The Love And Respect for Chinese New Energy Vehicle Manufacturers

The memory of the internet is always short-lived. Nowadays, the booming new energy vehicle market in China seems to have made people forget about the fierce competition among the emerging car makers in the past few years.

Whether it’s the “Wei Xiaoli” brand with a huge following or the second-tier brands such as NETA, Lingpai, and WmAuto that follow closely behind, there may always be various criticisms towards them, but it is undeniable that as long as they stick to the car-making track, they deserve everyone’s respect.

The car we are talking about today is not from those popular new car-making companies mentioned above, but from the more “low-key” and less controversial Aiways Motors.

Founded in 2017, Aiways Motors is currently the latest new carmaker to achieve mass production. The founding team of Aiways largely comes from traditional automobile manufacturers, and the style is one of practical car manufacturing without randomness.

Aiways’ first product, the Aiways U5, was officially launched at the end of 2019. There is no need to introduce this car too much. After looking at the following picture, you can clearly feel that it has a bit of “facial resemblance” to products from other new car manufacturers, and the light-colored body with environmental protection characteristics is also a stable route to follow.

Faced with the reality of lack of first-mover advantage and the crowded domestic market, Aiways knew clearly what it wanted,”to expand its horizons and adopt a more stylish and globalized strategy to open up overseas markets.”

Therefore, Aiways became the first among Chinese new car manufacturers to obtain European Union whole vehicle certification, and officially started exporting the Aiways U5 to the European market in May last year.

Up to now, this Chinese intelligent electric vehicle has entered countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, and other countries, with a total export volume of 2,681 units—although it is rare to see Aiways’ advertisements in China, the monthly sales data released by the China Passenger Car Association inevitably mentions Aiways when it comes to Chinese brand exports.

Regarding the Aiways U5, German media once commented, “it is simple and practical, with excellent workmanship, and the price is only half of that of the Mercedes-Benz EQC.”

From this evaluation, we can roughly grasp the differences in the focus of European and Chinese consumers when purchasing electric vehicles.

Youthful and sporty design, breaking away from the “homey” style

The Aiways U6, inspired by the design of the Aiways RG Nathalie sports car, is a purely electric Coupe SUV. According to official promotions, this car is exclusively designed for “new youthful” users who love life, lead the trend, and actively embrace the future; it is a “smart toy” for them to play with.

The difference in appearance between the U5 and U6 is clearly visible.

The front of the Aiways U6 features contrasting colors, creating a distinct visual impression. Like many electric cars today, the Aiways logo on the front of the car can light up and glow.

The new car uses a LED integrated light group inspired by the starship in “Star Trek” and has good recognition when lit.

Although the Aiways U6 uses a common enclosed front face for electric cars, it retains a honeycomb-shaped air intake grille in the lower front face. This is not only to increase the overall sense of sports, but also to provide necessary air intake for the heat pump air conditioning.

The curve of the Aiways U6 body presents a diving and pressing posture. The side adopts a three-stage sporty waistline design. The black roof and the black side skirt with yellow vertical stripes on the door make the entire car look more slender from the side, reducing the bloated feeling of an SUV.

At the rear of the car, the unique “Light Blade” C-pillar continues the youthful and sporty design language. The through-type taillights are certainly not absent, among which the built-in matrix U-shaped light source echoes the front headlights.

In addition, the front and rear air deflectors, rear diffuser and small ducktail spoiler, which are standard on all versions of the Aiways U6, not only enhance the overall sportiness, but also reduce the drag coefficient, allowing the U6 to have a drag coefficient as low as 0.26.

The model-exclusive logo at the rear of the C-pillar gives the new car a personalized label.

Unlike the U5, which specializes in a calm and homey style, Aiways provides rich color choices for the U6. In addition to the solar yellow on this show car, there are also five dual-color body colors: glacier white, lunar eclipse black, nebula red, neon orange, and forest green, as well as two interior themes: blue rice/black orange.

At the same time, the special Aiways U6 CYBER PLAY model will be equipped with samurai black exclusive coating, black and blue interior theme and cool carbon fiber CYBER kit.

Thoughtful Interior, Adorned with Many “Ingenious” Details

The interior of Aiways U6 continues to be geared towards a sporty and youthful style, with a black and orange theme that appears very lively and dynamic.

At first glance, the center console of the Aiways U6 has a layout similar to the common layout of electric vehicles today. However, in some details, the unique ideas of the Aiways designers are still reflected.

