"Car Circle Layer" Peng Baoxuan
Edited by Ge Fanmei
On March 16, AIWAYS Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AIWAYS") announced that it has officially landed in croatia, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Slovenia, further covering the Northern and Southern European markets. So far, AIWAYS has landed in fifteen countries around the world.
Alexander Klose, vice president of overseas operations at AIWAYS Automotive, said: "Most users in Europe can now purchase the AIWAYS U5, and in Israel, the AIWAYS U5 has ordered hundreds of units per week in the past month. ”
As a new generation of car-making forces, AIWAYS Auto's sales in the domestic market are sluggish, with only 15 units sold in February 2022, but it has achieved little success in the European market. At present, many domestic new energy vehicle companies are aiming at overseas markets, and for Aiways automobiles with low safety ratings, they still need to cultivate "internal strength". In addition, in the case of management changes, it remains to be paid attention to where AIWAYS Will Go in the future.
Actively "going to sea"
According to public information, AIWAYS Was founded in February 2017 and is committed to becoming a game-breaker of China's new forces in car manufacturing. In 2019, AIWAYS Acquired 50% of the shares of Jiangling Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangling Holdings") for 1.747 billion yuan, becoming the largest shareholder of Jiangling Holdings and obtaining the automobile production qualification.
However, aiways Auto withdrew from Jiangling Holdings in July 2021 after nearly two years of taking a stake in Jiangling Holdings, holding 50% of the shares of Jiangling Holdings and taking over by Jiangxi State Holdings Automobile Investment Co., Ltd.
According to the official website, Aiways Automobile currently has only one model on sale, aiways U5, which is also the first mass production model of AIWAYS Automobile. Aiways U5 will be listed in 2020 and will be priced at 166,900-179,900 yuan / car.
In addition, AIWAYS has also launched U6 and U7 icon models. Aiways U6 is positioned in a pure electric intelligent coupe SUV, and the Play version has been registered in the product announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and it is not currently listed. Another U7 icon model, which debuted at the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show, is a 6-7-seat crossover pure electric vehicle. The official website shows that the U7 icon is expected to be listed in 2021, but there is no listing news yet.
In fact, aiways auto's only model on sale, the AIWAYS U5, performed dismal in the domestic market. According to the data of the Owner's Guide Network, the domestic sales of the AIWAYS U5 in February 2022 were only 15 vehicles, down 88.8% month-on-month. Since its launch, the monthly sales of the AIWAYS U5 have remained above 500 units from November 2020 to April 2021. But since June 2021, sales of the Aichi U5 have fallen, and even in September and December 2021, sales were only double digits. As of February 2022, the AIWAYS U5 has achieved cumulative sales of 5,760 units.
At present, AIWAYS Auto is closely focused on foreign markets. According to public information, AIWAYS Auto entered the European market in 2020 and established retail-side cooperation with companies such as European electronics retail giant Euronics.
According to the data disclosed by Aiways Automobile, in 2021, Aiways Automobile exported 1676 new energy vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 62.9% year-on-year. From May 2020 to the end of 2021, AIWAYS Automobile has exported a total of 2,783 units. At the same time, AIWAYS Automobile also calls itself a car company that is "the first chinese car-making force in the EU market" and "the top three in the Israeli electric vehicle market".
In 2021, China exported 310,000 new energy vehicles, an increase of 38.39% over 2020. But among them, 160,000 vehicles came from Tesla's factory in China, accounting for nearly 52%. From the perspective of brands, MG MG, a brand of SAIC Motor, went to sea in 2019, opening the door for China's new energy vehicles to land in the European market. In 2020, in addition to Aichi, SAIC Maxus and Xiaopeng Motors have also landed in the European market.
Poor safety ratings
Recently, AIWAYS Auto said that the second model, AIWAYS U6, has completed a three-month winter extreme cold test of the whole vehicle. The test content mainly includes the verification of the suitability and durability of the vehicle's power system, transmission system, steering system, braking system and other functions under low temperature weather and ice and snow pavement conditions, and through some targeted and high-intensity limit tests, to ensure the safety, reliability and comfort of the vehicle, and to ensure the quality basis for the delivery of the market in 2022.
However, the safety of AIWAYS cars has been controversial, and E-NCAP has only rated the AIWAYS U5 with three stars.
According to public information, E-NCAP is the authoritative third-party safety certification body in the EU new car automotive industry, founded in 1997 and composed of seven European government organizations. The E-NCAP test program consists of four parts, namely occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and safety systems.
