On 23 September, Dongfeng Motor said its general manager Feng Changjun travelled to Shenzhen on 22 September to meet Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and senior Huawei representatives. The two sides exchanged views on the strategic models they are jointly building, the Yijing X9, the Mengshi X700 and the Lantu Dreamer 9, and discussed deepening cooperation on future product definition, deployment of intelligent technology and marketing.
Zeng Qinglin, general manager of the Yijing brand, recalled that Ren told Dongfeng it has a very strong carmaking heritage and should make full use of those strengths. Ren added that Huawei does not build cars but is glad to lend its strength in intelligence to help Dongfeng build good ones. He also prepared materials and cases, urging Dongfeng to improve customer service and its warmth toward clients.
Dongfeng made its stance clear: the strategic partnership with Huawei will keep deepening, with the shared aim of building smart cars and mobility solutions for the future.
The timing is the tell. On 15 September Huawei adjusted its cooperation model with Seres, and Feng is the first carmaker executive to publicly travel to Shenzhen to meet Ren afterwards. JAC, BAIC BluePark, SAIC and Lantu all moved quickly to respond on their own Huawei ties.
JAC was the most market moving. At a delivery ceremony on 16 September, Xiang Xingchu said JAC will firmly build good cars with Huawei and its supply chain partners and will not slow its long term push into the ultra luxury Maextro track. The remarks lit the market: on 22 September JAC Motor’s share price hit the daily limit, closing at 21.32 yuan, up 10.01 per cent, with its market cap recovering to 48.06 billion yuan.
BAIC BluePark said on 20 September that the positioning of its Stelato brand with Huawei is unchanged, that Stelato has opened independent sales channels, and that the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Stelato dedicated network is progressing as planned, with some stores and user centres already open this year.
SAIC is going deeper on its Xiangjie brand. Multiple outlets reported this week that SAIC and Huawei’s terminal unit will step up coordination while keeping the existing model, and that Li Jun, former head of SAIC Volkswagen’s Volkswagen and Skoda marketing, may move to lead Xiangjie marketing. Lantu’s chief brand officer Shao Mingfeng framed the best kind of cooperation as a strong plus strong, different yet harmonious, pointing to Huawei Qiankun assisted driving paired with Lantu manufacturing.
The throughline is that, even as some cooperation models shift, the broad chord of deep coordination between several carmakers and Huawei has not changed.
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/376738.html.