Speaking of the most popular car exterior designs in the Chinese market in recent years, the tough and retro "square box" style is undoubtedly at the top. Against this market backdrop, major car brands naturally want a piece of the action and have launched their own boxy models. iCAR is one of them, and several of its boxy models performed fairly impressively in sales initially after launch, but not long afterward they entered a state of continuous decline. So where did the problem arise?
Monthly sales fell to less than 30%
Currently, the iCAR brand has two models on sale: the "Super V23" and the recently launched "V27."
Let's start with the Super V23. You have to remember that in last year's boxy vehicle market, competition was not as fierce as this year, especially in the sub-segment of "small boxy vehicles" priced around 100,000 yuan, where there were hardly any models. Therefore, when many young people saw that they could buy a boxy vehicle for around 100,000 yuan, the Super V23 caught on accordingly, reaching monthly sales of nearly 9,000 units at its peak last year.
However, as time entered 2026, the Super V23's popularity seems to have dissipated. Cumulative sales from January to April were only 7,002 units, with average monthly sales of less than 2,000 units, a decline of over 70% compared with its peak. This means there must be some problems. Below, we will speculate from the consumer's perspective.
First, users' novelty has certainly worn off, and they began to seriously scrutinize product strength when choosing a car. Especially as more and more brands launched boxy models this year, a previously relatively blue-ocean sub-segment became crowded with competitors. In addition, the pricing of the new Super V23 also exceeded the 150,000-yuan level, further losing its appeal in terms of price. After all, for consumers with a budget of more than 150,000 yuan, they can already buy a truly hardcore boxy vehicle at this price, so why choose a big toy?
Second, there is the quality control issue of the Super V23. According to publicly available vehicle complaint information on Car Quality Network, the car has not currently been complained about for large-scale product defects, but there are somewhat more minor problems, such as paint blistering and cracking, body rust, and circuit failures. Although these problems do not affect daily use, many owners feel upset when they spend more than 100,000 yuan on a car and encounter such situations. After all, no matter how repairs are made later, the quality is not as solid as the original factory's. This is also one of the main reasons leading to the decline in Super V23 sales.
Insufficient explosive power of the new model
As another newly launched model from the iCAR brand, how does the V27 perform?
Objectively speaking, sales of 2,681 units in its first month on the market, followed by 4,184 units in April, may look decent, but within the entire boxy vehicle market, the V27 can only be regarded as mediocre. In particular, compared with the same-class Fangchengbao Tai 7, its sales are only a fraction of the latter's.
You should know that iCAR's leadership previously set a monthly sales target of 10,000 units for the V27. Why was it not achieved?
In fact, this should be related to the model's positioning. Those who know cars understand how demanding the word "hardcore" is. Even something as capable as the Tai 7 only modestly refers to itself as light off-road, yet the V27, an extended-range SUV, dares to call itself hardcore. Many consumers probably will not buy into that. In addition, extended-range boxy SUVs generally suffer from high fuel consumption, which further discourages many urban users from buying. To sum up, wanting everything may ultimately mean losing everything. It would be better to take a specialized route.
Another issue is its configuration. As a new energy vehicle priced close to 200,000 yuan, the V27's chassis setup is MacPherson struts in the front plus a multi-link rear, while the Tai 7 has double wishbones in the front plus a five-link rear, a world of difference. In response, many consumers said that if the Tai 7's chassis also used this configuration, the V27's slight price advantage would probably be instantly erased. In addition, for today's increasingly car-savvy consumers, the V27's configuration also leaves something to be desired compared with same-class models. This is also why the new car's sales performance after launch lacks explosive power.
Daxia Car Talk: Overall, although the product strength of iCAR's models on sale is still fairly acceptable within their class, there are also the two problems mentioned above: first, quality control issues, and second, positioning issues. After all, today's young users not only care a great deal about quality when shopping, but are also pragmatic. Rather than working hard on aspects that do not meet the needs of the user group, it would be better to improve quality properly. The continuous sales decline already explains the problem.
