Chinese electric car manufacturer AITO announced a price reduction of RMB 30,000 ($4,462) for its M5 and M7 electric vehicles (EVs) as part of an industry-wide trend of price cuts, similar to Tesla.
According to the China Passenger Car Association, the AITO M5 EREV sold 49,000 units in 2022, while the M5 EV and M7 sold less than 10,000 and 21,000 units respectively. This suggests that customers did not perceive the pure EVs as good value and AITO is now taking steps to address this.
AITO, a joint venture between Seres and Huawei, has shipped 75,000 cars in just 9 months since starting sales. The cars use the DE-i intelligent platform developed by Seres and are powered by Huawei’s HarmonyOS for the intelligent cockpit.
As a gesture of goodwill, AITO is offering customers who purchased cars before January 13 a gift worth between RMB 33,000 and RMB 35,000 in light of the recent price cut. An OTA update with new features, such as intelligent car search, automated HUD height adjustment, and a “super desktop” function, is also being prepared for all AITO models.
