Issue 13
In the “New Forces” competition, Aiways is a unique presence.
Since its establishment in 2017, Aiways has quietly taken advantage of the trend of new energy, choosing a different path from the domestic new forces. It has taken the initiative to promote both domestic and foreign markets, and in less than three years, it has opened up the road to overseas and become the first Chinese new energy company to obtain EU whole-vehicle type certification and export to the European market. It is also the first intelligent electric vehicle start-up company in China to obtain EU environmental regulations RRR certification. Its first model, Aiways U5, has been smoothly launched in Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, and other countries with excellent results.
On October 13, Aiways’ second heavyweight, the “Pure Electric New Player” Aiways U6 officially went on sale. What new experiences does it bring compared to the mature and stable Aiways U5? Let’s take a look.
The Aiways U6 is available in two versions: the Good Sound special edition and the Play version, with a post-subsidy price of 219,900 to 237,900 yuan, and three optional packages for consumers to choose from.
At first glance, it’s difficult to define what kind of new energy vehicle the Aiways U6 is. It has an SUV-style appearance, but also reveals a hint of a “sports car flavor.” If you say it has a sedan body, the raised sides and surrounds of the body shouldn’t appear on a sedan.
In the words of Aiways Vice President Li Hui: “The Aiways U6 is not a sedan, not a coupe, and not an SUV. It is the Aiways U6.”
To meet the consumption needs of the “Z generation” users, the appearance needs to be unique.
In terms of design, the Aiways U6 was jointly designed by design teams from China, Japan, and Germany based on the concept of “global design aesthetics.” The overall design highlights a young and fashionable atmosphere, with angular lines emphasizing a sense of power.
The front face of the vehicle is designed boldly, with an X-shaped shark nose design that integrates the entire lamp group. The split-type headlights are smoked, and the lower carbon fiber-style front lip kit creates a clear front face effect.
On the side of the body, the Aiways U6 is equipped with popular electric hidden door handles, dual-color 20-inch large wheels, hidden aerodynamic air passages and other styling designs, coupled with 23 rounds of wind resistance simulation analysis optimization, which reduces the drag coefficient to 0.248Cd. This is better than most of the same level Coupe SUVs, and improves the overall appearance of the vehicle while effectively reducing energy consumption and increasing the cruising range.
In terms of color, the Aiways U6 offers 10 colors such as sunshine yellow, glacier white, moon silver, eclipse black, and titan green.
In terms of body size, the Aiways U6 is positioned as a mid-size SUV, with a length, width and height of 480518801641mm, and a wheelbase of 2800mm. Except for the wheelbase, the overall size is slightly larger than the U5.
Entering the car, you can see that the Aiways U6 has a simple design as the overall style. The entire car adopts a dual-function steering wheel, an 8.2-inch hidden space instrument panel that integrates with the air outlet of the air conditioner, a 14.6-inch frameless high-definition central control screen, and a Star Cruise shift lever. The dashboard can display battery level, speed and gear information by default.
The only regret is that the dashboard of the Aiways U6 is relatively small, and it is recommended to add a HUD in the future.
At the same time, the Aiways U6 is also equipped with the largest panoramic sunroof of the same level, and double-layered laminated toughened glass made of special Low-e heat insulation coating. This can bring more than 2.1㎡ of vision, effectively isolate 99.9% of ultraviolet rays, and 78% of external heat to provide a comfortable driving environment.
In terms of other configurations, the Aiways U6 also provides more entertaining smart configurations, such as the infinitely variable color AI interactive ambient light and the high-end audio-visual entertainment system jointly created by the well-known German audio brand, DML. It also supports continuous conversation, visible speech recognition, complex semantic understanding, and voiceprint gender recognition intelligent voice interaction system.
In addition, the Aiways U6 car system supports the integration of music, radio, video, news, and other application ecosystems, which can be synchronized to users’ mobile phones, tablets, PC, wearable devices through the Super ID, and has AI-Store intelligent application ecosystem that adapts to multiple custom car applications, providing comfortable and convenient intelligent services.
In terms of driving assistance, the Aiways U6 is equipped with the AI-Cruise intelligent driving assistance system as standard, which supports L2 high-level assisted driving functions, providing 22 intelligent assisted driving functions including SCC super cruise, CLC turn signal control lane change, RPA remote parking assist, RC intelligent car control. These functions apply the convenience of driving control to full-scene applications such as vehicle driving, lane changing, and parking.
In terms of power, the Aiways U6 is based on the self-developed pure electric MAS platform, with an electric drive system with a maximum power of 160kW and a peak torque of 315N・m. The zero-to-100km/h acceleration time is 6.9/7.2 seconds.
In terms of endurance, the Aiways U6 has two options for battery capacity: 63kWh and 72kWh (optional for the Play version). The CLTC comprehensive working condition endurance mileage is 505km and 590km, and in fast charging mode, 30-40 minutes is needed to charge the battery from 30% to 80%.
It is worth mentioning that the Aiways U6 offers five driving modes: standard Normal, energy-saving Eco, sporty Sport, one-pedal driving, and customized driving, as well as three energy recovery intensities, DMS driver distraction reminder, OMS biological monitoring system, and team-travel mode, which can achieve a variety of different driving experiences. In addition, considering the problem of battery “shrinkage” in pure electric vehicles in winter, the Aiways U6 is also equipped with a motor residual heat recovery system and a heat pump air conditioner.
On the body structure, the vehicle adopts an upper steel and lower aluminum body structure, and a combination of front MacPherson independent suspension and rear multi-link independent suspension. It has been fine-tuned through over 100 types of work conditions, bringing higher vibration absorption capacity. It is also equipped with the world’s first independently developed dry-wet separation sandwich-structured battery pack by Aiways. Through innovative design of dry-wet separation, the battery core module is isolated from the cooling layer to form a sandwich structure, avoiding situations such as short circuit and fire caused by coolant leakage.
The Electric Potential Has Something to Say:
Can Aiways U6 win the favor of the Chinese market given the Chinese people’s acceptance of coupe SUVs? It’s challenging, but not impossible.
The challenge lies in the gap between Aiways and domestic new forces in the auto industry. For example, Aiways only sold over 2,000 vehicles in the past year, while NIO sold over 40,000 and Xpeng sold over 30,000 during the same period. Aiways’ performance still has room for improvement.
Moreover, Aiways’ development and influence in the domestic market are relatively limited compared to its competitors, and it faces significant pressure in the 200,000-250,000 RMB price range, with other new energy vehicle models such as the Leap Motor C01, C11, Xpeng P5, and NIO ES6.
However, as a mid-to-high-end intelligent pure electric coupe SUV, Aiways U6 has achieved multiple standard equipment and limited optional equipment, and is quite generous in terms of intelligence and comfort entertainment.
In addition, from Aiways’ perspective, the significance of the U6 is not only for sales but also to fill the gap in Aiways’ product strength and improve consumers’ brand recognition to attract those young consumers with unique personalities.
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.