Author | Zhang Lianyi

Since entering the automotive industry, Huawei has almost always launched new vehicle models at every press conference, and this time was no exception.

On September 10, at Huawei's Visionary Brand Summit and HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving New Product Launch Event, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, Chairman of the Terminal BG, and Chairman of the Intelligent Vehicle Solutions BU, announced the launch of the large five-seat Wenjie M9 model.

Compared to previous versions, the Wenjie M9 large five-seat model primarily upgrades to ADS 3.0 intelligent driving and adds interior color options, AR-HUD entertainment, etc. The pricing remains largely consistent with the previous six-seat version, starting at 469,800 to 529,800 yuan for the extended-range version and 569,800 yuan for the pure electric version.

Overall, the new car doesn't offer many surprises.

However, Yu Chengdong's heartfelt revelation did disclose some information.

He pointed out that intelligent travel is a crucial part of the five major scenarios. To address this, Huawei launched the HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving Ecosystem Alliance, with Wenjie being the first brand launched in collaboration.

"For this collaboration, we've worked hard for over three years to build Wenjie into a premium brand," Yu Chengdong said, noting the challenging efforts involved. The brand has encountered setbacks with the SF5, faced issues with the M5's transition from popularity to strategy adjustments, and overcame difficulties with the M7's resurgence. "We've been through ups and downs. Building any new brand is never easy."

He admitted that the original plan was to use a single Wenjie brand to cover products from all four automakers, but regulatory policies did not support this. Each automaker was required to own its own brand name, and a single name could not be used across multiple automakers.

As a result, four automotive brands gradually emerged: Wenjie, Zhijie, Xiangjie, and Zunjie.

However, Yu Chengdong also noted that building each brand was extremely challenging, especially for premium brands. "But we won't give up. We will persist in our efforts to ensure not just the success of Wenjie but also Zhijie, Xiangjie, and Zunjie."

At the event, Zhijie officially opened pre-orders for its second product, the Zhijie R7. With the first Zhijie product not performing well in sales, Huawei and Zhijie are continually enriching their product line in hopes of breaking through the current situation.

01 New car has highlights, but overall changes are minimal

As a new car backed by Huawei, intelligence is clearly the top priority.

According to Yu Chengdong, upon the launch of the Wenjie M9 large five-seat model, all Wenjie M9 and HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving models began to receive updates to HUAWEI ADS 3.0.

However, this is not an entirely new technology.

HUAWEI ADS 3.0 Solution

In August this year, Xiangjie S9 was launched as the first model equipped with HUAWEI ADS 3.0. At that time, Yu Chengdong detailed the features of ADS 3.0: featuring an end-to-end new architecture, it leverages the GOD perception neural network, PDP (Prediction, Decision, and Planning) decision-making neural network, and an instinctive safety network to enable lossless information transmission, double the decision-making efficiency, and make intelligent driving decisions more human-like. "We have powerful cloud computing capabilities for training, learning 35 million kilometers per day, making our capabilities stronger, more human-like, and akin to experienced drivers, capable of navigating around the country." At the event, Yu Chengdong even claimed that HUAWEI ADS 3.0 is the safest intelligent driving system in the world based on comprehensive testing, with no competition.

Yu Chengdong updated figures stating that in August 2024, HUAWEI ADS added over 200 million kilometers of new intelligent driving mileage in a single month. Among them, the mileage of urban NCA increased by 36 million kilometers.

Although there are no new technologies, Huawei has explored more application-level aspects. For example, HUAWEI ADS 3.0 is deeply integrated with AR-HUD, providing a comprehensive upgrade to user interaction in intelligent driving scenarios, adding features such as traffic light countdown, turn signals, omnidirectional safety warning lights, lane change obstruction alerts, lane change confirmations, and deceleration animations. For human-driven scenarios, a new lateral blind spot live view function has been added, allowing AR-HUD to display a 37-inch lateral blind spot video during turns and lane changes. Additionally, AR-HUD adds a Kunpeng wingspread animation for human-driven turns and U-turns.

In terms of parking, HUAWEI ADS 3.0 has also been upgraded. The remote parking feature allows users to exit the vehicle immediately after parking without being limited by Bluetooth range.

On the one hand, it further supports selecting a target parking space upon arrival at the destination, allowing the driver to exit the vehicle and leave immediately while the car parks itself, eliminating the need to wait. On the other hand, it can recognize obstacles occupying parking spaces, and the vehicle can automatically complete parking once the ground lock is closed or obstacles like cones are removed.

