Chongqing – Huawei’s new smart car parts venture, jointly founded with Changan Auto, a major Chinese automaker, was officially registered in Shenzhen under the name “Yinwang Intelligent Technology” (by the pronunciation of its Chinese name) on January 16.
On the same day, the 2024 Changan Auto Global Partners’ Conference witnessed Chairman Zhu Huarong announcing the joint venture between Changan and Huawei as “Newcool.” Bridging News confirmed with Changan that “Yinwang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.” is the “Newcool,” as mentioned by Zhu.
The new venture focuses on seven major areas: intelligent driving solutions, smart cockpits, intelligent automotive digital platforms, smart vehicle cloud, AR-HUD, and intelligent vehicle lighting.
Chinese business media Caixin quoted from their source that Yinwang is the new company of Huawei’s Car Business Unit (BU), which was separated from the mother company and sought investments from other EV makers in China.
In a late November announcement, Huawei and Changan agreed to co-invest in the company, subsequently opening it to other automakers. On January 16, Zhu reiterated that Changan’s equity in the joint venture would not exceed 40%, with the remaining 60% involving Huawei and other partners. Huawei aims to reduce its stake to below 30%. Currently, Yinwang is fully owned by Huawei, with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan.
According to the Memorandum of Investment Cooperation signed between the two sides on November 25, 2023, Huawei planned to establish a new company focusing on the research, development, production, sales, and services of intelligent connected vehicle systems and incremental components. The new company will offer equity to Huawei’s existing strategic automotive partners and other strategically valuable automakers, becoming a company with diverse ownership.
Changan Auto and Huawei initiated their collaboration in 2018, focusing on joint development in LTE-V and 5G vehicle connectivity. In 2019, they expanded their cooperation into intelligence and new energy vehicle fields, introducing forward-looking technologies like L4-level autonomous driving and 5G vehicle connectivity. In late 2020, the three entities, Changan Auto, Huawei, and CATL, jointly announced the establishment of a high-end intelligent automotive brand, Avatr.
In 2023, Changan Auto achieved 2.55 million units in sales, reflecting an 8.82% year-on-year increase. The overseas sales of its self-owned brand experienced significant growth, soaring by 39.23% year-on-year to reach 2.364 million units. Furthermore, sales of self-owned brand-new energy vehicles surged by 74.77% year-on-year, totaling 474,000 units.
(Fan Hongyi, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)