Yu Chengdong, Huawei’s executive director and CEO of smart car solutions BU, officially showed the AITO brand’s first purely electric model, the M5 EV, to the outside world. For the pure electric version of the M5, Yu Chengdong did not hesitate to praise it: “The best appearance among pure electric SUVs”, and “Huawei’s dynamic adaptive torque technology far exceeds its competitors.
Yu Chengdong sells pure electric cars
From the perspective of the industry, Yu Chengdong’s statement may be a bit exaggerated, but the market performance of the AITO brand is indeed very dazzling. Less than a year after its establishment, the AITO brand has gained a place in the domestic new energy vehicle market through the cooperation between its parent company, Celis Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Salis”), and Huawei. In the past August, the delivery volume of AITO brand vehicles exceeded 10,000, surpassing Xiaopeng and Lili, and catching up with Weilai. So, in the pure electric field, can it continue this sales trend?
Challenging Model Y, asking the world M5 EV is “far ahead”?
Wenjie M5 EV is positioned as a medium-sized pure electric SUV and is the first purely electric model launched by the AITO brand. Unlike the previous Wenjie M5 and M7, two extended-range new energy vehicles, which were benchmarked against the ideal ONE and other products, the M5 EV directly targets the Tesla Model Y.
At this press conference, Yu Chengdong compared the Wenjie M5 EV with the Model Y in terms of vehicle sound insulation, heat insulation, air conditioning, driving experience, battery, battery life, acceleration performance, and many other dimensions to highlight the Wenjie M5. EV’s lead. Especially when introducing the new Huawei Adaptive Dynamic Torque System “HUAWEI DATS” on this model, he emphasized that Huawei is “far ahead”.
According to him, “HUAWEI DATS” can enhance the ride comfort of the car and reduce shaking. At present, there are only two companies in the world that can master this technology, Tesla and Huawei. It is far ahead in this field.” Yu Chengdong said.
In fact, in addition to new technologies such as “HUAWEI DATS”, the Wenjie M5 EV without the range extender and the range-extended version of the M5 have many similarities in other configurations: both models are equipped with Huawei Hongmeng smart cockpit and Huawei electric drive platform. , can realize more mutual calls between mobile phone, car and machine hardware. At the same time, the two models have similar appearance designs. The biggest change is that the pure electric version adopts a closed front face, while the extended-range version still retains the front air intake grille.
At the end of the press conference, Yu Chengdong also announced the pricing of the Wenjie M5 EV: the single-motor rear-wheel drive (standard version) is priced at 288,600 yuan, and the dual-motor four-wheel drive (performance version) version is 319,800 yuan. In comparison, the starting price of the Wenjie M5 extended range version is 25.98 yuan.
Wenjie M5 EV provided by Huawei
According to the pre-order information for the Wenjie M5 EV provided by Huawei, as of 20:30 on the day of the press conference, more than 30,000 users of this model have been ordered. However, its challenged Model Y market strength should not be underestimated. It is reported that after the domestic Model Y started delivery in January last year, the delivery volume rose rapidly. In February of the same year, it quickly squeezed into the top three of the new energy passenger car list of the China Passenger Car Association, and finally ranked among the 2021 Passenger Car Association with an annual sales volume of 169,900 units. The new energy SUV retail sales list ranked first.
The monthly delivery volume exceeds 10,000 AITO still faces challenges
It is worth noting that, in the eyes of the outside world, although Yu Chengdong has a bit of “Wang Po selling melons”, and whether the order of more than 30,000 vehicles can be converted into actual deliveries is also questionable, the AITO brand’s recent market performance is indeed true. Quite bright.
M5 were released
The AITO brand and its first model, the M5, were released in December last year, and deliveries began in February this year. In August this year, AITO brand deliveries exceeded 10,000 units for the first time, reaching 10,045 units, overwhelming star brands such as Xpeng Motors and Li Auto. At the same time, the cumulative delivery of the AITO brand this year has also exceeded 35,000 vehicles, making it one of the top new car manufacturers in China in one fell swoop.
It is worth noting that, in the eyes of the outside world, although Yu Chengdong has a bit of “Wang Po selling melons”, and whether the order of more than 30,000 vehicles can be converted into actual deliveries is also questionable, the AITO brand’s recent market performance is indeed true. Quite bright.
This makes AITO the most popular Huawei model in the market today. With the launch of this pure electric model, the AITO brand product layout is becoming more and more perfect. However, the AITO brand and its parent company, Celis, are still facing multiple pressures:
M7 are not Huawei HI models
As far as AITO’s models are concerned, Wenjie M5 (including the pure electric version) and M7 are not Huawei HI models, and they are not equipped with Huawei ADS high-end autonomous driving full stack The solution, its autonomous driving capability is at the L2 level, which has a certain gap with the Jihu Alpha S HI version; at the same time, it is also facing the competitive pressure of other brand models with the same product positioning, such as the ideal ONE (will be upgraded to the ideal L8); not only In this way, from the perspective of the industry, the AITO brand is also facing the transition test from the extended program mode to the pure electric mode.
As far as the AITO brand parent company Celis is concerned, while the sales of M5 and M7 in the world are rising, the losses of Celis are also increasing significantly. The financial report shows that the net loss of Celis in the first half of this year was about 1.72 billion yuan, which was wider than the loss last year.
However, the business situation of Celis is expected to improve in the follow-up. Cinda Securities predicts that Celis’ net profit will turn positive in 2023 and reach 1.605 billion yuan in 2014.
“In the process of cooperation with Celis, Huawei played a leading role. From design, research and development to sales, Huawei can give more play to its own advantages.” Ji Xuehong told Times Finance: “Huawei is in the automotive field. The rapid iteration capability of AITO can be effectively reflected in AITO’s models, so AITO has great potential for future development.”