On 15 September, Huawei’s Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance and its partner Seres confirmed a rewrite of how the AITO brand is run. Product definition, design, brand marketing, retail and service for AITO now sit with Seres, while Huawei’s terminal unit stays in an enabling role. AITO remains inside the alliance, and every existing owner’s rights and after-sales are unchanged.
The change leaves the alliance’s other four brands, Luxeed, Stelato, Maextro and Shangjie, on Huawei’s full-process model. The signal is resource reallocation: AITO no longer needs the alliance’s full hand-holding to command attention, so Huawei’s scarce engineering and channel weight moves to the brands still climbing.
Why Seres earned the wheel
AITO still carries the alliance. In August, Harmony Mobility delivered 42,100 vehicles, and Seres’ own new-energy volume was 24,200, of which Seres-branded cars were 20,700, so AITO was close to half the total. By the time the new M9 launched on 27 May, Huawei executive Yu Chengdong could list AITO’s four number-ones: highest average transaction price among young Chinese brands, top net-promoter score, top plug-in residual value and the best C-NCAP result.
Seres also bought insurance on the technology. In August 2024 it agreed to pay 11.5 billion yuan for a 10 per cent stake in Yinwang, the Huawei-spinoff that holds the Harmony cabin and Qiankun driving stack, and finished paying in September 2025. That stake means even with operating control handed back, AITO’s core software and chips keep flowing.
A cleaner map for the other four
The handover also unlocks product space. To avoid cannibalisation, AITO was boxed into SUVs and built nothing else. Once Huawei let go, Seres said it will defend its high-end SUV base and then move into sedans, MPVs and other segments at its own pace. The other brands get sharper lanes: Luxeed to sporty coupes and SUVs, Stelato to luxury business and off-road, Maextro above a million yuan, Shangjie to younger buyers.
For European carmakers watching Huawei, the takeaway is uncomfortable. The Chinese smart-car formula is maturing past the phase where the tech giant runs everything, and the local partner that proved the model is now being trusted to own it.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Chedongxi report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://chedongxi.com/p/376130.html.