You might remember Jon Wakefield (main picture) as Managing Director of Volvo Cars, or more recently heading up Harwoods dealer group. Now he’s in charge of Chinese brand Aion and in this exclusive interview explains to Tristan Young (left) how the leasing broker channel is integral to the OEM’s sales strategy.
Who is Aion?
NEW Chinese brand Aion is preparing to enter the UK market in mid-2026. Aion is a brand of state-owned GAC and is entering the UK market in a joint venture with Jameel Motors, which also retails the Farizon electric van range.
Aion has a clear intention to play across all sales channels including fleet, leasing and brokers. The initial line up will feature just two cars but this will rapidly expand to six models by 2028.
Speaking exclusively to Broker News about the launch of the new brand, Aion UK Managing Director Jon Wakefield said Aion would “follow the market” in terms of how sales are represented.
Wakefield, who has recently worked at Volvo and dealer group Harwoods, said he’d deliberately built a highly experienced senior leadership team for Aion in the UK. This includes Lee Giddings as Head of Fleet, who joins from Suzuki, and David Pay, who joins from McLaren, as Sales Director.
“If you look at the skillset we’ve employed in the sales team, you can understand that we’ve got ourselves focused on all channels in the market,” said Wakefield. “The retail customer is vitally important, but the fleet market is a big part of what you play in the market as well.”
Wakefield wants Aion in all market sectors
While Aion is a new brand to UK drivers, parent company GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Corporation) is one of China’s 10 largest manufacturers and top five for EVs. Wakefield wouldn’t be drawn on which legacy brand Aion is most like but he did point out that GAC has long term joint venture partnerships with Toyota and Honda in China and had learnt a lot from those OEMs.
“What’s key to point out here is that we’re not actually a startup,” explains Wakefield. We’re bringing quite a well-established brand to the UK.”
Wakfield confirmed Aion intends to engage directly with brokers and leasing companies.
“The broker channel exists, customers deal with the broker channel, retailers deal with the broker channel, so we’ll play in all aspects of the UK market.”
Aion expects its mix of fleet and retail business to “broadly follow the market,” but Wakefield noted that evolving tax policy and government incentives, particularly around salary sacrifice and EVs, make precise planning difficult. “So much of the market dynamic is altered by taxation and government policy, isn’t it? Hence the fact, I don’t think it would be wise to pin your colours to the mast,” he said. “It will change over time and I think we’ve got… the agility to shift as appropriate.”
The new Aion product coming to the UK
Aion’s launch has slipped slightly and instead of a Q1 2026 start Wakefiled says it will begin retailing in mid-Q2 2026 with two battery-electric models: the Aion V, a C-segment SUV, and the Aion UT, a B-segment hatchback.
The Aion V
“The Aion V has a leading range for its class,” Wakefield said. “The space inside the car is also a very strong point and the charging speed is keen.”
The Aion V delivers a 317-mile WLTP range and a 10–80% charge in 24 minutes thanks to a max charge speed of 180kW. Pricing is expected to start at around £36,000. Each car will come with an eight-year warranty and the brand will ensure national aftersales coverage through a UK service partner that Aion has yet to confirm.
The Aion UT
The UT hatchback, which has been styled in GAC’s Milan studio, will follow almost immediately after the V in Q2 2026. Like the V, the UT will be electric and rivals cars such as the Volkswagen ID.3. It features a long wheelbase with short overhangs. Following the launch models, Aion plans two more models to be added in 2027 and a further two in 2028.
When pushed on volume aspirations, Wakefield hinted at a more steady approach to that used by other Chinese new entrants who have registered significant volumes rapidly after launch. “We do not want to just come in and be heroes. This is a considered market entry and we’re here for the long term, hence the joint venture with Jameel Motors,” he said.
He underlined that the company’s entry into the UK is built on steady, sustainable growth, not short-term targets. “We’re not going to talk about specific volume,” he said. “Sustainable growth for us and our retail partners is more important than ringing a massive bell for volume.”
Aion sales model
Although Aion will operate through a franchise dealer network rather than direct sales or agency, the brand’s retail partners will play a central role in serving fleet and business customers as well as private buyers.
The company plans to start with around 15 retailer partners, operating roughly 100 sites in 2028 as its model range grows. Wakefield said this approach will allow Aion to manage both customer experience and business volumes sustainably. “We’re not looking for large brand statements,” he said. “As the model range grows and our reach grows, we want those retail partners to grow in a sensible way with us.”
That structure, he added, will help build a viable foundation for fleet relationships. “We’re not just selling a number of cars, it’s about creating a good level of customer service… and our experience would suggest that the franchise model is the best way to achieve that.”
The future for Aion
Wakefield put Aion’s wider ambition succinctly: “This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. In time, with the small number of partners, we will build a really viable and profitable business.” And that ambition includes leasing brokers.
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
