Huawei Car Business Unit's New Trends, SAIC Expected to Join In

Huawei's Car Business Unit (BU) was officially inserted into Yingwang Company in January this year. Several employees told the Science and Innovation Board Daily reporter that Huawei has promised that old employees will still retain Huawei's employee benefits, including internal stocks and dividends. "This is the current strategy, but there may be adjustments," said one employee. New employees introduced by Huawei Car BU at the end of 2024 will have Yingwang Company as their contracting entity, without Huawei's virtual stocks and dividends. On January 16, 2024, Huawei's Car BU established Shenzhen Yingwang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. At that time, the Science and Innovation Board Daily learned that Yingwang Company will incorporate Huawei's car BU technology and resources to create an electrified intelligent open platform with the participation of the automotive industry, which, as more partners join, will become a technology open platform with diverse equity. In March of the same year, Yingwang Company established subsidiaries in Shanghai, Suzhou, Dongguan, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. Since 2024, Yingwang Company has announced two rounds of investment from car companies, with Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock and Chongqing Changan Automobile's Aiweita Technology respectively investing 11.5 billion yuan, each holding 10% of the shares. This means that Yingwang has raised 23 billion yuan in financing, and its valuation is estimated at 115 billion yuan. The financing road for Yingwang is still ongoing. Yu Chengdong once said that in addition to Chongqing Changan Automobile and Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock, Huawei has also invited Chery, Jianghuai, Beiqi, and others to participate in building and contributing to intelligent car solutions products. Regarding the introduction of subsequent investors into Yingwang, Xu Zhijun, Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of Huawei, revealed in an interview in September 2024: "Car manufacturers that use Yingwang products and solutions are definitely the priority. The objects introduced by Yingwang are car manufacturers, not financial investors. The investors introduced by Yingwang must be strategic investors, closely integrated with Yingwang, sharing risks and benefits together." With more investors entering Yingwang, Huawei's shareholding will gradually decrease. However, according to the non-competition agreement signed between Huawei and Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock, Huawei has committed to maintaining a direct or indirect ownership of Yingwang of no less than 5% over eight years. Huawei will also not engage in similar businesses to Yingwang. Huawei's Car BU had set a goal to achieve profitability by 2025. It seems that this goal has been achieved. According to public data, Huawei Car BU's sales revenue reached 2.098 billion yuan and 4.7 billion yuan respectively in 2022 and 2023, and the operating income from January to June 2024 was 10.435 billion yuan. In terms of net profit, Yingwang incurred losses of 7.587 billion yuan and 5.597 billion yuan in 2022 and 2023 respectively, while for January to June 2024, it achieved a turnaround with a net profit of 2.231 billion yuan. "Huawei Car BU has invested over 40 billion yuan in R&D costs, with over 4,000 software engineers for intelligent driving. During the most difficult times, we had a loss of over 8 billion yuan in a year. But through efforts, Huawei Car BU was able to achieve profitability in 2024," Xu Zhijun previously stated. On January 1, 2025, data released by Hongmeng Zhihang showed that a total of 445,000 new cars were delivered in 2024. Among them, in the "Three Boundaries" brand that has begun deliveries, the Wenjie New M7 series delivered a total of 197,000 new cars, and the Wenjie M9 released for 12 months has exceeded 200,000 units; the Zhijie R7 delivered 29,000 units; and the Xiangjie S9 series delivered 7,494 units. Huawei's automotive circle is expanding gradually. Recently, it was reported that Huawei has deepened cooperation with SAIC Motor Corporation, focusing on supporting SAIC in the definition and marketing strategy of mainstream models. The two parties plan to officially announce specific cooperation details in January 2025. As part of the collaboration, the first model, Feivan RC7, will be integrated into Huawei's sales channels and is expected to be launched in the market in mid-2025. In the future, the collaboration model will not be limited to self-owned brands but will also include joint venture brands, involving the development of new models. Regarding the cooperation of both parties, there is no official information from Huawei and SAIC Motor Corporation. However, according to sources familiar with the matter, the cooperation between Huawei and SAIC Motor Corporation is still ongoing, and specific cooperation details have not been publicized. This article is from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, written by Huang Xinyi; GMTEight editor: mz.