It was an unusual role that Huawei manager Richard Yu had to play the day before Christmas Eve when presenting his employer's latest products: to claim that these did not come from the technology company itself.

Hendrik Ankenbrand

Business correspondent for China based in Shanghai.

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In the past, Yu, who once led the smartphone division of Huawei to the top of the world and made it the most profitable division of his group, did not hold back with the pride of newly introduced goods. "Sssssssuperschnell" is the new chip of the Huawei phone "Mate 10", Yu had called out 4 years ago when he presented the device during a visit to the FAZ at the company's headquarters in Shenzhen is not a smartphone, it is an intelligent machine. "

Stories like from another time.

Because the American government under President Donald Trump has declared what was once the most innovative Chinese technology company to be a threat to national security in the United States and cut it off from delivering American semiconductors, the manufacturer can only produce a fraction of the smartphones it used to sell .

Huawei's sales fell by 29 percent last year compared to 2020 and are now 634 billion yuan (88 billion euros).

"Our goal is to survive"

That doesn't sound like the company will have to file for bankruptcy anytime soon.

That was exactly what was to be feared when Huawei CEO Eric Xu announced in dramatic terms last summer: "Our goal is to survive."

Yu also conjured up the struggle for survival at the end of December. How Huawei wants to win this became clear on the stage in the hall. There the manager, dressed in a black suit, presented a “smart device with wheels” that Yu extolled, but did not want to use for his company. “We're not going to make cars ourselves,” he called into the hall - and then presented exactly that: an electric SUV from Huawei.

It is true that the “Aito M5” does not bear the name of the group.

It is manufactured by the car manufacturer Sokon from Chongqing, which last year only had a 1 percent share of the Chinese car market and is therefore completely unknown compared to the world-famous Huawei brand.

But the Aito, which is available from 250,000 yuan (35,000 euros) and whose battery is said to be sufficient for 1,000 kilometers, bears the unmistakable signature of Huawei's development laboratories in Shenzhen.

Huawei finally wants to catch up

Yu has frankly admitted that the sale of cars should make up for the loss in the smartphone business. So far this has been difficult, given that the competition in China's e-car industry is huge, given growth of over 150 percent in the past year. While market leader Tesla sold an estimated 240,000 cars in China in the 12 months and local competitors like Nio managed 167,000 units, the first car designed by Huawei - an SUV called SF5 - has been sold since its launch in July 2020, according to the Chinese party newspaper “Global Times “only around 10,000 times.

With the "Aito M5", of which Huawei claimed in the English simultaneous translation in December, its interior is as elegant as in cars for "100 million yuan" (14 million euros), Huawei wants to finally catch up.

The vehicle is equipped with the HarmonyOS operating system, which the company developed out of necessity after the American sanctions cut it off from future versions of Google's Android operating system.

As on a Huawei smartphone, things such as navigation, chats and music streaming should be user-friendly via the system.

The strength and range of the battery is superior to that of a Tesla Model Y, Yu boasted in his own way.

More like a supplier than a producer

So now in Huawei's “New Concept Stores”, like in Beijing, there are not only smartphones and tablets on display, but also space-filling cars in front of walls, on which different rim models hang to choose from. The fact that a former consumer electronics giant has switched saddles here is indicated above all by the huge screen inside the vehicle, on which interested parties swipe and click to their hearts' content, just like on their Huawei phones. Now other providers had the idea that cars in the future will primarily be smartphones on wheels, well ahead of the technicians from Shenzhen. However, in just 4 days since the model was presented, 6500 customers have supposedly already ordered the M5, which is already being celebrated as a success by Huawei fans.

In contrast to the many small startups that cavort in China's e-car industry, the huge Huawei group would certainly have the means to survive a long dry spell in car construction. But the company sees itself more as an automotive supplier than a producer. A proceeds of 10,000 yuan (1390) per vehicle sold would be sufficient, Huawei has announced. It would love to make its car operating system the gold standard in the industry. So far, the Chinese manufacturers Changan, GAC and Daimler joint venture partners have been BAIC customers.

With 30 million vehicles sold annually in China alone, Huawei believes that it would be enough if the company made money from its domestic industry.

The fact that it has managed to build a car is something that Huawei has ahead of the current leading smartphone manufacturer in China: the Californian iPhone manufacturer Apple.