Huawei's entry into the automotive industry is a strategy set in 2019. Judging from the response of the market, the voice is very loud, and Yu Dazui's voice floats in China's new energy vehicle industry every day, and has caused controversy many times.
But the actual output is very limited. 
At the end of 2023, Huawei is waiting for the first big hit product, which is the Wenjie M9, which is only relative to Huawei's past achievements, because the order volume of this explosive product is only more than 40,000 units, and the order volume delivered by Tesla in a quarter is as high as more than 400,000 units.
If the input and output are calculated, then Huawei's entry into the automotive industry can be said to have no bright spots.
According to the data, since the establishment of Huawei BU, Huawei has invested about 20.6 billion yuan. In 2022, Huawei's R&D expenditure related to the automotive business exceeded 10.3 billion yuan, almost twice that of Li and Xpeng, but the revenue in exchange was less than 2.1 billion yuan, accounting for only 03%。
As a new field, the input-output ratio is indeed too early to be assessed now. But the important problem is not this, but that Huawei has not yet made its business model clear.
Obviously, there are two routes within Huawei, the first route is to become Bosch in the automotive field, that is, to provide comprehensive solutions for car companies, to be a leading provider of hardware and software systems, and the second route is to build its own cars.
Although Huawei's slogan of not making cars is Ren Zhengfei's slogan, Yu Dazui obviously disagrees. Although the manufacturer of the M9 is not Huawei, in fact, from the whole operation, it is a car made by Huawei. 
Who's releasing the product? Yu Chengdong.
This car, from design to manufacturing to marketing, and even including channels, is all handled by Huawei, although it is the production name of a cooperative manufacturer, but the essence is Huawei's own car.
And Huawei's dream of becoming Bosch has failed. Huawei is in the process of spinning off its automotive BU business and opening up its equity to partners.
On the surface, this is a means to pull customers to form a long-term business, but if its business ability is strong, this means is not needed at all. To put it bluntly, Huawei invested tens of billions of dollars in the development of the automotive business and wanted to make it another Bosch, but the customers did not buy it, so they opened up their equity and obtained financing so that the business could continue. Otherwise, with an investment of tens of billions and an income of more than two billion, without financing, this business will not be able to continue. Ren Zhengfei is not a R&D maniac, but a business maniac, he will never stick to the business of not playing food and making money. In the automobile business, Ren Zhengfei's latest opinion clearly statesIt is necessary to reduce R&D investment and complete the closed loop of business. What Mr. Ren said is that if you don't understand how to make money, you can't invest in R&D.
Huawei's accumulated advantages in the field of information industry are indeed the basic capabilities of smart cars, but why don't so many Chinese car companies buy it? Because the intelligent car system is the soul of the product, who will easily hand over the soul of the product to another company?
Huawei's cooperation model has not brought amazing market performance. The first batch of Arctic Foxes that cooperated with Huawei on the ** chain did not see any good performance in the market, on the contrary, they have been in huge losses, which also makes the partners unable to see commercial certainty.
On the contrary, the model of the M9 proves that Huawei's deep involvement, not just making parts, is the model that is likely to produce explosive products.
However, in this model, it is also difficult for large enterprises to cooperate with Huawei, will large car companies accept their own products released by Yu Chengdong? The market will only think that the car belongs to Huawei, and as a consumer product, the brand value of the car is the first. Although Huawei promised not to make cars, this commitment was unreliable, and Huawei also promised not to make mobile phones. If in the end, Huawei still builds its own cars, then its cooperation with Huawei is just to provide early support for Huawei's own car manufacturing and help competitors. 
Huawei's swing in the business route between being a leading business and being a brand makes all manufacturers unable to understand Huawei.
It is undeniable that Huawei has strong technology research and development capabilities, which makes it possible for him to be the first to be a latecomer in the smart car industry. However, Huawei's investment of 20 billion yuan may be difficult to achieve high output. You must know that Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory alone invests 50 billion, or on the premise that Shanghai ** gives it almost no money.
Huawei has stated that it will not build cars, and in the eyes of many competitors, it just wants to reduce the upfront investment costs, make core products first, and then invest in production after having commercial certainty. Even Xiaomi has announced that it will invest $10 billion to enter new energy vehicles. With a total investment of 20 billion, it is not a big investment at all in this field.
NIO's total loss since its inception has exceeded 92 billion yuan.
Huawei's cautious foray into the auto industry is greater than most people expected, even though it is much richer than most of the new players. The investment of 20 billion yuan is not small for Huawei, but it is still a trial-and-error investment.
You must know that 150 billion yuan has been invested in unmanned driving alone. But have you noticed that Yu Dazui is one of the souls of Huawei, and his exaggerated marketing methods have made Huawei's investment of only 20 billion yuan, but it has become a hot spot in the market.
The one who doesn't know how to market the most, and the one who doesn't understand business the most is probably Robin Li, who has invested in unmanned driving for so many years, and basically can't hear the voice in the field of smart cars.
Look at Yu Chengdong, when he drove back to his hometown during the Spring Festival, he had to show off a wave of marketing, which was really a marketing gene engraved in his bones. 
I think Yu Chengdong will win the battle for the route in the end, that is, Huawei will eventually go to the road of car manufacturing.
Many people think that these excellent companies in China win in research and development, but in fact, they are not. China's best enterprises, first of all, win in marketing. Huawei's wolf sales culture, Alibaba's sales army, Meituan won the market from the battle of 100 regiments by relying on direct sales, and Didi started by relying on the street to promote one driver after another.
Wasn't Apple's Steve Jobs a marketing guru?
R&D is the process of accumulating funds and continuing to invest in satisfying consumers, without marketing as a bridge, it is impossible to accumulate funds at all, and it is impossible to continue to have money to do R&D. At present, the current situation of Huawei's automotive business is that the investment of 20 billion yuan has not seen the output, and Ren Zhengfei has asked to reduce the investment. Without Yu Dazui, it is not surprising that Huawei's car company business is dead. Multiple business models in parallel are almost impossible in the long run. Toyota can't customize the system for other factories and use it to build its own brand at the same time.
It is necessarily one or the other. It's just that there are still many traditional car companies in China, especially some state-owned enterprises, that will rush to the doctor, since they don't have the ability to research and develop, it's good to try to cooperate with Huawei.
However, sooner or later, Huawei will dump all its cooperative customers and sell its own cars. Because in the field of smart cars, the first business is not the manufacturer of parts, but the integrator of the system, you use a full set of software systems, you are Huawei's car, and it is your own brand, and consumers do not believe you.
For many years to come, Yu Dazui will brag about selling cars every day, and he will always be far ahead, and this is the most critical competitiveness of Huawei's automotive business, not R&D. 
If Huawei really only does the smart car business and insists on not building its own cars, it will be a dead end.