Huawei has issued an olive branch again, this time reaching out to Europe.
According to foreign media reports, three people familiar with the matter revealed that Huawei has asked Audi and Mercedes-Benz whether it is interested in buying a small stake in its smart car software and components company.
At the end of November, Huawei Technologies and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Investment Cooperation to establish a new joint venture.
Obviously, Huawei's new joint venture is trying to continue to expand the "circle of friends", with FAW and Dongfeng in the front, and Audi and Mercedes-Benz in the rear. Huawei, which does not make cars, wants to pull more car companies into joint ventures and become the leader in the automotive chain.
Huawei "reached out" to Europe and pulled more car companies into the circle
Huawei has held preliminary talks with Mercedes-Benz in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Huawei agreed to give a 3%-5% stake in the latter, with valuations to be negotiated. However, Mercedes-Benz is not very willing to take charge of its own software to maintain its high-end brand positioning, rather than outsourcing to the best suppliers.
The extent of Audi's interest in Huawei's proposal is uncertain for the time being. However, the two companies are planning to work together to develop autonomous driving technology for Audi, which will be used in FAW Audi models from 2025.
At the moment, Mercedes-Benz declined to comment, and Audi also declined to comment. Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.
As early as September, it was reported that the senior management of Audi headquarters visited Huawei's headquarters, speculating that Audi will be equipped with Huawei's motor electronic control, Hongmeng cockpit, intelligent driving ADS and other systems.
Originally, Huawei's automotive business was divided into three parts: the car BU mode, the smart car mode, and the parts mode. Among them, the smart car model was renamed Hongmeng Zhixing, and the car BU was spun off independently.
Last month, Changan Automobile and Huawei jointly announced that Huawei intends to establish a new company engaged in R&D, design, production, sales and service of automotive intelligent systems and component solutions based on its intelligent vehicle solution businessChang'an will lead the investment of no more than 40%.
According to existing information, Huawei's new joint venture is mainly the original automotive BU part, including intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent vehicle digital platform, intelligent vehicle cloud, AR-HUD and intelligent car lighting divisions.
It can be seen that Huawei is not satisfied with only one partner of Changan Automobile, Huawei Consumer Business CEO, Senior Vice President of Huawei Technologies, and CEO of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU Yu Chengdong once revealed to ** that Hongmeng Zhixing's four partners Cialis, Chery, BAIC, and JAC are all new company's negotiation partners. At the Zhijie S7 press conference, Yu Chengdong shouted to FAW, expressing the hope that a powerful company like FAW could join.
"Bosch in the intelligent driving world", the full-stack solution is "far ahead".
Huawei's ambition behind not making cars is to become a Tier 1 intelligent connected car, and the industry generally compares Huawei to Bosch.
As a leading player in the automotive industry, Huawei prefers intelligent vehicle solutions, intelligent cockpits, AR-HUD and other intelligent network services, and has more potential for development in the new energy and intelligent era.
Huawei is a "far ahead" in the field of intelligent vehicle solutions, with data showing that nearly 70% of the R&D personnel in the intelligent driving sector reached the peak of the car BU. ads 1.After 0 was unveiled on the ARCFOX Alpha S, it entered the first echelon of the industry. Today's ADS 20 is rated as the top level of the industry.
Some time ago, it was equipped with ADS 20 of the M5 intelligent driving version and Xpeng P7i about the AEB dispute, the M5 intelligent driving version of the question world shows ADS 20 Advantages in AEB.
Zhu Xichan, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering of Tongji University, once said that in Huawei's autonomous driving solution, the AEB algorithm can share powerful environmental perception sensors, while most domestic competitors use the AEB solutions of Bosch and other leading manufacturers, resulting in the lack of outstanding performance of the intelligent driving solution AEB.
From this point alone, it can be seen that the "Huawei Family Bucket" has a strong comprehensive strength in intelligent driving. It is worth mentioning that Huawei is the only company in the world other than Tesla that has a comprehensive grasp of the hardware platform, middleware and application software for intelligent driving, and can provide OEMs with a full range of products and services from chips to software.
The layout of AI, voice, image recognition and other fields has made Huawei the head of the intelligent cockpit, and the Hongmeng cockpit has also been taken to the "car ceiling". HUAWEI MagLink technology can directly connect the HUAWEI tablet to the in-vehicle system. In addition, technologies such as smart headlights, AR-HUD, and smart on-board optics are recognized by more and more car companies and consumers.
Cooperation is still uncertain, who will control the "soul".
Huawei's blessing has become a plus point in the promotion of many models, and the Huawei brand has a premium brand value in the hearts of many consumers.
If Huawei can pull FAW, Dongfeng, JAC, Chery and even Audi into the new joint venture to reach in-depth cooperation, then Huawei will really "dominate the rivers and lakes". However, it is still unknown whether this cooperation will be so smooth.
Chen Hong, the former chairman of SAIC, once said that cooperating with Huawei would lose its soul. Xiao Yong, deputy general manager of GAC Aion, also publicly shouted that "Huawei is a big-name businessman" and cooperated with it "basically has no bargaining power".
In the new energy era, intelligent network technology has gradually become the main body of automobiles. Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, once said that smart cars are super phones on wheels.
Traditional car companies obviously do not want to completely hand over the intelligent network technology to the top business, just like the rumored attitude of Mercedes-Benz, hoping that the intelligent software will be managed by the brand itself.
Many mainstream car companies in China have intelligent corresponding layouts, such as Geely Holding owns ECARX, and Dongfeng Company owns Dongfeng Yuexiang Intelligence.
At the same time, differentiation is important in the operating model of car companies. At a time when the interior and central control of new energy vehicles are gradually converging, various car companies want to show differences in the interior of the system and in the details.
However, Huawei's intelligent car solutions are likely to unify hardware specifications, the same hardware or even the same HarmonyOS system, and it is still a question whether car companies can accept this request.
The transformation of new energy vehicles is entering the second half from the first half, and intelligence has become the key to automobiles. China's automotive industry is fortunate to have Huawei, which is one of the few companies in the world that can provide full-stack solutions, which also allows Chinese automobiles to maintain their leading edge and no longer be "stuck".
At the same time, Huawei's entry into the automotive field has also stimulated the progress of car companies in intelligence. After all, for most car companies, they can cooperate, but they don't want to be "drained of their souls". Only by speeding up its own research and development can it have a choice under Huawei's rule.