Meanwhile, the valet parking feature offers personalized services. Wenjie M9 users can participate in the valet parking pioneer program to apply for valet parking services in their residential parking lots.

For valet parking scenarios, Wenjie M9 also adds VPD parking light signals, with smart projection headlights projecting interactive light signals such as "Yielding" and "Temporarily Stopped" to inform others of the vehicle's intentions and guide pedestrians and other vehicles to pass safely.

In terms of other performance aspects, the Wenjie M9 large five-seat model also performs quite well.

In terms of exterior design, it adopts a family look; interior-wise, it offers five color options, with standard Moon Shadow Gray and Red Tea Orange, as well as optional Wishing Tree Apricot and newly designed Truffle Brown and Amber Brown; body-wise, it features an ultra-strong Basalt body with an integrated die-casting process, significantly improving torsional stiffness and equipped with the omnidirectional collision avoidance system CAS 3.0; space-wise, it offers a total passenger space of 3500mm.

In terms of active safety, according to Yu Chengdong, as of September 9, 2024, the Wenjie M9's active safety system has successfully prevented 560,000 potential collisions.

Meanwhile, the Wenjie M9's forward AEB capability has been enhanced, now supporting the prediction of diagonal pedestrians and two-wheelers, with a maximum effective range of 4-150km/h. In collaborative intelligent and human-driven scenarios, the braking speed can be increased to 120km/h, while in stationary pedestrian scenarios, the braking speed for human drivers can reach 110km/h.

It is worth mentioning that the Wenjie M9 is equipped with Owl Enhanced Steering Technology, providing a maximum front wheel turn angle of 41.75° and a minimum turning radius of 5.8m, making the vehicle more maneuverable in tight spaces and complex road conditions.

At the event, Yu Chengdong announced that the Wenjie M9 also introduces a new Owl U-turn mode, enabling "in-place" U-turns even on icy, snowy, gravel, and other complex road surfaces.

This improves flexibility, fun, and intelligence.

02 Wenjie sales have declined, and Huawei continues to seek change

"Wenjie M9 has surpassed 130,000 units in sales in its first eight months on the market, ranking first in sales of models priced above 500,000 yuan in the Chinese market for five consecutive months."

While announcing these achievements at the press conference, Yu Chengdong also expressed the difficulties of establishing a new brand.

As he said, the Wenjie brand has faced many challenges since its inception.

It started with the Seres SF5.

During the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Seres launched the Huawei Smart Selection SF5 model, equipped with the HUAWEI DriveONE three-in-one electric drive system, HUAWEI HiCar intelligent connectivity system, and HUAWEI Sound audio, and sold in Huawei stores and flagship stores.

While this helped boost SF5 sales to some extent, the improvement was not significant.

Data shows that starting in April 2021, Jinkang Seres' sales gradually increased from double digits to triple digits and even quadruple digits, but the pace was still relatively slow compared to other new automotive companies.

Monthly sales trend of Wenjie brand in 2021

Then, at the end of December of the same year, Yu Chengdong introduced the AITO M5, the first model under the AITO brand, at Huawei's Winter Flagship New Product Launch Event.

Although he repeatedly emphasized that Huawei was fully involved in all aspects except for production at Seres, the model was equipped with more Huawei products, including the HarmonyOS cockpit, and was labeled as the "first HarmonyOS car" in promotional messaging.

But everyone knew that this was still a modified version of the Seres SF5.

Nevertheless, this model created a "Huawei shock" in the market.

Deliveries of the Wenjie M5 began on March 5, 2022, and with Huawei's brand, traffic, and channel support, sales quickly rose from 870 units in February of that year to 6,400 units in December 2022, making it a new choice for new energy SUVs priced above 200,000 yuan.

Seeing Huawei's success, JAC Motor, Chery, Beijing Automotive Group, and other automakers also announced plans to collaborate with Huawei to build "Smart Selection Vehicles." However, there are no shortcuts in automaking. In the first half of 2023, or most of the year, Huawei's intelligent automotive business struggled. Terminal sales data showed that in the first nine months of 2023, the best-selling month for the Wenjie brand was just over 5,000 units, a significant decline from monthly sales of over 10,000 units in 2022. It wasn't until September 2023, with the launch of the new Wenjie M7, that the Wenjie brand regained momentum, followed by the Wenjie M9's launch. With these two "hit" models, Wenjie brand sales surged.

