AITO has started delivering the M9 Ultimate long-wheelbase edition, with the first customer handover held on September 12 at the Seres super-factory in Longxing, Chongqing, according to Sina Auto. The event put buyers on the factory floor: customers toured the stamping, body-welding and final-assembly lines, watched the car go through final inspection, and then approved their own vehicle before taking the keys. AITO calls the process “delivery only after user approval.”
The long-wheelbase launch comes as the new-generation M9 family is gaining commercial momentum in China. Cumulative deliveries surpassed 30,000 units in the first 12 weeks after the model line started reaching customers, and from June through August the M9 was the best-selling model in the 500,000-yuan (about $70,400) and above segment, with an average transaction price above 600,000 yuan (about $84,500).
Seres founder and chairman Zhang Xinghai handed over the first cars and repeated the company’s “native integrated” development message. “AITO’s new luxury is rooted in a whole-vehicle architecture that combines technology and luxury,” he said, according to Sina Auto. “Individual hardware parameters do not equal the best whole-vehicle experience; excellent components do not automatically mean a safe, reliable and easy-to-use car.” Zhang said AITO’s architecture comes from collaboration between Seres, Huawei and CATL, bringing together technology and business resources from all three companies. The goal, he said, is to raise vehicle-level safety, reliability and overall experience to a higher level, and he described the approach as the foundation of the new flagship.
Flagship equipment
The M9 Ultimate long-wheelbase edition’s listed equipment includes an 800V electrical architecture, fully active suspension, steer-by-wire, a three-motor drivetrain, a 2.0-litre turbo range extender and a four-seat interior with zero-gravity seats. With the range extender on board, the car is an EREV (range-extender electric vehicle): the internal-combustion engine works as a generator to recharge the battery while the wheels are driven by electric motors. That layout, rather than a pure BEV (battery-electric) setup, lets AITO offer long-distance capability without relying entirely on the charging network.
Delivery-day handover and lifecycle responsibility
At the Chongqing ceremony, customers were guided through the plant before the handover, and several said the transparency changed how they viewed the car. A buyer surnamed Wang said the factory-floor delivery process gave him confidence in the quality of the M9 Ultimate long-wheelbase edition. A buyer surnamed Chen said she had compared several high-end models before choosing this one because it combined intelligence and luxury to a high standard. AITO presented the event as the latest expression of its user-approval delivery concept.
Zhang framed the company’s approach in wider industry terms. “Native whole-vehicle integration, full-lifecycle responsibility and closed-loop validation with user data are capabilities that simple component assembly cannot replace,” he said. He also noted that as Chinese production-consistency requirements become stricter, automakers are expected to take on more responsibility for the entire life of a vehicle.
AITO said it developed the M9 Ultimate long-wheelbase edition with input from the driving scenarios and feedback of its 1.2 million users in China, and will continue to refine the car through vehicle-level over-the-air (OTA) updates, full-cycle quality assurance and lifecycle services. The company said it will keep investing in technology, its manufacturing system and its service network now that deliveries have begun.
