China's Huawei partners with more automakers to produce Aito EVs

Baic Motor

01/04/2023 12:41

SHANGHAI, April 1 (Reuters) - China's Huawei
Technologies  HWT.UL  is partnering with more legacy automakers
to produce Aito-branded electric cars, the company's senior
executive said on Saturday, in a move to expand its presence in
the auto industry.
    Huawei will team up with Chery Automobile  CHERY.UL , BAIC
Motor  1958.HK  and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group  600418.SS 
in jointly developing and manufacturing Aito-branded vehicles,
Richard Yu, Huawei's Smart Car CEO, said at the China EV 100
forum in Beijing. 
    Huawei, which has already a partnership with Seres Group
 601127.SS  to make Aito cars, plans a series of models
including SUVs, sedans and multipurpose vehicles under the Aito
brand, Yu added. 
    "We'd like to fully use the automakers' resources of
production capacity," Yu said.
    Seres sold a total of 80,000 Aito cars featuring Huawei's
HarmonyOS system - developed by the company as an alternative to
Android - in 2022, up more than six times from a year ago,
according to company filings. 
    Huawei's Chairman Eric Xu reiterated at a press conference
on Friday that the company doesn't make cars on its own but only
helps other automakers make better vehicles. 
    Huawei has been hit by a series of export controls by
Washington which says it is a security risk, which the company
denies. The sanctions have blocked Huawei from buying key
components as well as from using Google's Android operating
system. 
    The sanctions have also affected Huawei's partnerships with
global automakers, who have given up using Huawei's vehicle
connectivity technologies in the past two years, Yu said on
Saturday.
    Tension with the U.S. saw Meng detained for three years in
Canada over alleged efforts to cover up attempts by
Huawei-linked companies to sell equipment to Iran in breach of
U.S. sanctions.

 (Reporting by Zhang Yan, Zhuzhu Cui and Brenda Goh; Editing by
David Holmes)
 ((Zoey.Zhang@thomsonreuters.com))