AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/12 Report--

Huawei has sent investment invitations to Mercedes-Benz and Audi to ask if they are interested in investing in its smart car company, European Automotive News reported. Sources say Huawei has been the target of US sanctions since 2019, bringing in Mercedes-Benz and Audi to protect the business from potential geopolitical tensions.

However, according to reports, Huawei held talks with Mercedes-Benz about cooperation a few weeks ago, but Mercedes-Benz almost rejected Huawei and did not have a strong desire to buy a stake in Huawei's smart car company. the latter offered a 3% stake in the new joint venture, but Mercedes-Benz preferred to control the intelligent software business to keep the brand high-end, rather than purchasing supplier technology. As for Audi, but as a luxury brand of Volkswagen Group, CARIAD, a software company of Volkswagen Group, has just set up a joint venture with Horizon and invested a huge amount of money. It remains to be further evaluated whether to take a stake in Huawei Smart car, but according to people familiar with the matter, Audi and Huawei plan to work together to develop self-driving technology for Audi, which will be used in the Chinese market in 2025. There is a joint venture between Audi and FAW of China, that is, Audi FAW.

Huawei's smart car business is accelerating. A week ago, Huawei announced that it would spin off its car BU and set up an independent company, which opened its stake to investors such as existing strategic partners and strategically valuable car companies. Changan Automobile is the first company to announce an investment in the company, with a stake of no more than 40 per cent.

The move is seen as a landmark move for Huawei's BU business to operate independently. Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei and chairman of BU, revealed at the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show that there will be two "boundaries" after the world of inquiry and intelligence, from BAIC and Jianghuai. Huawei has issued an open invitation to Cyrus, Chery, Jianghuai and BAIC, and hopes that FAW of China will join us to create the leading and ultimate smart car solution products.

On December 1, Jianghuai Automobile announced that it had signed an "Intelligent New Energy vehicle Cooperation Agreement" with Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd. Jianghuai Motors said that based on Huawei's smart car solution, the two sides will fully cooperate in product development, manufacturing, sales and service, and strive to build luxurious intelligent networked electric vehicles through continuous upgrading and iteration of cooperative models. to meet users' higher needs and expectations for smart cars. According to the industry special research report of China Merchants Securities, Jianghuai Automobile and Huawei's smart car model, codenamed X6, is scheduled to go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2024, but the news has not been explicitly responded to by the authorities. Earlier, media reports that JAC and Huawei are working together to develop a million-dollar MPV model, which is expected to be mass produced in the second quarter of 2024, has also not been officially confirmed.

At present, Hongmeng Zhihang model has launched three models: M5, M7 and S7, which are jointly launched by Cyrus and Huawei, while Zhijie is the brand launched by Chery and Huawei. The fourth model, the M9, will be officially released in December, with an expected price range of 50-600000 yuan. Yu Chengdong said it was the best SUV under 10 million.

The establishment of the ecological alliance can also flexibly use internal resources to play its own combination of punches according to local conditions. Most importantly, as long as the word Hongmeng is mentioned, consumers will think of Huawei, which can further strengthen the blessing of Huawei's brand effect on models, making it easier for consumers to form the perception that buying a 'boundary' model is tantamount to buying Huawei.

Yu Chengdong said, "China needs to build an electric intelligent open platform with the participation of the automobile industry and an open platform with 'locomotives'. At the same time, we will deepen cooperation with Changan, and at the same time, we will work together with more strategic partners to explore a new win-win model of opening up, and jointly seize the opportunity of the electrified and intelligent transformation of the automobile industry to realize the dream of the rise of China's automobile industry."

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat