Instead, the production system is claimed to support functions including assisted urban driving, navigating from parking space to parking space, searching for available parking spaces and automated parking.<\/p>\n

So could the Ray 7 come to Australia?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no confirmation, and the traditional sedan market here is vastly smaller than the market for SUVs.<\/p>\n

But GAC is already established locally, giving the Ray 7 a much clearer potential pathway to Australia than many of the Chinese EVs unveiled at Chengdu.<\/p>\n

It could also give Aion something its current Australian range lacks \u2013 a low, sleek and overtly desirable electric flagship rather than another SUV or people-mover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re getting used to GAC serving up a collection of relatively dumpy SUVs and people-movers in Australia, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-869465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}