The driver dashboard adopts a narrow and long size design similar to the NETA V, but the Aiways designer did not simply place it on the center console, but embedded it in a position parallel to the air outlet, with a more concise visual effect that does not block the driver’s line of sight.

The geometric patterned metal decorative film under the air outlet of the air conditioner and behind the four car door speakers are embedded with light sources. When lit at night, they will add a sci-fi feel similar to a spaceship to the car interior.

According to the official introduction, the designer of the Aiways U6 is a motorcycle enthusiast, who has brought us such a “interstellar cruise gearshift handle” shaped like a motorcycle handlebar. The driver can hold the center and rotate to shift gears.

The panel behind the shift lever on the center console is the air conditioning control button, and the center metal strip can be touched to adjust the air volume. The four corner buttons are also touch-controlled, but provide tactile feedback. According to Aiways staff, this type of control is very popular among European consumers and is evaluated as “very high-end”.

Another configuration that adds to the “high-end” feel of the Aiways U6 is the panoramic glass skylight on the roof. This skylight extends from the front windshield to the rear windshield, with a total area of 2.1 square meters (1.25 meters by 1.7 meters), exceeding the 1.9 square meters skylight glass that GAC Aion S Plus advertised during its launch.

With such a large glass rooftop, wouldn’t it be very hot sitting in the car? Aiways officials said that the double-layer glass panoramic skylight of the U6 is equipped with a PVB film in the middle and a Low-E coating on the inner glass, which can block 99.9% of UV rays and 78% of external heat.

Regarding the Low-E insulation coating, it can reduce heat loss inside the cabin and lower winter air conditioning energy consumption. As for actual effect, we’ll have to wait for product release and feedback from car owners.

As for the infotainment system of the Aiways U6, since it was a prototype vehicle during the shoot, the software has not been reviewed in detail.

In terms of hardware, the 14.6-inch high-definition central screenshowed good display performance. Additionally, the Aiways U6 is equipped with Magnat audio from Germany. Coupled with high-quality audio, the vehicle’s cavity partition technology, and stepless color-changing ambient lights, it is expected to bring excellent audio-visual effects.

Aiways also revealed that the U6 will be equipped with the in-house developed Project Go car gaming system. This system will not only allow players to play games in the car, but also “convert” real driving behaviors, geographic locations, and other data into game points, and offer interactive, development, and other gameplay elements to improve the vehicle’s playability.

In terms of intelligent driving, the Aiways U6 is equipped with 12 ultrasonic radars, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 4 panoramic cameras, and 1 front camera to support the AI-CRUISE intelligent driving assistance system. This system will support ACC adaptive cruise control, AEB automatic emergency braking, NRP narrow road assist, VRP vision-based auto-parking, NGA high-speed navigation assistance, and other 27 driving assistance functions.

It is worth mentioning the Aiways’ proprietary Narrow Road Passing (NRP) assist function. This technology allows the vehicle, within 15 meters of an obstacle such as a narrow cement pile or limit rod, to make an autonomous judgement on whether it is capable of passing. If the space between two obstacles is between 2.3 and 3 meters, the vehicle can automatically activate the narrow road assist function, adjust the direction automatically and pass the obstacle at a maximum speed of 8km/h to avoid scratches.### Conclusion

In conclusion, this is the entire content of the static experience of Aiways U6.

After a simple experience, it is not difficult to find that the overall completion and design sense of the new car have both improved compared to Aiways U5. The attractive appearance and interior make the personality of the Aiways brand more distinctive, and also more attractive to increasingly picky Chinese consumers.

In addition, this U6 is currently in the trial production stage. According to official sources, the interior texture of Aiways U6 will be further adjusted in the future, and it is planned to officially debut and launch in the fourth quarter of this year.

Regarding the current “low-key” situation of Aiways in China, I had a strong feeling when communicating with the staff that, influenced by the founders of traditional manufacturers, Aiways has put more effort into safety and quality, which are not easily perceived by the outside world. Or more simply, they have been “working hard to build cars”.

However, I believe that Aiways itself is also clear that making cars is just the first step of a long march. We need to do a good job of basic skills in product pricing, sales channels, marketing, after-sales service and other areas in order to ultimately achieve impressive sales performance.

So, can this U6 with an eye-catching appearance help Aiways change the “not bright in the East and bright in the West” situation and catch up with the development pace of other new forces in the domestic market?

This still remains to be answered by time.

However, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, new manufacturers that still cling to the track today are bound to face challenges. We also look forward to them bringing more eye-catching new cars and injecting more vitality into the booming Chinese new energy automotive industry. Good luck to Aiways.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.