GAC International has forged a deep strategic partnership with Grab, the super app platform in Southeast Asia, planning to deploy 20,000 high-performance electric vehicles (EVs) across six Southeast Asian countries within two years. Going beyond traditional automobile sales, this collaboration represents an overseas expansion of an integrated "product + service + data" ecosystem.

 

According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), EV sales in Southeast Asia surged by nearly 50% in 2024, making the region one of the fastest-growing EV markets worldwide. This large-scale, ecosystem-driven cooperation marks the transition of EV popularization in the region from the market introduction phase to a new stage of large-scale operation, and will exert a profound impact on the development direction of charging infrastructure.

 

 

The partnership will directly bring in tens of thousands of operational vehicles, which feature long daily mileage, high frequency of energy replenishment and a far greater reliance on charging facilities than private cars. The traditional decentralized and slow-charging model can no longer meet the high-efficiency operational needs of fleets. This will inevitably drive the demand for centralized dedicated charging stations, high-power fast-charging technologies and the corresponding power grid expansion.

 

The planning and construction of charging infrastructure need to shift from serving scattered individual users to supporting large-scale commercial operations, with its reliability and efficiency directly tied to the profitability of the entire mobility ecosystem.

 

 

The collaboration aims to deeply integrate intelligent cockpits with the mobility platform to optimize order acceptance efficiency and driving safety. This vehicle-terminal-cloud data connectivity lays the foundation for intelligent charging management. Future charging services will be deeply embedded in the operational ecosystem, enabling predictive energy replenishment scheduling based on big order data and battery status, as well as exclusive energy management for fleets. Charging operators are required to provide integrated solutions with seamless connection to fleet management systems and intelligent scheduling capabilities.

 

 

The GAC-Grab collaboration is a microcosm of the explosive growth of Southeast Asia’s EV market. The IEA projects that a quarter of new cars sold in Southeast Asia could be electric by 2030. The rapid market growth and ecosystem layout by leading enterprises will significantly exacerbate the contradiction of insufficient existing charging infrastructure. To ensure the interconnection of different brands of vehicles and charging networks, promoting the standardization and interoperability of charging interfaces, communication protocols and payment systems has become an urgent task for the healthy development of the industry.

 

 

The expo covers the entire industrial chain of charging facilities in an all-round way, and showcases cutting-edge solutions including high-power ultra-fast charging, intelligent charging management systems, solar-storage-charging integration and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technologies. It builds an industrial ecosystem docking platform connecting "vehicles-piles-grids-storage", presenting not only technical hardware but also dedicated to exploring systematic solutions matching large-scale fleet operations and smart energy management.

 

By bringing together global automakers, charging operators, power grid companies, core technology suppliers and investment and financing institutions, the expo serves as a hub for technical exchange, standard dialogue and business cooperation to address the emerging demand for centralized and intelligent energy replenishment in markets such as Southeast Asia.

 

Exhibitors can gain insights into the differentiated needs of different regional markets here, combine proven large-scale operational energy replenishment solutions with the specific scenarios of emerging markets, and jointly promote the construction of charging infrastructure as the cornerstone supporting the electrification transformation of transportation, laying a solid foundation for building a cleaner, more efficient and resilient integrated energy and transportation network for global sustainable development.