Author | Nie Yiyao

A grand press conference was held, unveiling the new “AI Divine Arrow” logo and the “China’s number one supercar” Hyper SSR priced at 1.286-1.686 million yuan, which definitely caught people’s attention.

However, attracting attention is not the goal. The goal is as stated by Feng Xingya, the general manager of GAC Group: to make Aiways one of the top three high-end intelligent electric vehicle brands in the world.

High-end is the collective aspiration of Chinese brands. The sense of shame caused by being beaten by foreign brands for many years in the era of fuel vehicles has made Chinese brands collectively rush towards the high-end in the new energy transition.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Aiways wants to be high-end. What is astonishing is that Aiways not only wants to be high-end, but also wants to be among the top three in the world.

The most fair thing about the race towards electrification and intelligence is that everything based on seniority is overturned and a new order is being rebuilt. Opportunities and challenges are everywhere. For Aiways to become one of the top three high-end intelligent electric vehicle brands in the world, it is not impossible, but at least they need to achieve the following:

To be high-end, Aiways needs to tear off the “ridesharing” tag from its brand image. Ridesharing is definitely not related to high-end in the current domestic market.

Aiways also needs to increase brand awareness from the edge of the ranking of high-end brands to the center of attention.

The previously vague brand label called “fun” needs to be more specific and able to accurately define the demands and spiritual connotations of the target users.

Aiways also needs to raise the prices of its main selling models to the market-recognized high-end level. Otherwise, to claim high-end prices without offering high-end products is just meaningless self-praise.

To become one of the top three high-end brands in the world, Aiways needs to speak with sales after achieving the above points. Sales volume is not the only criterion for measuring brand status, but it is the most objective standard.

Aiways dare to set such a huge goal, there must be a reason for its confidence, but the market feedback relies on evidence rather than words. What Aiways has and what it lacks, and what it is doing, can be discussed in-depth at the moment, which is also quite interesting.

Aiways has sales: 100,000-200,000 yuan products are the main sellers, and there are still 10% ridesharing users

Before this press conference, the most talked-about topic surrounding Aiways was sales.

In 2021, Aiways sold 127,000 vehicles, surpassing three new forces. This year, Aiways’ sales volume has continued to rise like a miracle.Sales achievements build confidence. Coupled with the possible dissatisfaction with the combination of “Wei Xiaoli”, which consists of two pure electric vehicles and one extended-range electric vehicle, Aiways decided to “make some waves”. At the annual report meeting of the GAC Group at the end of March this year, Feng Xingya said a refreshing statement: the name “Wei Xiaoli” should be changed to “Ai Xiaowei”.

As soon as Feng Xingya finished speaking, “Ai Xiaowei” became a fact in terms of sales. In March of this year, Aiways’ sales volume reached 20,317, while Ideals’ sales volume was 11,034, and NIO and Xpeng’s sales volume were far behind.

Not only did Aiways successfully kick Ideal out of the trio, but it also surpassed Xpeng and Nio to form the “Ai Xiaowei” pure electric combination in terms of sales. This ranking has been maintained since then. In August of this year, Aiways’ sales volume reached 27,021. As of the first eight months of this year, Aiways’ cumulative sales volume had reached 152,305, and Xpeng and Nio could only follow behind, including Ideal.

However, if sales volume is the only metric considered, it may be too one-sided. The biggest controversy among the market regarding “Ai Xiaowei” is that Aiways’ main selling models’ prices cannot be compared with “Wei Xiaoli,” and Aiways’ sales still include online car-hailing.

It is well known that Aiways’ main selling models are concentrated in the price range of 100,000-200,000 yuan. Taking August sales as an example, AION S, which starts at a price of 139,800 yuan, sold 11,683 units, and AION Y, which starts at a price of 137,600 yuan, sold 11,012 units. The sales of these two models totaled 22,695 units, accounting for 84% of their sales volume in August.

In comparison, the unit price of Nio is over 400,000 yuan, and the main selling models, ES6 and ET7, respectively start at 386,000 yuan and 458,000 yuan. The main selling model of Xpeng, the P7, has a starting price of 239,900 yuan, and the starting prices of Ideals are all above 300,000 yuan. Obviously, Aiways cannot compete with “Wei Xiaoli” in terms of pricing.

Additionally, Aiways’ label as an “online car-hailing” vehicle has not yet been removed. A recent survey by the GAC Group showed that Aiways has increased its proportion of C-end sales this year. From January to August this year, Aiways’ C-end personal purchase sales volume reached 88% of the total sales volume, but the proportion of C-end personal purchased online car-hailed vehicles still reached 10%.

A good indicator is that the proportion of B-end operating vehicles sold by Aiways has decreased from 43% in 2021 to 2% this year. It seems that regardless of how the leaders of Aiways refute the claim that B-end operating vehicles lower the brand image, the facts speak for themselves.But the price of the main selling car model has not reached the high-end range, and the label and influence of “ride-hailing” have not been completely removed and eliminated. There is still a long way to go between the sales of Aiways and high-end brands.

