On January 15, Changan Automobile’s new high-end electric vehicle brand "Avita" was officially released, and the first model of the new brand "Avita 11" was also unveiled simultaneously. Changan Automobile hopes to create "emotional intelligent electric vehicles" through this new brand, occupy a place in the high-end electric vehicle market, and narrow the gap with Tesla, NIO and other new car-making forces.
Before the debut of the Avita brand, Changan Automobile’s new energy vehicle business had significantly lagged behind the market development trend and the pace of progress of competitors, especially in the mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle market. Competitors such as SAIC Group, Dongfeng Group, GAC Group, BAIC Group, and Geely Automobile have all launched mid-to-high-end new energy brands that operate independently. Therefore, the success of the Avita brand is very critical to Changan Automobile.
Chongqing is Avita’s manufacturing base, with an annual production capacity of up to 350,000 units. Brand public relations, marketing and other departments, as well as software research and development are located in Shanghai – on October 21, Avita Technology established a wholly-owned Avita New Energy Vehicle Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., with a global design center in Munich, Germany.
Avita plans to launch four models in the next five years. Among them, the first Avita 11 white body has been trial-produced in the Chongqing factory in October, and will be officially released in the second quarter of next year. The retail network will also be unveiled one after another. The first batch of mass production and user delivery will be achieved in the third quarter of next year, and its sales network will cover about 100 cities across the country.
Compared with the new energy models launched by Changan Automobile before, Avita 11 can be said to be a stunning work. For Changan Automobile, it can be regarded as an epoch-making product in terms of design concept, design language, vehicle shape, driving control performance and intelligence level. Avita also used this to create a new term "emotional intelligent electric vehicle", hoping to add emotional attributes to intelligent electric vehicles and differentiate them from other competitors.
Avita 11 is also the result of a strong collaboration between Changan Automobile, Huawei and CATL. The car was born from the CHN platform jointly built by the three parties, and the three letters of CHN represent each of the three companies. Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei, CEO of Consumer BG and CEO of Smart Car Solutions BU, said "Relying on 30 years of technology accumulation in the ICT field, we provide Avita with a comprehensive solution for smart cars through Huawei Inside."
Zeng Yuqun, chairperson of CATL, said: "The cooperation between CATL and Avita Technology began with the joint research and development of the CHN platform, but it goes far beyond technical investment. CATL will provide a steady stream of driving power for the new generation of smart electric vehicles owned by Avita Technology."
The core design concept of Avita 11 is "futuristic", and the overall design follows the design principles of bold confidence, emotional intelligence, and dynamic personality. Its agile and powerful exterior design shows a unique aesthetic charm.
The Avita 11 features a closed front design, with a slender and angular F-shaped headlight combination that converges the visual center to the logo in the center of the front of the car, condensing it without losing its edge. The aerodynamic package on both sides of the front bumper echoes the F-shaped headlights, with a lidar in the middle of the bumper.
From the side, the Avita 11 has a slender body with short front and rear overhangs, starting from the C-pillar, and the roof is pressed down to create the posture of a coupe SUV. The side lines of the body are simple and elegant, and the profile is full. The two window lines merge into a sharp V-shaped sharp angle at the rear of the car, and point forcefully to the edge of the C-pillar end, which is very dynamic and dynamic, and echoes the rounded rear wheel arches. The door handles have a hidden design.
The rear shape of the car is relatively round and looks very stable. Slender through taillights extend to both sides of the tail. The rear window design of the Avita is very characteristic. The shape is inverted trapezoid, and the area is very small, which makes the design of the tailgate feel a bit hatchback.
From the photos of the actual car, the area of the rear window is indeed very small, and it is unknown whether it will affect the driver’s observation of the rear environment during actual driving.
Other details of the Avita 11 are not much, and the interior is not open. Currently known information includes a cruising range of at least 700 kilometers, a 0-100km/h acceleration time of less than 4 seconds, a 200kW high-pressure super fast charging and 400Tops of top computing power, making it easy to achieve safe and convenient intelligent driving.
The emotional intelligent electric vehicle proposed by Avita will become a new category, or is it just a concept? The author believes that as the human-machine interaction functions of intelligent electric vehicles become richer and richer, and the interaction patterns become more and more diverse, it is indeed a possibility to give them more emotional attributes. But the premise is that the intelligent level of Avita 11 should reach a high degree, especially the experience of the intelligent cockpit should be completely based on the actual emotional needs of customers.
In fact, some current smart electric vehicles already have certain emotional attributes in terms of product design and function, such as the very unique anthropomorphic image of NOMI on NIO electric vehicles, which has been deeply exploring the emotional needs of human-vehicle interaction. Therefore, if the emotional intelligent electric vehicle proposed by Avita wants to become a new species and new category, it must have a more subversive innovation on the basis of the existing intelligent electric vehicles, otherwise it will not be attractive enough.
