SERES Unveils New Premium Brand AITO, First SUV to Feature Huawei’s HarmonyOS Smart Console
On Thursday, SERES, a brand owned by Chongqing Sokon, announced the launch of a premium smart car brand called AITO, which stands for “Adding Intelligence to Auto”.
The company also announced the first model of the new AITO brand, the Wenjie M5, which will be the first production SUV to feature Huawei’s latest HarmonyOS smart console. The model will be announced on December 23.
According to SERES, the Wenjie M5 will adopt a hybrid power system, four-wheel drive and a 1.5 T engine, with a maximum cruising range of 1,000 kilometers.
Huawei announced in late April that it would start selling cars with the first model to enter its channel coming from SERES. Their cooperation scope ranges from R&D to sales.
At the press conference, Yu Chengdong, the company’s managing director, CEO of Consumer BG and CEO of Huawei Intelligent Vehicle Solutions BU, said in a video: “From AUTO to AITO, there is only one letter difference. The difference refers to a smart experience. Huawei will use the technology it has accumulated over the past 30 years in communications and ICT to help AITO build a mid-size luxury SUV.”
SERES and Huawei will build over 1,000 flagship stores and experience centers in the next year to meet consumer demand for AITO products and services. AITO is aiming to be among the top three sellers of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China within the next five years.
SEE ALSO: Huawei and SERES To Launch Second Cooperative Smart Car
This past April, SERES and Huawei jointly released the first model SERES SF5, which is also a medium-sized SUV with hybrid power, starting from 216,800 yuan ($34,016). According to the sales data of the China Passenger Car Association, in October, in the high-end new energy SUV market with a price tag over 200,000 yuan, SERES SF5 squeezed into the Top 5 with 1,926 delivery units.