From requirement definition, development, and manufacturing to delivery, OTA upgrades, quality assurance, and service, Seres now fully supports users throughout the entire process.

Author | Cindy

Editor | Yang Ming

On September 19, the AITO store in Chongqing Jinling Auto World welcomed its first weekend after the return of the 'AITO Grand Hotel.' With three meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, egg drop soup, fruits, and sweet dates, everything was self-service.

A few days ago, both Seres and Huawei officially announced adjustments to the leadership of AITO: Product definition, design, brand marketing, channel retail, and service systems for AITO will be led by Seres, with Huawei Terminal providing support.

Following the announcement, the most concentrated question in public opinion was whether Seres could handle AITO and how it would do so.

In response to external doubts, on September 18, Kang Bo, Director and Vice President of Seres Group, provided a systematic response covering key issues such as why AITO is exclusively operated, whether Huawei's involvement has decreased, how owner benefits are protected, model expansion plans, and overseas Layout (overseas Layout means overseas Layout /overseas Layout in English, but for clarity, we use 'overseas Layout ' here to represent overseas expansion plans).

The 'AITO Grand Hotel,' which trended on hot search, has quietly landed in some AITO stores in Chongqing. This means that for Seres, taking over AITO starts with tangible, experiential aspects for users.

I. Taking Over AITO Starts with a Meal

Chongqing Jinling Auto World, located on Baihe Road in Nan'an District, Chongqing, was transformed from an old factory building and gathers over 30 automotive brands. The AITO Authorized User Center, established in 2022, is one of the most followed ( followed means 'noticed' or 'focused on'; here, we use 'noticed') stores in the park.

From on-site visits by 'Jidian Business,' there have been some changes and continuities at the store following the adjustment of AITO's leadership.

Store layout, showroom vehicles, workflows, and staff responsibilities remain unchanged. A store staff member introduced that since its establishment, delivery and after-sales have always been handled by Seres, with little impact on frontline operations and no instances of owners requesting cancellations. In the delivery area, over a dozen M9, M7, and M6 models, adorned with flowers, are ready for delivery to owners.

What has changed is the gradual implementation of upgraded benefits.

Last December, the 'Hongmeng Intelligent Driving Grand Hotel' was suspended due to operational cost pressures. Its return now represents Seres' first user experience decision made with its own budget after regaining service leadership.

At noon on September 19, the buffet on the second floor featured six dishes: spicy peanut chicken, green pepper cured meat, onion stir-fry, steamed eggs, stir-fried lotus root slices, and shredded cabbage, along with egg drop soup and fruits and sweet dates, all complimentary.

Ten tables were fully occupied, with people waiting in line. 'The food is homemade but tastes great, especially the spicy peanut chicken, better than many restaurants outside,' said an owner who came for maintenance.

'The dishes won't repeat and will change with each meal; hygiene and ingredients are the top priorities,' said the canteen auntie. 'Most are clients coming for maintenance, vehicle pickup, or purchase, usually two adults with one or two children, and we haven't encountered any freeloaders.'

In the car wash area, six AITO vehicles were queued up. 'Free car wash services have always been available, but for non-maintenance owners, they need to come at off-peak times. For example, when there are many maintenance clients, they need to wait in line,' explained Lei Fan, the store's service manager. Since news of the 'AITO Grand Hotel's' return, some owners have come specifically for free charging, car washes, and glass water refills.

Currently, the store has about a dozen charging piles, four fast chargers, and the rest slow chargers. All costs for complimentary dining, charging, car washes, and glass water refills are borne by the store.

Additionally, 45-minute overdue waivers for basic maintenance, lifetime warranties for paint repairs, and AI cloud inspections are gradually being implemented at the store. These serve as a signal to millions of existing owners that while the front-end operator has changed, benefits have also been upgraded.

'Next time I change cars, I'll still consider AITO,' said a Mr. Zhang, an owner of the 2022 M5, who has witnessed the brand's growth. 'As long as quality, standards, and service remain, there's nothing to worry about.'

