The Koelliker group is once again expanding the boundaries of the national automotive market. To the two brands it already represents, Mitsubishi and SsangYong, the company adds the Chinese Aiways, Maxus, Seres and Weltmeister (despite the German name which means world champion) and the American Karma. The new offering is almost entirely zero-emission and includes commercial vehicles (Maxus), SUVs and crossovers (Aiwas, Seres and Weltmeister) and a supercar (Karma). Seres and Maxus are close to their debut, Aiways will arrive in autumn while Karma will be between the end of the year and the beginning of 2022. The new brands will not be the last of the new offensive, mostly Asian, of the pioneering importer. However, how many and which other brands Koelliker intends to bring to Italy is not yet clear: for the moment it is working on developing a commercial network and at the same time pushing on the digitization of sales.
The debut in electric mobility is marked by KGen, the “Koelliker generation”, which will also benefit from a shopping experience without intermediaries thanks to home test-drives of the subsidiary Autotrade & Logistics. “We go beyond the old paradigms of the automotive market and respond to the new needs of a mobility that is changing,” said CEO Luca Ronconi. The zero-emissions advance will be conducted together with Enel X, Microsoft and Santander Consumer Bank, partners for charging technologies, digital transformation and financing solutions. “Kgen is an all-Italian project and represents a unique initiative in the field of electric mobility”, concluded Luca Ronconi.
Some models of the new brands represented by the group will debut between 10 and 13 June at MiMo, the first edition of the Milano Monza Motor Show. In Italy arrive the Seres 3 (4.35 meters long) and the Seres 5 (4.7), two zero-emission SUVs, the second of which is equipped with an electric unit developed by Huawei but is also available with a petrol engine 1.5 liter used as a range extender. The declared autonomies exceed respectively 300 and 400 kilometers (the batteries are 53.6 or 90 kWh). The Seres 5 with all-wheel drive is close to 700 hp of power. With the incentives, Seres 3 has an entrance price of less than € 28,500. Aiways also arrives in Italy with two models, even if the 468 cm long U5 SUV will make its debut much earlier than the U6 crossover. With its 63 kWh battery, the U5 can travel 410 kilometers on a single refuel. The electric unit is 200 Hp and the standard equipment includes L2 + level autonomous driving systems.
The Weltmeister brand will debut with the 4,585-meter C-suv W5 with 217 hp and up to 450 km of range (with the most capable accumulator, of 66 kWh). With the American brand Karma, Koelliker presents the GS-6 with extended autonomy (up to 575 kilometers of which 125 are zero emissions) powered by a 28 kWh battery and a 228 HP 1.5-liter BMW engine used as a generator. . The rear-wheel drive sports car has 536 Hp and a 0-100 acceleration of 3.9 ”. The arrival of the electric version of the same model is already foreseen, equipped with an accumulator of over 100 kWh.