THINK b – stock.adobe.com
AITO, a new energy automobile brand jointly created by Huawei and Chongqing Sokon’s Seres, will increase the price of the four-wheel-drive version of its first model, the AITO M5. The price adjustment will come into effect at midnight on May 5 due to rising raw material costs, and the exact plan is not yet revealed.
Why it matters
According to AITO’s announcement on Wednesday 20 April, the starting price of the rear-drive version of the M5 was raised by 10,000 yuan ($1,550), with the current price now 259,800 yuan ($40,282).
On 25 February, the price of the AITO M5 was announced. After subsidy, the rear-drive standard version, four-wheel drive performance edition, and four-wheel drive premium version were priced at 249,800 yuan ($38,731), 279,800 yuan ($43,382), and 319,800 yuan ($49,584) respectively. On 5 March, the vehicle will start to be delivered to customers nationwide.
Context
According to the figures released on 6 April, Chongqing Sokon, Chinese tech giant Huawei’s most important partner in the automotive sector, sold 7,451 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in March, up 164.69% year-on-year. Most of the production and sales of Seres in March were derived from the AITO M5, which started its pre-sale in December last year but only began delivery in March this year. However, industry insiders speculated that the production and sales volume of the AITO M5 in March was marginally over 3,000 units, far behind the previous expectation of 5,000 units mentioned by Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s intelligent vehicle solution business unit.
