Huawei asserts more influence over auto arm with new Huawei Aito branding

Huawei and Seres only just signed the renewed joint venture agreement about their Aito brand and it seems Huawei wants a bigger chunk of exposure. After the company denied falling out with Seres and assured the public their ties were never closer, Huawei decided to change Aito’s branding.

There were reports earlier this year, indicating Huawei replacing the Aito logo with its own on new vehicles leaving the factory. Those reports sparked the rumors of the two companies falling out which were later denied by Huawei. Few weeks later the two companies announced new, much closer cooperation to drive the point home.

Not for long though, Huawei just changed the marketing branding for Aito and from now on the brand is to be referred to as Huawei Aito. The company took to social media and posted the updated marketing material with Huawei Aito taking prominent place.

When asked why the change, Huawei replied to the local Chinese media that “Huawei Aito is Huawei’s eco brand and it is a new business model created by Huawei. Huawei provides core software and hardware, intelligent components and electrification and through the definition of the product - user experience”.

The company went on to explain that it is responsible for quality control, retail and marketing. Huawei acknowledged that while it helps other companies to sell cars thanks to its technology, its smart auto part business benefits as well.

This no-answer answer starts looking like Huawei trying to get a bigger slice of exposure since it feels it does all the heavy lifting. Looking closer at the contract signed by Seres and Huawei, the latter is responsible for pretty much everything. Seres is responsible for upgrading its existing models while Huawei takes charge of everything else.

The previous contract was quite the opposite - it was Seres who was responsible for providing vehicles and Huawei was fitting them with its technology. It seems like a small change on the face of it but it is becoming obvious that Seres is being pushed back to being only a manufacturing partner with no input at all.

The newly rebranded Huawei Aito plans to sell 1 million vehicles before the end of 2026, the company is in the process of setting up a new innovation center which is a part of the new joint venture agreement.

Via