Aiways will resume producing and selling electric cars in Israel by 2025
Aiways is returning, maybe also to Israel: as reported by Walla, the Chinese electric startup that halted production about a year ago due to financial obligations is now resuming operations.
Aiways and the American SPAC Hudson announced a merger worth $400 million, and plans to resume production at the company’s factory. SPAC is a corporation registered on the stock exchange that raises money to acquire an existing company, and thus takes it public. Aiways is expected to be traded on the NASDAQ in New York, after Zeekr’s successful issuance last week, where its stock rose by 35% on the first day of trading to a value of $6.8 billion.
Due to the price war in the Chinese market, Aiways is designating the European market as its main destination from now on, despite Europe already imposing a 10% tax on Chinese electric cars, and expecting it to increase further. However, it is not expected to reach the 100% tax level that President Joe Biden imposed this week on Chinese electric cars sold in the U.S. The company has already started preparing to adapt both models to the updated European standard, requiring the addition of a vehicle monitoring system in accident-prone areas, preparation for alcohol locks, cybersecurity protection, and more.
Aiways will present the comeback with the two models it launched before the crisis, the U5 crossover and its Coupee version, U6. According to reports in China, the company is also working on a smaller electric model.
The manufacturing revival is good news for Aiways car owners who have suffered from reduced resale value since the company ran into difficulties, fearing that the importer, Blilious Group, may struggle to provide them with service. Nevertheless, service has continued as usual, with a stockpile of spare parts, direct connections to suppliers in China, and even purchases of cars that have been in accidents for their salvage parts. It will now be even easier to ensure the availability of spare parts.
Aiways has announced that it is preparing for a sales revival in Europe in early 2025. Israel was one of the company’s largest markets in the world, and it is likely that there will also be renewed exports to the country. The electric vehicle market is much more competitive than in 2021 when the U5 was first launched in the country, but it is positioned media-wise between models like the BYD Atto 3 and electric cars like the Tesla Model Y and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, a niche that has been quite empty since then, and which the new BYD Sil U is expected to enter by the end of the year.
