On 11 August in Shenzhen, China Changan Automobile Group and Huawei Technologies signed a strategic framework agreement, the centrepiece of a 12 August wave of OEM and supply-chain news. The two sides will explore cooperation in AI products and scenarios, general and automotive vertical large models, digital infrastructure, compute, software and hardware, and will deepen ties in digital energy, internationalisation, and digital-talent planning.
For Changan, already reshaping its brand portfolio, the Huawei link extends a pattern of Chinese carmakers borrowing Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solution stack to lift smart-driving and cockpit capability without building every layer in-house. For Huawei, it is another anchor in a partner ecosystem that now spans multiple major OEMs.
The rest of the 12 August roundup
Leapmotor said its Italy registrations reached 25,393 units from January to July, with overseas outlets past 2,000 across more than 40 countries and regions. VOYAH chief Lu Fang pushed back on the “rushed car” label, arguing that short development time is not the same as cutting corners: a vehicle that completes every required validation is an “efficient car”, not a “rushed car”. Xiaomi detailed wading limits for its range-extender models, with intake set below the windscreen at up to 1,109 millimetres and maximum wading depths of 750 millimetres for the N90 Max and 650 millimetres for the N70 Max.
On the supply side, ZF’s eight-speed hybrid transmission entered mass production at its Shanghai plant. Samsung confirmed it adopted Anthropic’s Claude and cut some semiconductor design-verification work from over a month to two days, an internal gain it put at about 15 times. Ecarx reported second-quarter revenue of US$225 million, up 45 per cent, with adjusted EBITDA of US$500,000, its fourth straight profitable quarter. A Beijing battery-swap joint venture, fully owned by a CATL unit with 1 million yuan registered capital, was established.
Industry data rounded out the day. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said July NEV exports hit 553,000 units, up 157 per cent year on year, with 2.909 million for the first seven months, up 120 per cent; traditional-fuel exports were 490,000. In Shenzhen’s Shanwei cooperative zone, first-half electricity use reached 1.017 billion kilowatt-hours, up 33.56 per cent, with 48.2 per cent going to NEV vehicle manufacturing. Omdia lifted its 2026 global semiconductor revenue growth forecast to 94.1 per cent, with memory chips above half of total revenue, and warned AI demand will outstrip fabrication and packaging capacity into 2027.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.