Both Tesla and Aiways are focused on making electric vehicles, but they do so completely differently. Aiways is focused on making cheap, competitive, attainable electric vehicles for the masses while Tesla is the benchmark EV brand that holds the highest company value out of all car brands on the market.
This makes a massive difference in how well both brands do when it comes to both making and selling their cars. Tesla became synonymous with the electric car while Aiways is a relatively unknown EV startup brand that is only starting to scratch the surface of the EV industry.
As such, comparing these two is like comparing the hottest and most desirable product from a specific category with its cheap and relatively unknown “competition”. Even though Aiways does offer promising cars, they are in no way able to compete with anything Tesla does.
The world of electric vehicles is growing rapidly thanks to Tesla. The reason why the Aiways company exists is that Tesla created the market demand. However, if Aiways continues to offer competitive and low-priced cars, they might enjoy a more prominent status in the automotive industry.
Aiways – Brand overview
Aiways is one of many Chinese EV startup brands that hope to encompass both the European and the US markets in the coming years. They go about their way by making cheap but decently executed electric vehicles that rival existing brands for both value for money and technology.
This does not mean that Aiways hopes to rival Tesla, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Rivivan, Lucid, or Polestar but rather to rival the likes of Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda. They plan on doing so by offering similar cars but for a slightly lower price tag.
The only current competitive Aiways model is the U5 which offers a 63 kWh battery that can do around 250 WLTP miles between charges. It takes around 30 minutes to charge the U5 from 20% to 80% if you rely on a fast DC charger while a slow AC charger can charge the U5 from 20% to 80% in about 8-10 hours.
All Aiways models currently come with a single electric motor that offers around 150 kW(201hp). It seems like Aiways is taking all the right steps towards becoming a competitive EV brand in the coming years, yet only time will tell if this will ever come to fruition.
Tesla – Brand overview
It’s almost impossible to talk about electric vehicles without mentioning Tesla at least a dozen times because they singlehandedly created the EV market. In the begging Tesla seemed like a semi-promising and overly ambitious brand, but they now hold a market value of more than a trillion dollars.
As such, it’s pointless to compare Tesla with Aiways because Tesla is the king of the hill when it comes to electric vehicles. The Tesla Model Y is currently the closest “competitor” to the U5 and the Model Y offers an entry-level 60 kWh battery which can do more miles than the U5.
You can get the Model Y with a larger 82 kWh battery that can do closer to 300 miles on a full charge. However, where Tesla bests Aiways and every other EV brand on the planet is the ability to rely on a Tesla-only network of superchargers.
Tesla is on another level when compared to Aiways and Aiways is hardly ever going to be able to reach the same status.
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Tesla – What does Tesla represent for the automotive industry?
The automotive industry is a fairly cruel and harsh world for newcomer brands as it takes a lot of money to even be able to enter the market. However, what Tesla did is singlehandedly dominate the automotive industry after only a few years on the market.
This means that Tesla virtually showed that it is still possible for a newcomer brand to reach iconic status in the automotive industry in a relatively short time frame. It is rather unlikely that Aiways is ever going to be able to do that because they focused on a more “regular” market segment.
When Tesla started offering decent cars, the entire automotive industry needed to adapt in order to catch up. Nowadays almost all major players in the automotive industry offer their own version of the EV, and all of this was kickstarted by none other than Tesla.
FAQ Section
Does Tesla make great cars?
The market value of the Tesla company is record-breaking at the moment even though their cars are not perfect. It is true that they do make competitive cars but those cars are a bit inflated through desirability and popularity because they are not perfect nor nearly as quality made as some of their competitors.
However, Tesla is adamant in making their cars increasingly better built with each newer model so it’s safe to say that upcoming Tesla models should be better. Either way, some still deem Tesla as overly ambitious because they offer an entirely different way of thinking when compared to other “more serious” automakers.
What is the best Tesla model?
The Tesla Model 3 is currently the best car Tesla offers because it perfectly balances costs, price, and feature list. Some people are not fond of Tesla’s interior design because it lacks an instrument cluster, but that’s the aforementioned new Tesla way of thinking.
Either way, the Model 3 is the most convenient and most logical EV to buy right now as it drives great and offers lots of Tesla-specific features such as autopilot and the ability to use the Tesla Supercharger network.
Is Aiways going to become more popular in the future?
Aiways is surely going to become more popular in the future if they continue making competitively priced and decently made cars. It is true that the current market desperately craves cheaper EVs and if Aiways can deliver, they are likely going to become a lot more popular in the future.
There are some factors where Aiways does lack and that’s safety, design and overall desirability. Safety should become a more prominent priority to the Chinese automaker if they want to become a major player in the EV segment and design is something that should be a lot easier to do considering current EV design trends.