Not only Changan Automobile, but also large state-owned automakers such as SAIC, GAC, Dongfeng, and BAIC have established independent subsidiaries to develop new energy vehicle businesses, but they have maintained absolute control of the new energy vehicle subsidiaries. Even Baidu, a joint venture between Baidu and Geely, holds a 55% stake as the leading Baidu. But Avita Technology is an exception.
The predecessor of Avita Technology (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., the operating body of the Avita brand, was "Changan NIO New Energy Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd." (Changan NIO), which was jointly established by Changan Automobile and NIO in July 2018. The two parties held 50% of the shares respectively. Since then, due to NIO’s difficulties and no time to take care of it, Changan NIO has not made progress. In June 2020, Changan Automobile increased its capital to Changan NIO. The shareholding ratio reached 95.38%, and NIO’s share ratio fell to 4.62%. On May 20, 2021, Changan NIO was renamed Avita Technology.
On November 5, 2021, Avita Technology announced the completion of a round of financing, and the registered capital increased from the previous 288 million yuan to about 1.172 billion yuan.
Among them, Changan Automobile increased its capital by 500 million yuan, and Ningde Times increased its capital by 770 million yuan. After this financing, Changan Automobile’s shareholding ratio was diluted from 95.38% to 39.02%; Ningde Times held 23.99%, becoming the second largest shareholder of Avita Technology; Fujian Mindong Times Rural Investment Development Partnership held 5.00%, Chongqing Chengan Private Equity Fund Partnership held 19.01%, Chongqing Liangjiang West Securities Equity Investment Fund Partnership held 1.87%, Southern Industrial Asset Management Co., Ltd. held 8.73%, and Chongqing Southern Industrial Equity Investment Fund Partnership held 1.25%. NIO did not participate in the capital increase, and the shareholding ratio was diluted from 4.62% to 1.13%.
Among the investors mentioned above, Southern Asset is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the parent company of Changan Automobile and one of the top 10 shareholders of Changan Automobile, holding 6.12%. Therefore, it has a relationship with Changan Automobile. Southern Industrial Fund has no relationship with Changan Automobile, but has an equity relationship with Southern Asset.
For the purpose of this financing, Changan Automobile said that the introduction of external resources for equity diversification reform can enhance development vitality, improve operational efficiency, accelerate the integration of new energy vehicle industry chain resources, and continuously expand the development space of the industry chain, ultimately realizing the smooth transformation of Avita Technology Company.
Why should Changan Automobile give up its absolute controlling stake in Avita? Some people think that Changan Automobile is intentional, which can maximize the vitality of Avita Technology, get rid of the shackles of the state-owned enterprise system, and share risks.
There are also opinions that Changan Automobile is forced to do so. If it does not sell a larger proportion of its equity, it will not be able to attract truly powerful partners, such as Ningde Times. Tan Benhong, CEO of Avita Technology, also said in an interview that smart electric vehicles are a new field, and if you choose a partner with less ability, the hope of success is even more slim.
For the purpose of CATL’s investment in Avita Technology, there is a view that it is to make its highly integrated CTC (Cell to Chassis) technology come to fruition. This technology of integrating battery cells with vehicle chassis will help to significantly reduce the cost of electric vehicles, but it will weaken the dominance of OEMs in the development of electric vehicles and strengthen the voice over battery companies. Therefore, many OEMs are more cautious. CATL’s investment in Avita Technology and becoming its second largest shareholder will help CTC technology land on Avita models.
However, Tan Benhong said in an interview that Avita 11 will use the latest electrification technology of Ningde Times, but it is not clear whether CTC technology will be used. He said "C2C needs to be done when other conditions are ripe."
It is worth noting that Changan Automobile also gave up its controlling stake in financing Changan New Energy. In October 2018, Changan New Energy was publicly listed on the Shanghai United Equity Exchange to increase capital. In December 2019, Nanjing Runke, Changxin Fund, Liangjiang Fund, Southern Industrial Fund and other four parties invested a total of 2.84 billion yuan. Changan Automobile’s shareholding in Changan New Energy was reduced from 100% to 48.95%.
On October 30, Changan Automobile announced that Changan New Energy will introduce a number of strategic investors in the form of public listing on the Shanghai United Equity Exchange, and the planned proceeds raised will not exceed 5 billion yuan. This is the second round of financing since the establishment of Changan New Energy. If the fundraising increases Changan Automobile’s capital by different proportions, then its share ratio in Changan New Energy may be further diluted.
The Avita brand and the Avita 11 have just been unveiled, and from the few details and designs revealed, it has the potential to become a high-end pure electric vehicle, but it has only just begun. The future is still full of unknowns.
On the one hand, the competition in the smart electric vehicle market is becoming increasingly fierce. Some first movers have already established a firm foothold in the market, and the latecomers have to provide more forward-looking and revolutionary products to have the opportunity. It remains to be seen whether Avita’s emotional intelligent electric vehicle can live up to its name. On the other hand, it is also unknown what impact Changan Automobile will bring to this new brand if it gives up its absolute controlling stake in Avita. Based on this, the appearance of Avita 11 is not only an amazing leap for Changan Automobile, but also a thrilling leap.
