Huawei to Invest in Chang’an NIO?
On Sept. 16, a source said that Huawei may take a stake in Chang’an NIO, a joint venture between Chang’an Auto and leading domestic EV maker, NIO. According to people familiar with the matter, Huawei may not necessarily supply a capital contribution but may invest through its funds instead.
Responding to the media, Huawei stated that the company “has never heard of” the matter. Chang’an Auto declined to comment.
At present, Huawei has cooperated with many automobile OEMs and has become a component supplier for intelligent networked vehicles. Huawei Consumer Business CEO Richard Yu also publicly stated on Sept.10 at the Huawei Developer Conference 2020 in Dongguan that Huawei HiCar has cooperated with 150+ models of cars and plans to pre-install more than 5 million units in 2021.
Huawei’s HiCar smart interconnection solution can be understood as a complete solution for the people-car-home interconnection. The HiCar connection makes managing separate devices through a smart device much easier by allowing for a seamless switch between doors, windows, lights, air-conditioning, as well as car-related services, including refueling, violation reminders, road condition notifications, and parking lot license plates.
On Sept. 15, the US escalation order for Huawei’s chip control issued on May 15 officially took effect. TSMC has stopped producing Kirin chips for Huawei. Other chip manufacturers including Qualcomm, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron will no longer supply chips to Huawei. Huawei’s chips and other important product sources are officially cut off from the global supply chain.
Chinese tech media Mydrivers reported that Huawei may make cars or OLED driver chips, and develop notebook computers, tablets, and other mobile phone peripheral products as a fallout from the US and China tech tension battles.
SEE ALSO: Huawei Stockpiling Chip Inventories Before US Ban Takes Effect on Sept. 15
At present, Huawei Electric Technology Co., Ltd. has a registered capital value of 250 million yuan and the legal representative is Wang Jun, President of Huawei Smart Car Solutions BU. The company’s business scope includes engineering, technical research and experimental development; sales of smart vehicle equipment; manufacturing of smart vehicle equipment; sales of smart vehicle equipment.
At the 2020 China Automotive Forum on August 14, Huawei announced the three major Hongmeng car OS systems covering Hongmeng Cockpit Operating System HOS, Intelligent Driving Operating System AOS, and the Intelligent Vehicle Control Operating System VOS.
Wang said that the current HOS and AOS Hongmeng systems have been developed by a large number of partners and the VOS intelligent vehicle control operating system can already support many chip suppliers, including NXP.