Aiways has technology: both three-electricity and smart driving can be shown off, but user perception is not enough

“Aiways is a technology company.” This is an enterprise positioning that Aiways has been spreading for several years.

In order to remove the hat that domestic car technology is not good in the era of fuel cars, and to truly become independent from traditional car companies and the era of fuel cars, to build a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand image, Aiways did choose to take the technological route from the very beginning.

When most car companies were still “switching from oil to electricity”, Aiways spent 3 billion yuan to build the GEP2.0 all-aluminum pure electric exclusive platform, and now this platform has been upgraded to GEP3.0. The Aiways hypercar Hyper SSR released this time is based on the GEP3.0 platform and Huawei CCA architecture.

In the past two years, Aiways’ three-electricity technology has also released many big moves, such as: magazine battery, ultra-high-speed battery, sponge silicon negative electrode film battery, supporting zero-to-hundred acceleration to enter the 2-second era, the two-speed double-motor “four-in-one” integrated electric drive, and so on. The Aiways hypercar Hyper SSR released this time only requires 1.9 seconds from zero to one hundred.

Aiways’ ADiGO intelligent driving and interconnection ecological system covers core technologies such as intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, big data, and cloud platform, and has now developed to ADiGO 4.0.

With so many technologies, Aiways is also generous in affirming its own technology in its publicity, but the user’s perception of Aiways technology is not high.

Aiways regards a long list of nouns such as “advanced, fun, trendy, high-quality” as brand labels, but it seems that every word dilutes the brand characteristics. When everything is good, nothing stands out.

Together with the price of the main selling car model and the negative impact of the ride-hailing impression on the brand image, it is difficult for users to form a deep understanding of the brand impression and technical strength of Aiways, like they do for Tesla and BYD. Aiways needs a highly condensed and accurately expressed brand label.

Aiways is very flexible and is transforming from a traditional player to a new force

New forces represented by “NIO Li” have provided new perspectives and successful blueprints for the high-endization competition of traditional car companies’ new energy.

Learning and imitating the user thinking and business model of new forces has become a common practice for traditional car companies to incubate new energy high-end brands, and Aiways is trying to turn itself into a new force.

How to do it? As Gu Huinan, the general manager of GAC Aiways, said, “It is best to go public. The biggest advantage of going public is that more people can know and pay attention to Aiways, like they know and pay attention to NIO, XPeng, and LI.”# The Pace of Enovate Going Public Is Fast

Enovate has been seeking to go public at a fast pace. On November 20, 2020, Enovate announced the independent operation of the Guangqi Enovate brand and the renaming of Guangqi New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. to Guangqi Enovate New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.

Nine months later, on August 30, 2021, GAC Group released the “Announcement on the Proposed Mixed-ownership Reform and Introduction of Strategic Investors by Its Wholly-owned Subsidiary”, initiating the mixed-ownership reform before Enovate’s listing.

On August 26, 2021, Enovate’s Series A financing project was listed on the Guangzhou Equity Exchange, diluting approximately 15% of its shares and introducing no more than 70 strategic investors, with a financing of 15 billion yuan and a post-investment valuation of over 100 billion yuan.

On September 6, 2021, Enovate held its founding meeting and officially changed its name to “Guangqi Enovate New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.”, marking the completion of more than half of Enovate’s mixed-ownership reform and listing process. Enovate is also expected to become the first new energy auto company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

Enovate’s successful listing will not only realize Gu Huinan’s hope for more people to know and pay attention to Enovate, but also inject more new energy into Enovate’s research and development and business models, just like the new forces in the industry.

Enovate’s Bet: New Logo and High-end Car Series “Hyper”

On the press conference on September 15, Enovate launched the all-new “AI Divine Arrow” logo, pure electric supercar Hyper SSR, and high-end car series “Hyper Haobo”.

In the past two years, Enovate has failed to complete the brand’s high-end transformation as hoped at the beginning of the brand’s independence. This time, it was Enovate’s second take-off, from brand identity to technical recognition, and to high-end car series, Enovate has made a strict distinction from the past.

The new “AI Divine Arrow” logo has finally given Enovate its own identity, which is a very important step in increasing brand awareness.

Enovate explained the naming and image of the “AI Divine Arrow”, which is derived from the “A” and “I” in AION, implying that Enovate will take off better. Gu Huinan said, “With Enovate, there will be the God of Love by our side!”

In my personal opinion, in order to more focused on showing the intelligence of “AI Divine Arrow”, we should not bring up the God of Love.

Enovate’s pure electric supercar Hyper SSR, showcased this time, can be called “China’s first supercar.” It accelerates from 0 to 100 km in just 1.9 seconds, breaking the record of NIO supercar, which was 2.7 seconds.