Especially in the first half of this year, sales momentum was strong, with Wenjie topping the new brand sales charts for several months. Cumulative sales in the first half of the year reached 181,197 units, ranking second among emerging brands after NIO, with a gap of less than 8,000 units between the two. However, momentum weakened in the second half. According to Wenjie data, in August this year, Wenjie delivered 31,216 new vehicles, a 25% month-on-month decline, and a widening gap compared to NIO's 48,122 units.

To maintain its presence in the automotive industry, Huawei often chooses to continuously introduce new configurations.

03 Yu Chengdong once hoped to upgrade 'Wenjie' into a shared brand

As Wenjie M9 launched its new model, Zhijie also welcomed good news.

At the event, Zhijie R7 officially opened for pre-order, starting at 268,000 yuan. Yu Chengdong said it is the first intelligent coupe SUV under HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving. The new car will also feature the HUAWEI ADS 3.0 advanced intelligent driving system, the "Whale" 800V high-voltage battery platform, HarmonyOS cockpit 4.0, and the "full-blooded" Tuling platform.

In terms of configuration, it is already "maxed out." However, achieving success similar to that of Wenjie will be challenging.

After all, building a new brand is no easy task, which explains why Yu Chengdong admitted at the press conference that he originally intended to use a single Wenjie brand to cover products from all four automakers.

In fact, Yu Chengdong made a series of efforts towards this goal last year.

In March last year, according to information from the Trademark Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration, a total of 21 "Wenjie" trademarks were transferred to Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., covering categories such as "12" and "9," including electronics and scientific instruments, automobiles, and vehicles. The transfer applications were received on March 7 and 8.

Almost simultaneously, Huawei's eco-automotive brand was refreshed to HUAWEI Wenjie, and the AITO logo was temporarily replaced with "HUAWEI Wenjie" in Huawei's offline stores.

Huawei changed its brand slogan in March last year

But just over 20 days later, the situation changed.

At the end of March that year, Huawei internally issued an announcement signed by Ren Zhengfei emphasizing that Huawei does not manufacture cars, valid for five years, and imposing strict requirements on the use of the Huawei/HUAWEI logo in vehicle design, disallowing its appearance in vehicle promotions and exterior designs. Subsequently, Wenjie stores removed all promotional materials featuring the Huawei name. According to Yu Chengdong's original plan, by reclaiming the Wenjie trademarks, "Wenjie" would be upgraded to a shared brand for Huawei Smart Selection Vehicles.

After all, in the public's perception, Wenjie is a joint venture brand between Huawei and Seres, and automakers such as Chery, JAC Motor, and Beijing Automotive Group, who collaborate with Huawei, certainly wouldn't want to be pigeonholed into this position. However, rebuilding brands and channels is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly.

However, the reality is harsh. On the one hand, Thalys does not agree; on the other hand, it is not in compliance with the national Decree No. 38, the "Measures for the Administration of External Marking of Automobile Products," for different automakers to use the same automotive brand, as an automotive brand can only belong to one automaker, and the name of the automotive brand must belong to the automaker, not to a third party like Huawei.

Out of necessity, Yu Chengdong chose a new plan: when the Zhide S7 debuted in November 2023, the HarmonyOS Smart Driving Ecosystem model also debuted simultaneously. Subsequently, relevant trademarks will be gradually transferred to cooperating automakers.

After the official launch of HarmonyOS Smart Driving, models such as Wenjie, Zhide, and Xiangjie, Zunjie, and others can seamlessly enter Huawei's channel network. In other words, as long as a product is launched and marketed under Huawei's Smart Selection Vehicle model, whether it is Wenjie, Zhide, or "Xjie," it will be sold in the name of HarmonyOS Smart Driving.

However, this also poses another problem: the rebranding of new automotive brands. Even a powerful company like Huawei finds it difficult to successfully establish two major automotive brands in the auto market in a short period of time.

At least, based on current terminal data, since the second launch of Zhide S7 in April this year, delivery has improved but is not exceptional. Sales from April to July this year were 4,414, 3,811, 2,910, and 2,602 units, respectively.

Therefore, Huawei continues to enrich its product line and hopes to break through the situation by adding new models.

However, this is no easy feat. On the one hand, Huawei has invested heavily in Thalys and holds significant influence, making it difficult for the Zhide brand to materialize. On the other hand, the "explosion" of Wenjie's new M7 model is also attributed to its acquisition of the "top-tier" resources of Mate60, which has combined the right timing, geography, and people, making it difficult to replicate.

Of course, Yu Chengdong firmly believes that all four "Jie"s will ultimately achieve success. -END-