KaiyiShiyue

01

Origins

The Shiyue of 2023 took Kaiyi into the A-segment city class that China's EV boom unexpectedly revived: tiny footprint, minimal cost, urban-commute specification for the buyers — often young, often female, per the segment's marketing — who made micro-EVs the country's volume phenomenon. Kaiyi's entry leveraged the group's small-platform economics against the Wuling Mini EV's established empire. Margins in the class were famously razor-thin; presence in it was strategically obligatory. The Shiyue documents the segment's competitive flood — dozens of nameplates chasing China's cheapest electric miles — and Kaiyi's determination to contest every price point its inland buyers could reach. Its buyers rarely write reviews; they simply charge at home and spend nothing, which was the entire promise.