Huawei and Dongfeng have just unveiled a formidable new offering. At the Huawei Qiankun Ecosystem Conference on November 20, Dongfeng Motor and Huawei officially launched the Qiankun DH project, introducing the jointly developed new energy vehicle brand, 'E-Scene.' The 'E' in E-Scene stands for grandeur and brilliance, while 'Scene' symbolizes wisdom and space. As the first automotive brand co-created through deep collaboration between a central automotive enterprise and Huawei, E-Scene pioneers a new industry cooperation model. This model encompasses joint definition, development, and office operations, leveraging the strengths of both parties to target the high-quality family vehicle market.

With Dongfeng and Huawei investing wholeheartedly, E-Scene's initial ambition was to become the 'strongest realm.' 'The strongest realm is not just an empty claim; E-Scene is set to become the benchmark for safety, quality, and intelligence in high-quality travel,' stated Wang Junjun, General Manager of E-Scene Technology. He used 'three benchmarks' to elucidate why E-Scene can claim the title of the 'strongest realm.' Indeed, E-Scene also serves as a benchmark for Huawei's collaboration with automotive OEMs, representing the culmination of years of deep cooperation between Dongfeng and Huawei.

Many may not be aware that Dongfeng and Huawei have been partners for 15 years, with their collaboration dating back to 2010. This marked the first in-depth cooperation of its kind in the entire industry. Together, they have deeply collaborated on models like the Mengshi, achieving fruitful results. Models such as the Mengshi M817 have been widely recognized by the market. As early as 2023, Dongfeng and Huawei envisioned a new idea: to provide family users pursuing a high-quality life with a driving experience that exceeds expectations.

Thus, starting in 2023, Dongfeng and Huawei began jointly investing resources, pioneering a new, full-process deep cooperation model in the industry. After three years of deep integration and communication, and amidst the backdrop of current market demand upgrades, they launched the E-Scene brand. From this perspective, E-Scene truly stands as the first brand in Huawei's Qiankun series. Of course, beyond being the 'first' in terms of time, E-Scene aims to be the best in terms of brand, market, and user reputation, becoming the strongest under Huawei's Qiankun ecosystem.

So, what gives both parties the confidence to truly become the strongest 'realm' in differentiated development?

01 Targeting the Family Market for an Upward Breakthrough

Firstly, it involves market positioning and product innovation centered around users. Although the current market is replete with products targeting families, such as dedicated dad cars and mom cars, competition is fierce. However, many products in the market are homogeneous, merely competing on price and configuration without truly addressing consumer pain points.

Jin Yuzhi remarked that past family vehicles emphasized mobile living spaces, with features like refrigerators, sofas, and large TVs. In the future, there will be a greater focus on travel safety, reducing driver burden with intelligent driving, enhancing fun with cabin technology, and providing rich information during travel, transforming the car into a mobile 'home.' The core is to center around people, meeting the needs of different age groups, genders, and user groups, and fulfilling demands throughout the entire process of preparing, using, and parking the vehicle. In response to these changing trends, Dongfeng and Huawei are determined to create high-quality, family-preferred smart vehicles for family scenarios.

Therefore, E-Scene's products will focus on three key changes, comprehensively tackling three benchmarks:

Firstly, safety, to meet the higher safety requirements of the entire family using the vehicle together, it must be ultimate (utterly perfect). Secondly, pursuing ultimate intelligence. E-Scene's first model will fully integrate all of Huawei's Qiankun intelligent solutions, with top-tier configurations, achieving deep integration of intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and vehicle control. Thirdly, deeply caring for the entire family scenario. It needs to cover different family members, including the elderly, middle-aged, and children, as well as full scenarios such as before departure, during driving, after parking, and during travel, making each family member feel comfortable and happy during vehicle use.

'The needs of family vehicles are very diverse, with each family member having their own needs. However, family vehicles often fail to effectively cover these needs,' pointed out an analyst. Wang Junjun stated that E-Scene has set very high requirements for product consumer experience and demand fulfillment, aiming to become a top-tier brand. 'We still want to create the most leading family vehicle centered around safety, intelligence, and comfort,' said Wang Junjun. It is reported that E-Scene's first product is expected to officially debut at the Beijing Auto Show in April next year, with a formal market launch in 2026.

