AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/21 Report--

According to media reports such as Interface News, Yu Chengdong will step down as BU CEO of Huawei's smart car solution and become chairman of smart car solution BU, followed by Jin Yuzhi, president of Huawei's optical product line. Jin Yuzhi, president of Huawei's optical product line, will take over as Huawei's BU CEO.

It is speculated that Yu Chengdong's departure as BU CEO may have something to do with the strong return of Huawei's mobile phone business, and Yu Chengdong is likely to focus more on the mobile phone business. In response to the news, China Business reported that Huawei had issued a formal document on the job adjustment in the auto business. This adjustment, Yu Chengdong will be promoted to chairman of Automotive BU, the overall purpose is to help Huawei achieve commercial success in the field of smart cars. "We will continue to increase investment in automotive-related areas in the future."

However, as of press time, when Automotive Industry concern checked the management information on Huawei's official website, it was found that Yu Chengdong's current position is still managing director, terminal BG CEO, director of smart car solutions BU CEO, smart terminals and smart car components IRB, and there is no new position.

With Yu Chengdong's outgoing car BU CEO, it may mean that Huawei BU will once again usher in a change in strategic direction, and this change will also become the fifth major structural adjustment since the establishment of Huawei BU. According to media reports, after this personnel change, some of the current management structures of Huawei BU include: Huawei terminal BG CEO, chairman of smart car solution BU, Yu Chengdong; president of Huawei optical product line and smart car solution BU CEO, Jin Yuzhi; Huawei smart car solution BU CSO, Wang Jun; president of Huawei intelligent driving solution product line, general manager of intelligent driving field, Li Wenguang, etc.

According to the data, Jin Yuzhi is currently vice president of Huawei Technology Co., Ltd and president of Huawei optical product line. The intersection of Huawei optical product line and car BU is Huawei smart vehicle optical business products, including AR HUD, smart lights and so on.

Car BU is the smart car solutions division established by Huawei in May 2019, when Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei issued Huawei organization change documents and announced the establishment of Huawei smart car solution BU, which is managed by the ICT management committee and belongs to Huawei's first-tier division, led by Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun. With the establishment of the department, Huawei also began to enter the car track.

In September 2021, Huawei issued a notice of appointment for smart car solutions. Wang Jun, former president of Huawei smart car solution BU, was transferred to BU COO and president of smart driving solution product line, while Yu Chengdong continued to serve as Huawei smart car solution BU CEO. After Yu Chengdong was appointed car BU CEO, Huawei has been very aggressive in its layout of car-related businesses.

In February this year, it was reported that Wang Jun was suspended because Wang Jun was internally punished, and the suspension news was settled at the end of last year. In addition, it is also reported that Wang Jun's suspension is mainly related to the HI model of car BU and the poor progress of auto parts business. Yu Chengdong then responded to the normal personnel adjustment, while Huawei remained unchanged in its car business, while pointing out that many of the speculation about Huawei's strategic adjustment were "online hype".

Last month, insiders close to Huawei confirmed that Wang Jun, who was suspended at the beginning of this year, had returned to Huawei BU to take charge of strategic planning. But Huawei did not respond to the news.

Since its establishment, Huawei BU has also launched three business models: Tier1 (traditional parts supplier model, which supplies intelligent parts for car companies), HI model (Huawei Inside mode) and smart selection model. Among them, the Tier1 and HI models are dominated by Wang Jun's car BU, and the smart selection model is led by Huawei consumer BG team, which Yu Chengdong is in charge of personally.

In the HI model, Huawei has established cooperative relations with BAIC, Changan and Guangzhou automobile companies, among which BAIC Jihu Alpha S HI is the first mass-produced model equipped with Huawei L2 smart driving solution, while Changan Automobile, Ningde era and Huawei's Avita 11 is the first model with Huawei HI full-stack smart car solution. However, whether it is BAIC polar fox or Avita, from the feedback from the market terminal, these brands do not have particularly eye-catching results on the sales side. Data show that from January to August this year, only 12100 cars were delivered by polar fox, while only 13100 were sold by Avita 11.

In contrast to Huawei's smart selection model, as a high-end smart car brand deeply empowered by Huawei, AITO has achieved good sales performance since its launch. In 2022, AITO has delivered more than 75000 new cars, making it the fastest-growing new energy vehicle brand. However, after entering 2023, its sales did not continue the trend of rapid growth in 2022, but began to show a downward trend. So far, the models on sale in AITO include the M5/M5 EV and M7. Data show that from January to August this year, Cyrus sold a total of 33264 vehicles, down 15.64% from the same period last year.

With the change of the car market, Huawei's position in the car company has changed obviously, and Cyrus is no longer Huawei's only choice. So far, in addition to Cyrus, Huawei smart car model cooperation companies also include Chery Automobile, Jianghuai Automobile and BAIC Blue Valley.

The industry believes that Huawei's frequent BU structural adjustments are related to its current poor sales and revenue performance. According to Huawei's annual report, Huawei's annual revenue last year totaled 642.3 billion yuan, an increase of 0.9 percent over the same period last year, of which the smart car solutions business generated only 2.077 billion yuan in revenue, with less than a fraction of its performance contribution. The business revenue of smart car solutions in the first half of this year was 1 billion yuan. Yu Chengdong once revealed that the research and development of smart car solutions in 2021 was as high as $1 billion, and said bluntly: "cars are the only lossmaking business of Huawei at present."

According to people familiar with the matter, after Yu Chengdong becomes chairman, he is likely to focus more on the mobile business, but will still "devote a lot of energy" to the automotive business to help the car BU make a profit. Huawei BU is scheduled to be profitable by 2025, and Huawei BU still has a long way to go to achieve that goal.

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