In-Car Infotainment Business Might Operate Independently

Author｜Wang Lei

Editor｜Qin Zhangyong

Another instance has arisen where an automaker fails to make a mark in mobile phone manufacturing.

Recently, there have been reports that Xingji Meizu is set to completely terminate its mobile phone business. The Meizu 23 series has been halted, and the entire team associated with it has been laid off. Only the Flyme Auto in-car infotainment business will be retained for independent operation. This news has quickly rippled through the industry.

Although Meizu mobile phones have already faced a halt once, the current situation is evidently more dire. If the mobile phone business is abandoned after Geely's acquisition of Meizu, it would mean the complete withdrawal from the market of a once-proud domestic brand and a beloved phone for countless tech enthusiasts.

As of now, Xingji Meizu has not issued an official response regarding this matter.

From being a niche benchmark in the smartphone era to undergoing a challenging transformation post-acquisition, Meizu mobile phones are once again on the brink of their fate.

01

Perhaps an Inevitable Outcome

According to a report by Jiemian News, several insiders have disclosed that Xingji Meizu will completely cease its mobile phone business. The Meizu 23 series, initially slated for a mid-year release, has also been effectively halted and is even set to be officially delisted in March 2026.

Furthermore, although the Meizu brand will continue to exist within the Geely ecosystem, its FlymeAuto in-car infotainment business will operate independently. Currently, the Feishu group of Xingji Meizu still boasts over 1,000 members, but many employees have resigned, and a small number have been transferred to Zeekr, another brand under Geely.

Chao Dian Laboratory attempted to verify this information with several internal sources at Xingji Meizu, only to receive replies indicating that these individuals had already left the company.

The consistent silence from the company undoubtedly lends credence to the speculation that Xingji Meizu's mobile phone business has come to a halt.

In fact, earlier leaks from an internal employee at Xingji Meizu had already revealed several major pieces of news about the company's business adjustments, which highly align with the current speculations.

These include the complete termination of the mobile phone business and the layoff of the entire team associated with it; the independent operation of the FlymeAuto in-car infotainment business, which will be overseen by a leader surnamed Peng and affiliated with ECARX. The Meizu brand will persist within the Geely ecosystem, with subsequent related businesses to be undertaken by other Geely subsidiaries.

As of now, Xingji Meizu has not officially released any statement. However, judging from the information leaked from multiple sources and Geely's strategic integration, the suspension of the mobile phone business may already be a done deal.

In fact, signs of Xingji Meizu's abrupt shift in its mobile phone business have been apparent since early 2026. There have been frequent reports in the market about Meizu's adjustments, pointing directly to severe internal turmoil within the company.

In January, Wan Zhiqiang, CMO of Xingji Meizu Group China, announced the cancellation of the Meizu 22 Air's launch due to cost overruns caused by rising storage chip prices.

At the time, this might have been seen as a reluctant choice amid the cyclical difficulties of the mobile phone industry. However, in light of the current rumors, it seems more like a signal of Xingji Meizu's 'retreat' from the mobile phone business.

Subsequently, users revealed that Xingji Meizu was laying off its outsourced teams, and its existing workforce, after the withdrawal of the outsourced teams, would struggle to support the continued development of the Meizu 23 project.

In February, a user claiming to be a former Meizu employee exposed on social media that Meizu had announced an unprecedented 15-day extended holiday internally, suspected of forcing employees to use up their annual leave, which once again sparked a flurry of speculations on the internet.

In a subsequent post, the user revealed that on New Year's Eve, it was the first time that Meizu's internal executives did not distribute red envelopes in the Feishu group (before the acquisition, it was in the DingTalk group), and the group had been muted. The user also mentioned that Meizu would not resume work until February 26, and the currently circulating news about the suspension of the mobile phone business could not be verified. "Just wait a few more days, and things will probably become clear."

In September 2024, Geely released the "Taizhou Declaration," initiating a deep restructuring covering the entire business chain, including new energy vehicles, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, consumer electronics, and AI large models. Five strategic pillars were clearly outlined: strategic focus, strategic integration, strategic synergy, strategic stability, and strategic talent, with the core goal of returning to "One Geely."

After more than a year, some sub-brands have been merged into the Galaxy system, Zeekr has returned through privatization, and the parallel intelligent driving system has also ushered in "Qianli Intelligent Driving."

