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last month, after huawei yinwang (shenzhen yinwang intelligent technology co., ltd.) successively introduced avita technology and seres, subsidiaries of changan automobile, as 10% shareholders, the independence of huawei's automotive bu came to a temporary end. now, huawei's rotating chairman xu zhijun publicly talked about yinwang's future development strategy for the first time - it will focus on smart cockpits, smart driving, and smart vehicle control, and will build yinwang into an electric and intelligent open platform with the participation of the automotive industry, bringing intelligence into every car.

focus on three "intelligence"

in a recent interview with the media, xu zhijun said that in april 2019, he first proposed that huawei should become an "incremental component provider" for new energy vehicles, but there were still differences within huawei at the time about this positioning. "at present, based on its deep accumulation in the field of information and communication technology, huawei has gradually formed a consensus: focus on "three intelligences" - smart cockpit, smart driving, and smart vehicle control. from the earliest establishment of the internet of vehicles laboratory, to the later smart car solutions bu, to the current establishment of yinwang, huawei has been working in this direction."

"with the rise of intelligence, intelligent cockpits are our strength. we integrate sensors such as lidar, millimeter-wave radar, cameras, computing platforms, edge inference platforms, etc. into an intelligent driving system, which is equivalent to equipping the car with a never-tiring 'intelligent driving system'. this is no longer a component product worth a few hundred yuan, and we must do it well." said xu zhijun.

xu zhijun also said that in terms of intelligent driving, huawei is the only manufacturer in the industry that can "own and connect everything" from chips to hardware, operating systems, software, and cloud training. this is huawei's unique advantage as an information and communications company.

huawei's automotive bu will be independent by the end of the year

"at present, yinwang has invested more than 40 billion yuan in research and development costs, and the number of intelligent driving software engineers has reached more than 4,000. during the most difficult period, we lost more than 8 billion yuan a year. but after hard work, huawei's automotive bu can achieve profitability this year," xu zhijun also revealed.

previously, in january 2024, huawei's automotive bu officially established its smart car subsidiary, shenzhen yinwang intelligent technology co., ltd. according to huawei's introduction at the time, yinwang will bring together many core technologies of huawei's smart car solution business. its main businesses include smart driving, smart cockpit, smart vehicle control, smart car cloud services, etc.

last month, avita technologies and seres, two automakers under changan automobile, invested 11.5 billion yuan respectively to acquire shares in yinwang company. currently, the two automakers each hold 10% of the shares of yinwang company, and the remaining 80% is held by huawei.

in the announcement that seres plans to invest rmb 11.5 billion in yinwang, huawei’s automotive bu independence plan was publicly exposed for the first time.

according to the announcement at that time, as of the announcement date, yinwang had not yet completed the loading of its business. huawei and yinwang planned to complete the substantive loading before the transfer price of this transaction was paid in full according to the loading plan and principles determined by the two parties to the transaction. after the loading is completed, yinwang will take over huawei's original core business of smart car solutions. according to the loading plan and principles, huawei plans to load assets, personnel, intellectual property rights, etc. to yinwang.

as of july 31, 2024, huawei plans to transfer a total of 6,838 patents and patent applications. the patents to be licensed include other patents required for the loading business; the technologies to be transferred and licensed include technical assets such as loading business-related software, codes, documents and data; the trademarks and trademark applications to be transferred totaling 1,603, and the trademarks and trademark applications to be licensed totaling 1,600.

based on yinwang's audited simulation report of planned loading business, from january to june 2024, yinwang's operating income was 10.435 billion yuan and its net profit was 2.231 billion yuan.

in the latest interview, xu zhijun publicly talked about the specific timetable for yinwang's independence for the first time.

"we hope to transfer all assets and personnel of huawei's automotive bu to yinwang by the end of this year to enable yinwang to operate independently. there is no clear plan yet on when the second batch of investment partners will come in. we hope that yinwang will become an independent company with diversified equity. in the short term, there will be no upper limit on the number of partners of yinwang, and yinwang will continue to open up its equity to strategic partners," said xu zhijun.

the company expects to receive long-term support from huawei

in terms of selecting partners, xu zhijun said that car companies that use yinwang's products and solutions will be given priority. "the investors introduced by yinwang must be strategic investors, not financial investors. yinwang and its partners are closely integrated to share risks and benefits. in terms of operations, yinwang will also adhere to independent business models and transaction models and treat all customers equally."

in xu zhijun's view, the existence of the yinwang model is conducive to the sharing of intelligent capabilities among car companies. "there is no need for every company to invest huge sums of money to develop an indefatigable 'intelligent driving system'. yinwang can just make this 'system' well and car companies can use it."

as for the situation after yinwang becomes independent, xu zhijun said that the independence of huawei's automotive bu to yinwang will not bring about changes in the business model. yinwang will operate independently and receive long-term support from huawei. the new company will continue to use its two core brands - qiankun intelligent driving and hongmeng cockpit, and work with partners to lead the second half of the intelligentization of the automotive industry.

xu zhijun emphasized that after yinwang opens its equity, the principle of "huawei does not build cars" will be more firm. "if huawei builds cars, they can only be huawei-branded cars, and at best, they will occupy 10%-20% of the market share, just like huawei mobile phones. but after doing so, yinwang can only serve itself, and may even have to build a car manufacturing plant. for the chinese auto industry, this is tantamount to duplication of construction. as yinwang, we can not only participate in the development of the entire auto industry, but also do the most core part of smart cars, and move forward together with the chinese auto industry."