In the test results of the AIWAYS U5, occupant protection and child protection scores were 73% and 70%, respectively, but the pedestrian protection and safety system scored only 45% and 55%, respectively.
E-NCAP test results for the AIWAYS U5
Source: E-NCAP website
Among them, E-NCAP believes that the side airbags of the Aichi U5 in the test did not pop out according to the design, were stuck out by the interior, and in the more rigorous test, the airbags did not protect the head; in the pedestrian protection test, the AEB system (automatic emergency braking system) of the Aichi U5 can detect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles, and respond well to pedestrians, but weakly to cyclists; in the safety assistance test, The relevant safety systems of AIWAYS are not operating precariously, do not recognize many signs, and provide insufficient information to the driver.
In contrast, many domestic new energy vehicle companies have performed better than Aichi U5 in the E-NCAP safety rating. The NIO ES8 received a five-star E-NCAP rating, with ratings of 82%, 84%, 72% and 92% for occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and safety systems, respectively. SAIC's mg brand also performed well, with its ZS EV model rating of five stars and Marvel R model rating of four stars.
Relatively speaking, the safety rating of AIWAYS U5 is not high, and it is interesting that in the official website of AIWAYS Automobile, the body structure designed by AIWAYS U5 five-star safety standards and the active safety protection of intelligent driving are one of its promotional selling points.
Management joins management
On February 22, AIWAYS Automobile announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Quantum Mobility (Guangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Quantum Mobility Technology"), and the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in intelligent transportation, transportation big data solutions, high-end online ride-hailing operations, new energy vehicle promotion, and car sharing.
AIWAYS Auto said that the addition of quantum mobility technology will add another young new member to the strategic "circle of friends" of AIWAYS Auto. According to the data, Quantum Mobility Technology is a high-end online ride-hailing and intelligent transportation service provider, providing users with intelligent solutions for customized travel scenarios.
According to Tianyancha data, the largest shareholder of Quantum Mobility Technology is New Variable Technology (Shanxi) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "New Variable"), holding 42.4% of the shares. The new variable is 10.99% owned by Jiaxing Orange Shared Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), and the controlling shareholder behind it is Beijing Xiao orange Technology Co., Ltd., which is known as "Didi Chuxing".
In fact, the relationship between AIWAYS And Didi Chuxing is very close. As early as 2019, Didi Chuxing and Aiways Automobile jointly invested in Nanjing Siwei Zhilian Technology Co., Ltd., a service provider of the Internet of Vehicles. In December 2020, Shangrao Didi Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Didi Chuxing, invested AIWAYS Auto with a capital of 3.0815 million yuan and 0.37% of the shares. But in July 2021, it withdrew from the ranks of investors in Aiways.
From the perspective of financing history, AIWAYS Automobile is highly sought after by capital, and has experienced 8 rounds of financing since 2016, including many investors such as Didi Chuxing, Tencent Investment, Ningde Times, and Gimpo Investment.
In the most recent Series C financing, AIWAYS Auto received hundreds of millions of dollars in financing on January 3, 2022, with investors from Chen Xuanlin and his Dongbai Group. According to Tianyan, Shanghai Zhongtong Ruide Investment Group Co., Ltd., which is 99% owned by Chen Xuanlin, holds 19.05% of the shares of Gongqingcheng Guanggang Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), which holds 4.32% of the shares of AIWAYS Automobile.
At the same time as the capital injection, the management of AIWAYS Automobile has also been adjusted. According to the official website of Aiways Automobile, Chen Xuanlin is currently the chairman of Aiways Automobile, Zhang Yang is the CEO of Aiways Automobile, and Fu Qiang is the founder and president of Aiways Automobile. Among them, Zhang Yang served as vice president of WEILAI automobile industry development.
It is worth noting that Fu Qiang, the former chairman of AIWAYS Automobile, has retired to the position of president, and another co-founder, Gu Feng, has not appeared in the management ranks disclosed on the company's official website. In addition, Chen Zhixin, who served as an advisor to Aichi Automobile, was not included. According to the data, Chen Zhixin was hired as a consultant of the Shangrao Municipal Government of Jiangxi Province in June 2020 to guide the development of local automobile enterprises such as Aiways Automobile.
On the whole, in the case of many domestic new energy vehicle companies going to sea, AIWAYS Automobile has also continued to lay out overseas markets. But at the same time, after the change of management, whether Aiways Automobile can solve the domestic sales dilemma, "Circle Layer" will continue to pay attention.