For better or for worse I can remember when there were only a handful of brands to consider when buying a new car in Australia. Our own Ford and Holden, then maybe Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan which also manufactured here, or if you were rich the imported European brands of Mercedes, BMW or heaven forbid Jaguar.
Well, those days are well and truly gone. By comparison to other more populated countries in the world, our 25.69 million people have more choices for news cars to buy per capita than any other country in the world. And there’s more coming, the majority of which are from China.
Around 2010 we started to see Chinese made cars come to Australia in numbers, however they didn’t really make inroads as quite justifiably there were concerns about asbestos in the cars and poor safety ratings. Five years ago, the numbers started to increase where Chinese imported cars accounted for 1% of all new cars sold in Australia, but last year they accounted for 11%.
Recently I was asked to name some of the Chinese brands which can be bought here, and I came up with the major ones of MG, LDV, Great Wall and Chery, then I read this carsales article by Bruce Newton about what’s in store for us from China.
Seven Chinese auto brands now likely in Australia – carsales January 2022
However, not on Bruce’s list is the new Aiways all-electric, battery powered compact SUV which was unveiled as a concept car at the Beijing Auto Show in 2018
The U5 was the very first car to be launched by Aiways which was founded by theformer China Sales Director for Volvo Cars Samuell Chang and his partner Gary Gu in 2017. The company’s global headquarters is located in Shanghai; however their R&D centre is in Munich, Germany. The first Aiways U5 went on sale in China in December 2019, while in Europe they were sold from mid 2020.
Coming to Australia in the near future is a right-hand drive version which will be sold as the U6, and by all reports, it’s a pretty good little car, however like all electric cars in Australia at the moment, it’s not cheap.
Michael Taylor has a closer look at the Aiways U6 in this carsales article:
As the Aiways U5 has been available for nearly a year in Europe, I thought this video from a Swedish lady whose car reviews are available on ‘Anna on Roads’ is worth watching. You have to love the way Anna looks at things, especially when she addresses one of the biggest obstacles the Chinese car manufacturers have at the moment – “The Asians are coming in fast and strong while some European brands are still resting on their laurels, although it’s not so easy to just come in and convince people, especially us grumpy snobby Europeans ….”