Influenced by many favorable policies, more and more auto companies are relying on alternative energy vehicles to achieve sales increase. Currently, HawTai’s first BEV SUV xEV260 is launched into market with three models, officially priced at RMB 249,800 to 272,800. Calculated with a 1:1 national and local subsidiary, the models will have a price of RMB 139,800 to 162,800.
Zhang Zhiming, executive President of HawTai Motor, said, “We have great confidence in xEV260, which is currently sold in our 4S shop. We will continue to expand the sales channels in the future, and I estimate the monthly sales volume will be 20,000 units after being launched.”
But some analysts are optimistic about HawTai’s plans. HawTai once claimed to achieve an annual capacity of 500,000 units’ vehicles, 500,000 units’ Clean TDI, 500,000 units’ automatic transmissions and 500,000 units interior and exterior parts in 2015. It also planned to build two more plants in Tianjin and Qinhuangdao last year. It was estimated that the annual capacity will reach 1.25m units after the building of two plants. However, the sales volume only reached 71,172 units in last year. The total sales volume reaches 32,300 units in the previous five months, with the target completion rate of only 32%.
HawTai puts great efforts in developing new products. Yang Weibin, Dean of HawTai Alternative Energy Vehicle Research Institute said that, HawTai is planning to explore the alternative energy vehicles market since 2009, doing research in batteries, engines and other key technologies and obtaining leading technologies and market status in the industry. Currently, HawTai has more than 30 independent intellectual property patents about BEV passenger vehicles. Besides, it also promotes a service system to provide free aid and car service.
According to the “666” plan, six platforms will launch more than 10 alternative energy vehicle models. However, it’s learned that it only has one 4S shop in Beijing. HawTai has not revealed more details in exploring Beijing’s market.
