AIWAYS AND FOREVER? (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Does Chinese maker Aiways have a future in the UK market? Jonathan Crouch looks at the brand's first car, the U5, and decides.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 31

Chinese maker Aiways finally enters the UK market with this car, the U5 - yet another mid-sized EV crossover. Selling points include value and cabin space. But the competition is fierce.

Backgroundword count: 214

You might well feel, particularly if you're a Western auto maker, that the last thing Europe needs right now is another Chinese car manufacturer. Particularly one that wants to base itself in Europe and sell almost all its cars on our continent. Such are the plans of Aiways, who are finally launching in the UK with this car, the all-electric U5. All Aiways models are EVs and until quite recently, most of them were sold in China. That followed a successful company start-up in 2017 from ex-VW Group executives, who quickly established a full R&D centre, a battery plant and a factory with an annual capacity of 300,000 units. Cut-throat Far Eastern competition though, saw the company take the unusual step in 2024 of withdrawing from the Chinese market altogether, then relocating to Germany and focusing on Europe. You might wonder about the name. The first two letters don't designate 'Artificial Intelligence' but apparently spell 'love' in Chinese. Not that the UK has had much opportunity to fall in love with the brand's first European product, the U5, which (as first new brand models usually are) is a mid-sized crossover. Its launch here was much-delayed, first by Covid, then by the marque's growing financial woes. Now though, it's really here. Let's take a look.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 241

If you were to create a blueprint for the engineering spec of a typical mid-sized electric crossover in our current day, the U5 would tick most of its boxes. There's only one version and it comes with a 63kWh battery capable of taking the car up to 255 miles. That figure betrays the relative age of this design, as does the rather abrupt take-off from rest unless you're careful to initially feather the throttle. If you don't, you'll get a full 204hp experience, which comes with 310Nm of pulling power, so this Aiways model won't feel slow. 62mph from rest is dispatched in 7.5s (or 7.8s in top-spec 'Prime' guise) and top speed is limited to 99mph to preserve range. It's fortunate that few customers in this segment are seeking an engaging driving experience because the U5 doesn't offer that. Probably wisely, it concentrates instead on more useful everyday virtues. There's a softly-sprung ride and refinement is excellent - you can only hear the electric motor wine if you really listen for it. Steering is light too - unhelpful on twisty B roads but a boon in town. You will of course need to engage the most frugal of the provided drive modes - 'Eco' - to get anywhere near the range prediction. And make full use of the provided brake regeneration settings, which unfortunately can only be accessed by the centre screen, rather than more conveniently with steering wheel paddles.

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