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On July 7, at the 14th China Automobile Blue Book Forum, Huawei Managing Director, Consumer Business BG CEO and Huawei Smart car solution BU CEO Yu Chengdong revealed that automobile is Huawei's only lossmaking business. Yu Chengdong said that Huawei has invested a lot in the automobile business, reaching more than US $1 billion every year. "this area is definitely a very expensive game, an absolutely lossmaking business, and an absolutely difficult business to do." Yu Chengdong said with a wry smile.

At present, Huawei's attitude of not building complete vehicles is very tough. On July 4, at Huawei's summer new product launch, Huawei unveiled the second model of the AITO brand, the M7. At the launch, Yu Chengdong reiterated that "Huawei does not build cars, but helps car companies build good cars." At that time, Huawei issued harsh words in a document: who build a car again, interfere with the company, can be transferred out of the post, looking for another job.

In May 2019, with the organization change document issued by Ren Zhengfei, Huawei formally established BU, which is managed by the ICT Management Committee and belongs to Huawei's first-tier department. It is positioned as the responsible body of the end-to-end business in the smart car field, providing customers with smart car ICT components and solutions to help car manufacturers build good cars. In October 2020, Zhengfei issued a resolution on the business management of smart car components, which mentioned that although the external environment has been changing over the past two years, it is clear that building an ICT infrastructure is Huawei's historical mission. The company once again reiterated that Huawei does not build complete vehicles, but focuses on ICT technology to help car companies build good cars and become the incremental parts provider of Intelligent Networked vehicles. It is worth mentioning that the resolution marked at the end is intriguing: "this article will take effect from the date of publication and will be valid for three years." In other words, Huawei's promise of "not building complete cars" will no longer be valid by October 2023. Of course, for now, Huawei has stuck to this promise.

It is worth mentioning that Huawei has previously said not to make mobile phones, but now the mobile phone business has become one of the business cards that Huawei can handle. Earlier, before Huawei had a foothold in the mobile phone industry, Ren Zhengfei said on the mobile phone business that "Huawei only does communications, not mobile phones. Whoever mentions making mobile phones, let's go." Now, although Huawei still adheres to its promise not to build cars, will it repeat the scene of that year when the resolution expires?

Although Huawei doesn't build a car, it almost built a car. At present, Huawei still insists on providing technical support to automobile companies as a supply chain, including but not limited to Huawei electric drive system, car engine system, intelligent cockpit and related ICT technology, among which the most in-depth cooperation is AITO. As a high-end brand with deep cooperation, Huawei has participated in many aspects such as research and development, manufacturing and sales of the brand. It can be regarded as a relatively high "flamboyant" product among Huawei's current cooperative car brands. For example, the M7 launched this time uses Huawei Drive ONE pure electric drive extended range platform and is equipped with Huawei Hongmeng HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit. In addition, Huawei has placed its models in Huawei's offline stores and online malls, and even the product launches were held at Huawei's winter and summer product launches and completed by Yu Chengdong himself. At the press conference of the M7, Yu Chengdong took up a lot of time to introduce the new car, while Zhang Xinghai, chairman of Dongfeng Xiaokang, appeared a little nervous when he took the stage and quickly left after praising the M7.

Obviously, Huawei does not build cars, but in the eyes of consumers, the M7 is already a Huawei brand; the M7 is made by Dongfeng well-off, but the core components and technology come from Huawei. Perhaps, it is no longer meaningful to worry about whether Huawei builds a car or not, because Huawei has a comprehensive layout in car manufacturing, but it is missing the identity of building a car. if it does join in building a car in the future, cooperation with car companies at this stage can also allow Huawei to accumulate experience so that it can take fewer detours and step on fewer pitfalls in the future.

As for Huawei's determination not to build cars, in addition to the restrictions of the relevant resolution documents, it also has something to do with the situation Huawei is in. Fundamentally speaking, car building as a heavy asset industry, once an enterprise is involved, it must invest enough money to ensure the promotion of the project and maintain the operation of the project, which will bring certain financial pressure to the enterprise. and this may be one of the reasons why Huawei, which has suffered a certain impact on its consumer business, does not consider building cars for the time being. From the mode of cooperation, Huawei can be understood as light asset operation, providing technical and brand support for the industry, while well-off is a typical asset-heavy operation, providing vehicle manufacturing and after-sales work for the industry.

As the spokesman of the AITO world, Yu Chengdong likes to talk big and is not afraid to say the wrong thing. At this forum, Yu Chengdong said, "the era of pure fuel vehicles should end as soon as possible, which is in line with the national strategy and the value to consumers." After the press conference, Yu Chengdong said, "my team, after ten years of fighting, knows how to be a world-class brand." If we can't survive today, even if we make shoes, socks, tables and chairs, we all know how to build a world-class brand. The reason why we do not make shoes and socks is that the technical content is too low. "I am not even willing to do household appliances, which is a waste of our talents."

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