Huawei, Changan change gears to drive smart auto industry development

Huawei and Changan Automobile have embarked on a groundbreaking venture with the signing of an investment and collaboration memorandum on Monday.

The strategic alliance heralds the formation of a new company under Huawei that will concentrate on the burgeoning field of intelligent driving systems and incremental components for smart connected vehicles.

The new company is set to harness Huawei's core technology and resources from its Intelligent Automotive Solutions business unit. With Changan Automobile and related parties expressing their intention to invest, the company is poised to become a world-leading provider in its domain.

It will serve as an open platform for the automotive industry, inviting strategic partner automakers and other investors with strategic value to participate in its equity, transforming it into a diversified ownership company.

Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, emphasized the collaboration's potential to accelerate the commercialization of intelligent technology on a global scale. He highlighted the partnership's role in driving the development of China's intelligent automotive industry towards scale, intensification, and sharing.

Zhu's vision extends to enhancing the resilience of the automotive industry chain and supply chain, promoting high-quality development, and leading breakthroughs in core technologies.

Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun reiterated the company's commitment to not manufacturing cars but instead focusing on helping automakers build and sell good cars through its ICT (information and communications technology)l advantages and marketing capabilities.

Huawei's dedication to fulfilling its commitments to customers and partners remains steadfast, with the aim of jointly promoting the rise of the automotive industry, Xu expressed.

Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director and CEO of its consumer business, added that the creation of an open platform for electrification and intelligence, with the participation of the entire automotive industry, is essential for China.

"The deepening cooperation with Changan Automobile and the engagement with more strategic partner automakers will explore new models of open and win-win cooperation. This collaborative effort seeks to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the electric and intelligent transformation of the automotive industry, realizing the dream of the rise of China's automotive industry," Yu said.

Unlike Huawei's previous collaboration with Changan and CATL in the AVATR brand, the new partnership focuses more on upstream automotive component supply. The cooperation is likely to combine the software and hardware advantages of both companies to create a platform-level product.

In the era of new-energy vehicle, this collaboration could give birth to products like the "HC" brand electric four-wheel-drive system, complete with ADS and intelligent control systems, providing a turnkey procurement system for automakers.

Industry insiders view Huawei's cooperation with Changan Automobile as a significant strategic move in the intelligent vehicle field. It represents an opportunity for Huawei to open its advanced technologies in intelligent vehicles and autonomous driving to the automotive industry to the greatest extent.

Currently, more automakers are recognizing Huawei's advantages in product definition, quality control, and brand marketing.

The collaboration between Seres and Huawei, for example, has led to remarkable success for the AITO M7 model, which has seen its pre-sale orders reach a new high. According to latest data released on Tuesday, the model has accumulated over 100,000 high-intent customer orders with deposits paid within just two and a half months since its market launch on September 12, setting a new industry record.

Also, the recent launch of the first model Luxeed S7 from the collaboration between Huawei and Chery received positive reviews, while the launch of the HIMA brand signified Huawei's ambition to create platform-level mobility products.

The future may see Huawei collaborating with more automakers to create a standardized, modular intelligent electric vehicle platform that the entire automotive industry participates in.