Lee Giddings to head up fleet sales at new Chinese brand Aion

LEE Giddings is the new Head of Fleet Sales at Aion, a new Chinese brand that will start retailing its all-electric Aion V C-segment SUV in early 2026.

Aion is a joint venture in the UK with Jameel Motors, which also sells the Farizon electric van range in the UK. Aion itself is owned by State-owned GAC, one of China’s largest car makers.

Giddings joins Aion from Suzuki where he was National Fleet Sales Manager for the last eight-plus years.

Giddings is one of many senior appointments as the brand limbers up for its UK market launch. Also appointed are:

• Duncan Johnston – Network Development Director, bringing experience from several senior retail network roles in the UK and Europe, including at Honda, Lotus and Inchcape.
• David Pay – Sales Director, bringing 25 years of commercial experience in the automotive (McLaren) and financial services (Santander) industries.
• Ben Hurford – Aftersales Director after spending over 20 years at Renault UK in a number of senior commercial roles. Latterly he established aftersales operations at start-ups B-ON and Volta.

Managing Director of Aion is the experienced automotive professional John Wakefield, a former MD of Volvo in the UK and more recently CEO of retail group Harwoods.

“Our success will be determined in no small part by the quality of the leadership and the way we apply our deep knowledge and experience of the British motor industry,” said Wakefield.

“That expertise gives us an opportunity to do things differently, to innovate, and to create a business optimised for long-term sustainable growth. These senior team members are very experienced operators of the highest calibre and are greatly respected in the industry. I’m looking forward to working with them to execute our launch strategy and to shape the long-term future of AION Auto UK.”