AiwaysU5

01

Origins

Aiways chose the unfashionable route: the U5 of 2019 — a sensible electric family crossover from the Shanghai startup — headed straight for European sales in 2020, among the first Chinese EVs marketed to Western private buyers, through corrosion-tested pragmatism rather than showroom theatre: Corsica rental fleets, German retail partnerships, honest pricing. Reviews found it unglamorous and entirely adequate — precisely the pitch. Domestic sales lagged; the company's future hinged on export volumes that grew too slowly, and financial distress later idled it. The U5's significance survives its maker's struggles: it normalised the idea of an ordinary Chinese EV in ordinary European driveways, the vanguard of the wave that followed. Pioneers rarely collect the territory; the U5 mapped it for everyone who followed.