Under Geely's frequent organizational adjustments, as the integration of "One Geely" progresses deeper, it is perhaps understandable that Meizu's mobile phone business is now reported to be cut, eliminating a business with poor market share and low bargaining power.

02

A New Path to Survival

"What Geely wanted was the UI interaction and system ecosystem capabilities of Flyme, with the mobile phone as the carrier and the in-car infotainment system as the endpoint. Now that the goal has been achieved, the 'tuition fee' for mobile phones can be stopped," commented a Meizu employee.

In July 2022, Geely's subsidiary, Xingji Era, acquired a 79.09% controlling stake in Zhuhai Meizu Technology, forming the Xingji Meizu Group and injecting new vitality into Meizu at the time. The combination was also seen as a crucial step for Geely to deeply integrate mobile phones and intelligent cockpits.

At that time, several executives from mobile phone manufacturers were poached, and the goal of "returning to the top 5 in the mid-to-high-end mobile phone market within three years" was proposed. However, Meizu mobile phones, which were expected to "revive," did not reverse their declining trend.

In 2025, Meizu's annual mobile phone sales were less than one million units, and its name never appeared on the lists of the top five market shares compiled by major institutions.

On the other hand, there was continuous turmoil at the executive level. In May 2024, Shen Ziyu stepped down as CEO, and Su Jing, the former president of Xingji Meizu, took over. However, just one year later, Su Jing resigned, and Huang Zhipan, the group's executive vice president, took over. After Su Jing's resignation, former Xingji Meizu vice president Zeng Yang, chief operating officer Liao Qinghong, as well as Deng Bin, Liu Yi, and other core executives all left one after another.

Su Jing's departure was also seen by many Meizu employees as a signal of a clear downturn. "After Ms. Su (Su Jing) left, we probably guessed that going public was out of the question," one employee said.

According to a report by Jiemian News, at the end of 2024, Xingji Meizu sought buyers for its mobile phone business. Dreame Technology had participated in acquisition negotiations with Meizu, but no agreement was reached. Doubao, a subsidiary of ByteDance, also proposed cooperation with Meizu, but Meizu wanted to retain its FlymeOS system, so no cooperation was achieved.

Entering 2025, the situation of Meizu's mobile phone business worsened. Insiders close to Meizu revealed that since April 2025, Meizu has been unable to settle large-scale supplier payments, with a significant amount of overdue payments still unrecovered, forming bad debts. The R&D team has gradually disbanded, and supply chain cooperation has been completely terminated.

Given the severely imbalanced overall input-output ratio, Geely ultimately decided to "stop losses in a timely manner." Of course, the cessation of the mobile phone business does not mean the demise of the Meizu brand.

Cross-referencing information from multiple sources indicates that its FlymeAuto in-car infotainment business may operate independently from the original framework, suggesting that Meizu will shed its burdens and deeply integrate into Geely Holding's intelligent vehicle ecosystem with a new identity.

This means that FlymeAuto will no longer be a mere "accessory" to Meizu mobile phones but will rise to a strategic-level business at the Geely Group level. In the future, Meizu may become the core force focused on intelligent cockpits within the Geely system.

After all, when acquiring Meizu, Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely, may not have been after the profits from the mobile phone business but rather the long-accumulated Flyme operating system interaction capabilities and software ecosystem of Meizu.

Today, FlymeAuto, with its seamless experience and deep ecosystem integration, has been applied in most models under Geely, becoming a high-quality ticket for Geely to enter the deep waters of intelligent cockpits.

According to the latest public data from Xingji Meizu Technology, as of November 2025, the total sales of models cooperating with FlymeAuto have exceeded 2 million units, covering more than 26 models, making it the intelligent cockpit system with the largest number of installations and the widest coverage of models.

As for whether it will be affiliated with ECARX, there is still no conclusion. However, according to a report by Jiemian News, insiders revealed that after the Meizu FlymeAuto in-car system was transferred to Geely's intelligent driving department, the salaries of Xingji Meizu employees were initially paid by the Geely Automobile Research Institute. However, the latter failed to complete the adaptation of Flyme Auto, which was ultimately redone by ECARX.

As a result, the salaries of Xingji Meizu employees were once again paid by ECARX. An ECARX employee once said, "As a listed company in the US stock market, ECARX's accounts are clean. But since we are all part of the same system, it's not difficult to operate."

Perhaps in the future, we may not see traditional Meizu mobile phones, but in the intelligent vehicle track, Meizu has found a brand-new way to survive.