Huawei-backed AITO Announces 4WD M5 Price Increase

Huawei-backed auto brand AITO announced on April 20 that the price of AITO M5’s four-wheel drive version will be adjusted due to the rising cost of raw materials. On Thursday, the price adjustment plan was officially announced.

According to Thursday’s announcement, the price of the four-wheel drive (4WD) performance version was increased by 15,000 yuan ($2,266) to 294,800 yuan. The 4WD flagship version rose by 12,000 yuan to 331,800 yuan. The price of 4WD ultimate version, however, will remain the same for the time being.

This adjustment will take effect beginning at midnight from 00:00 on May 6, 2022, and users who place orders before this time will not be affected by the increase.

The AITO M5 was the first vehicle produced by AITO, a high-end automobile brand created by Seres and Huawei. Equipped with Huawei’s DriveONE, the AITO M5 is the first vehicle to feature the latest HarmonyOS Smart Console. The launch of such a vehicle fills in a gap in the automotive industry for Huawei to build out its an AI ecosystem for a better connected, intelligent world.

Chongqing Sokon, the parent company of Seres, released the production and sales report for the past month on Thursday. Throughout April Seres had sold a total of 3,439 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1248.63%. This year, Seres’ cumulative sales volume reached 8,438 units, increasing by 1,211.13% year-on-year. Sales volumes for the AITO M5 has not yet been announced.

At the beginning of January this year, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s terminal business, said, “The AITO brand will release a new medium and large SUV and M5’s pure electric version this year. Relying on the extended range version, the pure electric version of the M5, and the new SUV, Huawei expects to reach its sales target of 300,000 units in 2022.”

However, on April 18, when Yu was asked by reporters again whether he still recognized the annual sales target, he responded: “It is a miracle that 100,000-200,000 vehicles can be sold this year due to the current chip shortage.”

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At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit held on April 26, Ken Hu, the rotating chairman of Huawei, said that Huawei will definitely release new smart car models this year and will be equipped with Huawei Smart Selection or Huawei Inside applications. In addition, he confirmed Huawei’s decision to help other automobile companies produce their own vehicles. Huawei will also fully open up consumer-oriented channels formed in the past years to help ambitious car companies sell more of their products.