This is the single most common reason an imported EV sits on a driveway unable to charge, and it is entirely avoidable. Every GAC AION built for the Chinese market leaves the plant with a GB/T connector. GB/T is the Chinese national standard. Outside China almost nobody uses it.
What your market actually uses
Most of the world has settled on one of two families. Type 2 for AC charging with CCS2 for DC fast charging covers Europe, most of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Type 1 with CCS1 covers North America and a handful of markets that followed it. Japan and a few others still run CHAdeMO for DC.
- Africa: predominantly Type 2 / CCS2 where public charging exists at all
- Middle East: Type 2 / CCS2, and the networks are real and growing
- Central Asia: Type 2 / CCS2, with GB/T still appearing near the Chinese border
- Europe: Type 2 / CCS2, mandated
AC and DC are two separate questions
Converting the socket is not the whole job. The on-board charger has to match your grid. A car specified for a Chinese single-phase 220V supply behaves differently on a three-phase 400V European supply, and the AC charging rate you actually get depends on that pairing rather than on the connector alone. DC fast charging is a separate path through the same port and needs its own compatibility check against the networks in your country — not against a spec sheet.
Convert before it ships, not after it lands
A conversion done in our yard is carried out on a car that has not yet been registered, insured or driven, by people who do this every week. The same job done after the car lands means finding a local workshop willing to touch a high-voltage system on an unfamiliar vehicle, usually at a worse price, and always with the car off the road while it waits.
Specify the wall box at the same time. It ships in the container with the car, wired for your plug standard and supply voltage, so the vehicle can charge the day it clears customs rather than the week an electrician gets round to it.
The two questions to ask before you pay
- Which connector standard is on the car as it will be delivered — not as it is built?
- What on-board charger rating does it have, and what will that give me on my grid?
Both answers belong in writing on the proforma invoice. If a supplier will not put them there, that is the answer. Send us your destination and the model you are considering and we will confirm both, along with what the conversion costs and how much time it adds.
