Chen Zhuo, President of Avatr Technology, and Yong Jun, Vice President of Avatr Technology spoke recently at the Beijing Auto Show to Chinese media about the plans for the brand. Crucially we now know Avatr will launch overseas sales this year, initially in Thailand and that the export plan will be a three wave movement. Additionally we now know more about what the four product line up will look like by the end of the year including more spy shots of the Avatr 15.
Last year Changan controlled brand Avatr chose IAA Munich to unveil its second model the Avatr 12 (pronounced one two) sedan leading to speculation that the brand was looking to go overseas. Avatr officials confirmed this at the Beijing Auto Show saying that the initial market would be Thailand in the second half of the year and going on to say Avatr would enter a large number of markets by the end of the year.
Yong said that Avatr had categorized markets into the ease of entering them and that the company would tackle the easiest first. The first wave will enter low-difficulty regions which the company believes to be Central Asia, North Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Next will come entry in EU markets and finally the most difficult, the North American market.
Yong states, the AVATR brand is built by Changan, Huawei, and CATL jointly aggregating their own advantages and capabilities.
Currently the brand has only two models on sale, the Avatr 11 and 12. By the end of the year these will be joined by the cheaper Avatr 15 and 16 models. All four will be available as both all electric and extended range EVs. Avatr sold 14,532 cars in the first quarter and is targeting 84,000 for the whole year. Given that the first quarter only achieved 17.3% of the target the brand will needs sales to pick up over the rest or the year.
With both the Avatr 15 and 16 due to launch in the second half of year they could provide the increase in sales the brand needs. The Avatr 15 is a mid-size SUV designed to compete with the Tesla Model Y, the Avatr 16 on the other hand is a sporty sedan to take on the Tesla Model 3. Both will be cheaper than the 11 and 12 with an aim to boost volume for the brand.
New spy shots have emerged of the Avatr 15 including the cabin. We can see that inside the Avatr 15 is similar to the Avatr 12 with a continuous instrument screen and a floating infotainment unit.
Also spied recently is the forthcoming extended range version of the Avatr 12 which obviously looks largely the same as the all-electric version.
Source: Autohome
Is that extra wheel on the photo part of the car? 🙂
Haha, sorry my Photoshop skills are not so good.