Exploring Lisbon and its surroundings with the all-electric Aiways U6

Founded in 2017, Chinese brand Aiways is a new player on the automotive market offering all-electric cars. With the Aiways U5, the brand has brought its first fully electric car to its consumers on the European market. Now the brand introduced the Aiways U6 – an SUV Coupé that has a more athletic appearance than the U5 sedan.

We had the chance to test drive the U6 in the beautiful surroundings of Lisbon. So let’s dive in deeper to learn more about the Aiways U6 and its capabilities, starting with the exterior and interior followed by the performance.

Exterior design

When it comes to design, a vehicle shouldn’t only look beautiful. It should also have useful aerodynamic elements and weight-saving materials used in its construction to aid with efficiency. In EV language, that translates to enhanced battery performance and a better driving range. Aiways’ designers used an innovative mix of aluminum and steel to restrict the SUV’s weight to 1.790 kg.

For the Aiways U6 a new design language with aerodynamically optimised shark nose front end comes into play. It’s dimensions are: 4.80 m length, 1.88 m width and 1.64 m height. One glance at the exterior design, and you will find elements exclusive to sporty SUVs. The shark nose front-end, the waterfall light design, the sloping back, and the pointy rear-end all enhance the SUV's looks and make it appealing to the younger generation. The overall design gives the U6 a drag coefficient of 0.248, considerably down from the U5’s 0.29. That’s good news for efficiency and overall driving range. 

Now let’s get into the interior of the new Aiways U6.

Interior design

If we wanted to describe the U6’s interior in one word, we would call it spacious. The longer wheelbase of the SUV allows greater legroom and gives tall individuals the liberty to sit with comfort. The overall interior exudes spaciousness and Aiways designers match that with a sleek dashboard. In the center of the dash, you get a 14.6-inch floating touchscreen display. Whereas, a smaller 8.2-inch panel works as the driver's information screen. The center console comes with an armrest and extra storage compartments and it acts as a divider that separates both the driver and passenger from each other.

The technology is also very decent with over-the-air software updates, Apple Car Play, Android Auto functionality, MAGNAT audio system with 10 speakers, Bluetooth connectivity, AI driving assists and lots more.  

What’s a unique feature unseen before in the auto industry is the gearshift control located in the middle console. It was designed to resemble the gear lever of a luxurious yacht.

All in all, it feels quite comfortable sitting in the Aiways U6. The interior appears tidy and of high quality. You get a feeling of sitting in a modern SUV-Coupé. But this one ranks way low in the cost bracket compared to others on the market.

Performance

It all boils down to the performance at the end. Aiways U6 has a sandwich battery pack with CATL cells that combine for a 63 kWh battery capacity. The U6 has a range of up to 400 km, and 16.6-15.9 kWh/100 km energy consumption (according to WLTP).

Yes, the range might not be enough but Aiways has you covered on that end with super-fast battery charging capabilities. The battery fills up to 80 percent in a short time with the 90 kW DC fast charging feature working continuously for 30 minutes. Once it reaches 80 percent, the charger switches to the intelligent 11 kW 3-phase AC charging power. All in all, this results in a dense charge every time with little to no losses in battery health. 

But that is all about the features, what does the U6 have in terms of actual on-road performance? 

Well, the sporty SUV uses its in-house AI-PT feature to extract peak performance from the motor when you step on the throttle. This translates to 160 kW of power and 315 Nm of torque that takes the U6 from 0-100 km/h in 6.9 seconds and to a top speed of 160 km/h. The performance even translates well on the road, with nimble handling and instant acceleration always by your side.

And as said before, the Aiways U6 ranks way low in the cost bracket compared to others on the market, starting at 45.500 Euro.

Pictures: Aiways / Enes Kucevic for ellectric