AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/14 Report--

On February 14, some investors asked on the interactive platform whether it is true that there are rumors on the Internet that a large number of Huawei R & D personnel have left your company. Subsequently, Cyrus responded, "this is false news, the company's long-term deep cross-border cooperation with Huawei has not changed." For acts and remarks that damage the rights and interests of the company, the company will investigate the legal liability of the relevant personnel in accordance with the law. The Internet is not a place outside the law. if you create rumors by asking questions, the company will also pursue its legal liability!

Although Selis responded quickly, the market remained volatile, with shares falling more than 5 per cent in intraday trading to 1 per cent at the end of the day. As of press time, Selis closed at 39.42 yuan per share, with a total market capitalization of 59.023 billion yuan.

In 2016, Xiaokang shares successfully launched A-shares, and then spent $30 million to create a new energy brand-SF MOTORS in Silicon Valley, which is the predecessor of Cyrus. However, the new energy car-building road of well-off shares is not smooth, not only losing money year after year, but also a very low sense of existence in the market. In April 2019, Cyrus unveiled its first electric car, the SF5, at the Shanghai Auto Show, with a subsidised price range of 278000 to 458000 yuan, but poor sales after its launch because of its low popularity.

As early as in early 2019, Xiaokang holding a comprehensive cooperation signing ceremony with Huawei, the two sides conducted in-depth cooperation on technology, products and channels, and launched the first cooperative model, Cyrus Huawei Smart SF5, in April 2011. this model was included in Huawei's official website and offline sales channels. of course, compared with SF5, Huawei Smart SF5 sales did increase significantly, but it is still very bleak.

In December 2022, Cyrus (renamed by Xiaokang) and Huawei jointly launched a new high-end brand, AITO, and unveiled the first medium-sized SUV-- M5. AITO is Huawei's deeply empowered high-end smart car brand, while the M5 is the first model with Huawei's latest HarmonyOS cockpit. Huawei's team is deeply involved in appearance design, product definition, functional stereotyping and later marketing. In the view of many users, although the M5 is manufactured by Selis, it can not be separated from the blessing of Huawei. To some extent, the M5 is Huawei. Since then, AITO brand has launched M7, M5 EV models one after another. According to official figures, AITO sold 75000 vehicles in 2022, of which the M5 successfully made it into the top 10 of the new energy SUV sales list with 56855.

After cooperating with Huawei, Cyrus has indeed achieved "quantitative change", but it has to be admitted that what can be achieved without Huawei's blessing? Fundamentally speaking, most of the models of the AITO brand are designed and developed by Huawei, and the core technology is also in Huawei's hands. At the same time, the models are also included in Huawei's terminal sales channels, and even the new cars are basically chosen to be released at Huawei's new product launch, dominated by Yu Chengdong, while Cyrus is more like a company only responsible for manufacturing. As a result, there is a view that although Huawei does not build cars on several occasions, it plays a huge role in the AITO brand.

Although AITO sales have soared, Cyrus is in the red. According to the financial report, Selis suffered a net loss of 2.675 billion in the first three quarters of 2022, down 149.89% from the same period last year, which is the third year in a row that Selis has suffered a loss. As for why Selis is "selling more and more at a loss", Cyrus said: the sharp rise in the price of chips, power batteries and other raw materials has led to a rise in production costs. Although the first three quarters achieved positive sales growth, but the flow of customers into the store and marketing activities are limited, while affecting supply, logistics, production and many other links, product production and sales did not meet expectations.

A deeper reason is that Cyrus has to pay a high fee to cooperate with Huawei. According to the financial report, Selis's sales expenses in the first three quarters of 2022 were 3.083 billion yuan, compared with 757 million yuan in the same period. It is understood that AITO asked to enter Huawei terminal stores, the advantage is that it can reduce the cost and time of store construction, the downside is that Huawei terminal stores also need to charge. In addition, Huawei also gets a share of the sale of AITO models, with Huawei and Cyrus taking a share of about 1:9, with about 2 per cent for Huawei's technology licensing fees and 8 per cent for channel distribution fees. In this way, it is not easy for Cyrus to make a profit.

On February 10, AITO released a poster picture with the "HUAWEI" logo clearly visible in the upper right-hand corner, and on the same day Yu Chengdong also posted a promotional copy about the M5 on Weibo, with the picture also replaced with the "HUAWEI" logo. It is understood that earlier AITO questions have been using the "AITO" LOGO, and there has never been a precedent for using the Huawei logo. In response, Huawei said: this move is only to highlight Huawei's long-term deep AITO boundary brand, the long-term and deep cooperation between Huawei and Cyrus remains unchanged, and the two sides will continue to jointly launch more and more competitive new products in the future.

In fact, does it matter whether Huawei builds cars or not? In the eyes of many users, Qijie is already a veritable Huawei car, so it doesn't matter whether Huawei will dominate the AITO brand, but what will happen if Cyrus loses Huawei. For Cyrus, there is basically no advantage after losing Huawei, and in the future Huawei will cooperate with Changan, Jianghuai, Chery and other car companies, Cyrus is not the only choice.

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