Reporting on automobile information from the perspective of people's livelihood / Watching cars from the left and right Haikou reports on April 11——
Founded in 2017, AIWAYS Auto aims to be "a smart electric vehicle brand committed to the evolution of the industry", the headquarters and technical center are located in Shanghai, with a factory in Jiangxi, a battery pack factory in Jiangsu, an electric sports car research and development center and a European market sales company in Germany, a methanol hydrogen-to-hydrogen scientific research center and manufacturing base in Denmark, and the first and only Chinese car-making new force enterprise that exports to the EU market in large quantities and lands in Israel.
Does it feel like Aichi is not small to read? However, the reality is a bit "thunder and rain", and the most fatal thing is that the car is sold.
According to media statistics, in 2021, Aichi sold a total of 2698 cars in China; from January to February 2022, Aichi sold a total of 239 vehicles.
Even so, when many new energy vehicles announced price increases, Aichi was not far behind. On March 30 this year, AIWAYS Announced that the price of the only model on sale, the U5 PURE edition of AIWAYS, was raised by 10,000 yuan, the LITE version was raised by 12,000 yuan, and the configuration of the smart driving bag was raised by 5,000 yuan, and the reason for the increase was almost the same as that of other car brands that announced price increases: affected by comprehensive factors such as the continuous sharp rise in raw material prices and the tight supply of suppliers.
Aiways Automobile is so eager to follow the trend of price increases, but it is not known that the sales of many brother car brands are beyond the reach of AIWAYS, and such a hasty price increase is bound to have a great impact on the sales volume that is already "dying".
However, the "thing" of Aichi cars does not seem to be over. According to media reports, at about 9:30 a.m. on April 5 this year, an electric vehicle in an electric vehicle charging station in Jinjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, spontaneously combusted. When fire rescuers arrived, at about 9:50, the fire was effectively controlled. Witnesses at the scene said that white smoke came out of the chassis at the beginning, and then it caught fire. The on-site staff said that the car was not charged when it caught fire.
Is it charging when the fire starts? In response to this problem, on the afternoon of April 5, Aiways Automobile released an announcement about the Chengdu vehicle fire accident on its official Weibo, saying that at 9:29 on April 5, 2022, aiways automotive system received a thermal runaway alarm message from an Aiways U5 during charging. The staff of AIWAYS Immediately rushed to the scene and cooperated with the fire department to complete the relevant work. The accident did not cause casualties, and the safety hazards have been eliminated at the scene.
One side said that the Aiways car was not charged at that time, but aiways officials said that the fire that occurred "in the process of charging" should be believed by whom?
People who generally have a little common sense know that if the car is a fire that occurs when charging, it may be caused by electrical problems or other problems, and the fire occurs when it is not charged, which can basically be judged to be related to the quality of the car itself, and the quality problem is related to the battery.
At present, we are not good at judging whose words are true, and it is best to wait for the results of the accident investigation.
However, interestingly, according to media reports, the staff in the parking lot next door said, "The logo was cut by them, and it is not clear which brand of car it is." ”
Pick the license plate? This is probably the first time such a thing has happened in many fire accidents, and it is not difficult to see that some people at the scene are eager to cover up the truth, so they made a move of "cutting the license plate". However, in the final response of AIWAYS, it was confirmed that the vehicle that caught fire was AIWAYS U5.
At present, Aichi only has one model aichi U5 on sale, the car is a medium-sized pure electric SUV, the official guidance price after the price increase is 16.69-24.99 million yuan,
According to the statistics of new energy vehicle fire accidents in recent years, the proportion of cars equipped with ternary lithium batteries is as high as 88.89%, and AIWAYS is equipped with ternary lithium batteries with two capacities of 53kWh and 63kWh in the Ningde era.
In addition, Aichi is also caught in a security controversy.
According to the media, in December 2019, the crash test results released by the European E-NCAP showed that aiways U5, the first mass-produced pure electric SUV under Aiways, only received a Samsung safety evaluation in the collision. As an authoritative third-party safety certification body in the European Union, the European E-NCAP is the highest rating of five stars, and its tests are mainly tested from four dimensions: occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and safety systems. The AIWAYS U5 scored 73% for adult occupants, 70% for child occupants, 45% for disadvantaged road users (VRU) and 55% for safety assists.
Left and right car viewing short comment——
Aiways auto chooses to build a car in the outlet of new energy vehicles, the timing is just right, which can be seen from the bright sales results of new car-making forces such as Weilai, Ideal, Xiaopeng and so on, even if it is a latecomer, the sales of these new car brands, most of them are above Aiways Automobile, it can be said that Aiways Automobile is up early in the morning, catching up with a late set, and also leaving itself with too many places to think about, such as poor sales and price increases, potential quality problems, safety disputes brought about by Samsung ratings, etc.