Huawei and JAC link up for smart electric vehicles

Huawei Technologies Co is reportedly co-developing high-end electric vehicles with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co Ltd, according to a contractor, showing that Huawei is getting increasingly involved in the vehicle industrial chain to grow its revenue.

China State Construction Engineering Corp said on its official website that one of its units was part of a consortium that won a 1.5 billion yuan ($218.8 million) engineering, procurement and construction contract for a new energy vehicle industrial park in Feixi county in Hefei, Anhui province.

Once completed, the project — with a construction area of about 510,000 square meters — will be used to make cars co-developed by Huawei and JAC Motors, CSCEC said on its website on Thursday, before quickly removing the statement.

Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei's intelligent automotive solution business unit, said in a reply to news website Paper.com late on Tuesday that the company has no plans to make cars itself. It is partnering with JAC Motors to help the latter produce and sell cars in a better way.

Lin Shi, secretary-general of intelligent connected vehicles at the China-Europe Association for Technical and Economic Cooperation, said: "If Huawei indeed cooperates with JAC, it will be another attempt by Huawei to expand its smart car business."

Hefei Daily reported that Yu Aihua, Party secretary of Hefei, had a meeting with Yu in Shenzhen, Guangdong province in January, and the two sides will work to implement the joint project between Huawei and JAC Motors in Feixi.

Huawei has a good history of cooperation with JAC Motors, and they will co-develop new-generation high-end smart electric car platform technologies based on Huawei's intelligent auto parts, Hefei Daily reported.

Huawei has adopted three strategies to involve itself in the auto supply chain. One is supplying standardized parts to automakers with the second being supplying a full set of smart car technologies solutions — Huawei Inside — to automakers. The third involves intelligent car selection modes. Huawei not only participates in product modeling, interior design and intelligent solutions, but also is responsible for marketing and sales of car models.

Up until now, Chongqing-based Seres has been the automaker working most extensively with Huawei under the intelligent car selection mode. The pair developed the successful AITO Wenjie model, which is sold in Huawei's sprawling retail stores across China.

At a Huawei internal meeting at the end of last year, Yu said Huawei's auto business unit should achieve profitability by 2025.

To meet that goal, the intelligent car selection mode will shoulder the major responsibility, experts said.

Ma Chao, an independent auto expert, said that as the government tightens licenses needed for making NEVs, which deeply links them with traditional vehicle manufacturers in setting up factories, this could be a way for Huawei to get even more involved in automaking.