Description
Aiways Automobiles Company Ltd is a Chinese automobile manufacturer of electric cars founded in 2017. Aiways stands for "AI" (means 'love' in Chinese) is on the way".
History
Aiways was founded by Fu Qian (Samuel), former China sales chief of Volvo cars, and Gary Gu in Shanghai in 2017.
In August 2019, Aiways acquired a 50 percent stake in Chinese domestic automaker Jiangling Holdings. Jiangling was relaunched as a 50-25-25 three-way partnership with Aiways, Jiangling Motors Corporation Group and Changan Automobile. Aiways paid 1.75 billion yuan ($248 million) acquiring the stake, according to information disclosed by Changan Automobiles. The deal enables Aiways to obtain a license to produce EVs from China regulators and to use Jiangling's auto production plant to increase output.
One of the company's first models, the Aiways U5, was released in November 2018 and has been approved for the EU market.
In January 2021, the company was seeking to raise funds at a price which would value it at over US$2 billion. Aiways also joined Volkswagen Group's CO₂-pool.
Sales strategy
Sales of the vehicles produced in Shangrao started in December 2019 in China. In Europe, the first models are due to hit the stores in mid-2020. Instead of being carried by ship, the vehicles are to be transported by train, which should reduce the transport time from six weeks to 16 days. The vehicles are to be sold in Germany via Euronics Deutschland, a cooperative chain of independent consumer electronics and white goods retailers. Maintenance and spare parts logistics are to be carried out by the cooperation partner A.T.U.