Another owner of the 2025 AITO M8 stated that AITO's 'Huawei content' has not decreased, 'and if there are greater benefits returned to owners, I won't mind these reforms.'

On September 18, Kang Bo responded that AITO remains a core member of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, with Seres being a shareholder of Shenzhen Yinwang Company, holding a 10% stake. Yinwang aggregates many core technologies of Huawei's intelligent vehicle business. As a shareholder, AITO will have access to Huawei's latest, best, and most practical technologies, products, and supply guarantees.

On September 20, Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Vehicle Solutions announced that Seres is a strategic partner and shareholder of Yinwang, and solutions such as Qiankun Intelligent Driving, HarmonyOS Cockpit, Intelligent Vehicle Control, Intelligent In-Vehicle Lighting, and Intelligent Vehicle Cloud will continue to be applied to AITO and iteratively upgraded.

These statements may be the source of confidence for many AITO owners who express no concerns. 'The most important thing is personal experience; don't pay attention to all the external noise,' said an AITO M8 owner.

II. To Be Premium, Exclusive Operation Is Needed?

Looking back now, adjustments in the cooperation between Huawei and Seres were foreshadowed early on.

In July 2024, Seres acquired 919 AITO trademarks and 44 design patents for 2.5 billion yuan, securing brand ownership. In August of the same year, it invested 11.5 billion yuan to acquire a 10% stake in Shenzhen Yinwang, gaining a board seat. Brand assets were consolidated with the automaker, and technical cooperation was strengthened through equity ties. This adjustment in cooperation mode naturally extended from the clarification of trademark ownership and technical equity.

The foreshadowing pointed to unclear responsibilities. For Seres, while it held brand and production control, if product definition and marketing were long dominated by another company, this structure could function when annual sales were in the tens of thousands but would become untenable with annual sales in the hundreds of thousands and millions of users. Zhang Xinghai, Chairman of Seres Group, emphasized at a recent delivery event that the primary responsible party for the entire lifecycle of a vehicle manufacturer is being reinforced, perhaps highlighting the inevitability of adjustment.

Kang Bo provided a more direct reason: AITO has entered a new phase with millions of users and a premium brand, demanding higher requirements for refined and differentiated brand management. Exclusive operation is not the endpoint of cooperation but a natural progression of cross-border integration after successful product validation, moving towards a phase of deep brand cultivation.

For AITO, adjustments also come from external pressures. As the number of brands under Hongmeng Intelligent Driving increases, resource scarcity is being diluted, requiring allocation of models, research and development adaptation, marketing budgets, store displays, and even consultant attention among the 'Five Realms.'

More importantly, as another core route of Huawei's intelligent vehicle business, Huawei Qiankun's 'full-stack' technologies are being equipped on more and more models, such as Qijing, Yijing, Avatar, Mengshi, and Fangcheng Bao. This is good for Huawei's automotive business but not necessarily for AITO.

A senior automotive industry practitioner stated that the channel and survival logic of premium brands fundamentally differ from those of mass-market brands. Mass-market brands compete on traffic efficiency, with more centralized channels being better; premium brands compete on the distinctiveness and exclusivity of brand experience. For example, BBA has operated in China for decades, but Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have never been sold in the same store. Porsche doesn't share lines with Volkswagen, and Lexus doesn't share stores with Toyota.

There are also historical counterexamples. In 2000, Ford established the Premium Automotive Group (PAG), merging Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, and Aston Martin. For Ford, the goal was to amortize research and development costs through a global platform to generate more profits. However, for these luxury brands, it marked their decline. In 2006, after years of massive losses, PAG was abandoned by Ford, and Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo were subsequently sold.

From this perspective, what premium brands fear most is perhaps the dilution of their brand identity.

AITO is already a premium brand with an average transaction price of nearly 400,000 yuan and the M9 selling for over 600,000 yuan. Brand strength has become the primary driver of growth, requiring a new development cycle centered on differentiation and refined operations—which exclusive operation can bring. For example, in terms of service experience, stores can focus solely on AITO for customer flow, consultants only need to be familiar with AITO's product logic, and delivery and after-sales only cater to AITO user cycles. This allows users to feel exclusivity and differentiation from car viewing, test drives, delivery, maintenance, trade-ins, to community services.