Making supercars and even flying cars in the auto industry, the purpose is nothing more than to enhance brand image and value. Enovate’s supercar directly broke the record of NIO’s supercar in terms of speed, claiming to be the “fastest car on earth”. It provides a powerful push that is as strong as rocket launch, with power performance higher than F1 competition standard by 1.5 times, and a cool appearance covered entirely with carbon fiber parts, all declaring Enovate’s technological strength that surpasses that of new forces in the industry.After establishing technical strength and brand value, Guandong EQAN Motors’ true goal to achieve high-end innovation is its high-end car series, Hyper Haobo.

Hyper SSR, a supercar, was the debut model of EQAN’s “AI Arrow” Hyper Haobo series. Following that, Guandong EQAN Motors will introduce a series of high-end car models, including Hyper GT GT sedans priced at 300,000 yuan, Hyper SUV large five-seaters, and Hyper MPV.

The four high-end Haobo models, Hyper SSR, Hyper GT, Hyper SUV, and Hyper MPV, are planned to be launched in the market next year.

To create the high-end features of the Hyper Haobo series, EQAN is planning to build a separate production line for the production of the Hyper SSR electric supercar. Moreover, the “AI Arrow” logo is only available for new products of the Hyper Haobo series and will not be immediately replaced with the existing AION products.

Xiao Yong, Vice President of EQAN, also stated that EQAN plans to break into the higher price range and value zone and seize the market above 250,000 yuan or even 300,000 yuan.

Compared to EQAN’s previous goal of creating a high-end smart electric vehicle brand, this time the focus and strength in the high-end competition is significantly stronger.

Unlike other brands such as Voyah, IM, Jihoo, Avita, Geely, salon, DENZA, NIO, and Gaohe, who have rushed into the high-end market, EQAN has approached this market with the unique shrewdness and wisdom of people from Guandong province. It is more like feeling their way across the river.

As early as 2019, Guangzhou Automobile Group New Energy launched AION S and AION LX. The former is responsible for selling EQAN’s cars, and the latter is for exploring the high-end market. When it was released, it had already claimed to be the world’s first mass-produced L3 level automatic driving vehicle, showing that EQAN is familiar with the need for high-end brands to have leading technology. Tesla, NIO, and other high-end brands are typical representatives.The AION LX failed to make its way into the high-end market for multiple reasons. However, AIWAYS managed to capture a market share of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan with AION S and AION Y, second only to BYD, which helped the company avoid the low sales volume that traditional car companies may face during the chaos of the new energy high-end brand battle, thus avoiding a tragic end.

AIWAYS has never been “in the ICU,” like NIO, nor has it had to worry about sales volume like Wei Xiaoli and other brands.

On one hand, AIWAYS makes products with high sales volume and builds market share; on the other hand, it strengthens its technical ability, pursuing the same level of technology as new forces like Tesla and NIO. In the year of mixed ownership reform, AIWAYS also attracted capital while purchasing technology from its former parent company GAC, acquiring intangible assets and fixed assets related to pure electric new energy, a team of 600 people in the “three electric” R&D team, and some patented technology teams.

AIWAYS has also learned to speak like internet celebrities in the new energy vehicle industry, which is a breakthrough for traditional car companies that have always been calm and low-profile.

All of these can be summarized as AIWAYS’ shrewdness and wisdom in crossing the river by feeling the stones.

To further boost AIWAY’s technological strength and brand value, AIWAYS has teamed up with China Aerospace to establish the “Haobo Scientific Research Laboratory.” The two sides will conduct joint research and development in areas such as new battery development, motor drive technology, aerodynamic design, new materials, AI control, high-precision positioning, and satellite remote sensing technology. The technological achievements will subsequently be applied in the aerospace industry and AIWAYS product series.

Furthermore, AIWAYS is good at learning from other high-end brands.

Gu Hui, CEO of AIWAYS, has emphasized that high-end branding is not just about pricing; there is value beyond price, and value is also a way to achieve high-end branding.

“AIWAYS will serve customers with a mindset of creating value for them, sincerely treating our customers, and reflecting our brand value,” said Gu Hui.

This set of ideas is reminiscent of brands such as Lexus, MINI, Volvo, and others that emphasize value and use it as a selling point to enter the high-end market.

In any case, whether focusing on technology or emphasizing value, what we have seen in AIWAYS’ development over the past few years is a “smarter companion,” as expressed on their official website.

No one can predict whether AIWAYS will achieve its goal of becoming one of the world’s top three high-end intelligent electric vehicle brands. After all, AIWAYS must face established opponents such as Tesla, BYD, NIO, and emerging opponents such as WM Motor. However, it is already fortunate to see this intelligent brand striving towards its goals in the high-end market.

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.