To achieve the best consumer experience, Dongfeng and Huawei have invested wholeheartedly, both choosing to 'go ALL IN,' investing tens of billions over three years. Among them, Huawei has fully endowed E-Scene with its complete digital R&D system, stringent quality control standards, and global supply chain management experience. Dongfeng, with 56 years of experience serving 60 million users, boasts a deep heritage in vehicle manufacturing, chassis control, and the entire industrial chain. It has built the industry's most leading super intelligent factory for E-Scene.

With the full support of both, combining Dongfeng's manufacturing heritage with Huawei's full-stack intelligent vehicle solutions, E-Scene is poised to spark a consumer revolution in the family vehicle market. 'We hope to gain recognition, become the preferred choice in the segment, and achieve brand and price upward mobility,' said Wang Junjun.

02 Why E-Scene Can Become the 'Strongest'

So, why can E-Scene become the strongest? Or why does it have the highest chance of winning? Besides the differences in products mentioned above, what makes the cooperation between Dongfeng and Huawei unique, enabling E-Scene's success? Especially considering that Huawei currently has numerous brand partners, this is a question E-Scene must inevitably face. 'Dongfeng and Huawei have a long history of cooperation. We have deeply collaborated on projects like Mengshi and Dongfeng Nissan, and have explored a successful path,' Wang Junjun responded to external doubts.

If we observe Huawei's partners, a comprehensive comparison will reveal that Dongfeng is Huawei's earliest, most diversified in brand cooperation, deepest in cooperation, highest in mutual trust, strongest in cooperation tacit understanding, and most successful in terms of the number of successful brands. Under these 'six superlatives,' the best foundation has been laid for E-Scene. Jin Yuzhi said, 'Our cooperation is firstly a full-process, all-encompassing synergy, forming a joint decision-making mechanism. Both teams work together, having co-located for a long time since last June.'

A good historical foundation of cooperation and long-term established mutual trust are the bedrock of any successful collaboration. The high degree of alignment between both parties reduces consumption in cooperation and enhances work efficiency. Jin Yuzhi highly evaluated Dongfeng in the E-Scene cooperation, saying, 'In this cooperation, we deeply felt the openness of Dongfeng's organization. From independent brands like Mengshi to E-Scene, the comprehensive cooperation allows us to feel that Dongfeng's management team is very open in the new energy and intelligent transformation, adept at utilizing resources from various parties in the automotive industry chain,' said Jin Yuzhi. With the 'wholehearted' contributions from Dongfeng and Huawei, E-Scene can be said to start ahead.

Secondly, both parties place great importance on users, having established a user-centric system and operation model from the outset to provide the best solutions for consumer needs. From the project's inception, E-Scene has conducted extensive research centered around 'users' and deeply involved users in the brand's creation and product development. Wang Junjun revealed a detail, 'For a 0.5-millimeter subtle difference in the headlights, both parties refined over 20 solutions just to present the most perfect state.'

Besides deep cooperation with Huawei, 'E-Scene' is also Dongfeng's first brand where users are deeply involved in co-creation. This co-creation is not only reflected in the brand naming; Dongfeng has also extensively invited potential users nationwide as joint co-creation officers to participate in the creation of E-Scene's new models. Hundreds of optimizations in headlight colors, air conditioning vent materials, and blowing angles originated from real user proposals and creativity.

On November 23, E-Scene also announced a co-creation plan named 'Chuangyi Officer,' recruiting users from society for joint research and creation. Wang Junjun said that being consumer and user-centric must be reflected in 'details.' It is precisely because of these changes in philosophy and thought that E-Scene can ultimately succeed in the market. Regardless of whether it's for Huawei or Dongfeng, the launch of E-Scene signifies a new stage in their respective developments. These two partners, who have collaborated for 15 years, will jointly open a new glorious chapter in Chinese automotive history, creating a model of win-win cooperation between central enterprises and private enterprises.