In fact, AITO previously had an exclusive operation system. Seres' 2025 annual report showed 380 user centers in operation, covering 218 cities. According to AITO's latest announcement, over 400 user centers have been established, covering more than 200 cities nationwide. The AITO Service Center in Chongqing Jinling Auto World is one of them, operating as a separate sales and service center since its inception.

Exclusive operation also has an often-overlooked significance: overseas expansion.

Relevant data shows that from January to August 2026, China's new energy vehicle sales exceeded 10.65 million units, and automobile exports reached 6.41 million units from January to July, a 54% year-on-year increase, with full-year export scale expected to surpass 10 million units. Chinese automakers' overseas expansion and global Layout are moving from product exports to a new phase of ecological overseas expansion.

For AITO, overseas expansion is also inevitable. Previously, AITO had conducted small-scale exports as an independent brand, landing in the Middle East market and completing small-batch vehicle deliveries.

However, the path to overseas expansion is not smooth, with trade protectionism, tariffs, data, and other barriers looming. The overall brand image of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, which is highly recognizable domestically, has not yet expanded overseas, lacking a unified overseas sales Layout (layout) under a single brand.

Industry insiders believe that independent channels are a prerequisite for overseas expansion. AITO's channels and operating entity belonging to Seres mean that when the brand expands overseas, it will operate as an independent AITO brand, no longer constrained by the multi-brand shared channel framework of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving.

There were already signs of this. Seres' 2025 Hong Kong IPO raised 14 billion Hong Kong dollars, with funds earmarked for marketing channels and overseas expansion. Kang Bo confirmed that AITO will debut at the Paris Motor Show in October, adhering to a premium overseas strategy, with the current focus on adapting and certifying products according to target market standards.

III. Observation: The Real Test Lies Beyond the Stores

The brand value of a premium brand is essentially the premium consumers are willing to pay for the name. From this perspective, what truly determines whether Seres can handle AITO lies in its systemic capabilities beyond the stores.

After leadership transferred to Seres, Zhang Xinghai repeatedly emphasized at the delivery event for the AITO M9 Ultimate Extended Edition that 'the vehicle manufacturer is the primary responsible party for the entire vehicle lifecycle'—this will become a real test, as vehicle safety, reliability, and usability are all responsibilities Seres must shoulder.

This means that from requirement definition, development, and manufacturing to delivery, OTA upgrades, quality assurance, and service, Seres needs to fully support users throughout the entire process.

Seres' confidence lies in the native vehicle system it has built over the years. In 2025, Seres invested 12.51 billion yuan in R&D, accumulating 8,046 authorized patents. On the Magic Cube platform, Huawei Intelligent Driving, cockpit, CATL batteries, and other components are continuously refined from the bottom architecture up, adhering to 'five highs' standards: high safety, high reliability, high performance, high quality, and high value, allowing intelligent capabilities and vehicle capabilities to grow together.

Zhang Xinghai, at the delivery event for the AITO M9 Ultimate Extended Edition, referred to 'culinary skills' in this context—automobiles are safety-first durable consumer goods, with chips, batteries, suspensions, and sensors as ingredients. The overall architecture, accurate tuning, vehicle calibration, verification, safety lifecycle, and service are the true culinary skills and timing of automakers. Ingredients can be purchased, but culinary skills must be honed through practice.

'Rushing to succeed won't get you far,' Liu Zongcheng, President of Seres, stated recently at the 2026 China Automotive Industry Development (Teda) International Forum. He echoed sentiments similar to those of CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun and Geely Holding Group Chairman Li Shufu, emphasizing that the automotive industry's greatest risk is not slowness but 'rushing to succeed.' From industry-wide reflections, regardless of adjustments, safety and quality remain the focus of a vehicle, and must never be sacrificed at the expense of product quality and consumer trust.