AITO (marque)

AITO
Product typeAutomotive marque
OwnerSeres
CountryChina
IntroducedDecember 2021; 2 years ago (2021-12)
MarketsChina
Websiteaito.auto

AITO (Chinese: 问界; pinyin: Wènjiè) is a Chinese electric vehicle marque of Chinese vehicle manufacturer Seres Group in 2021.[1] The marque offers electric cars with autonomous driving systems and the HarmonyOS operating system.[2]

AITO is the first brand under Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA, 鸿蒙智行) collaboration model, in which Huawei provides full-stack intelligent vehicle solutions for traditional auto manufacturers. Huawei also announced that other manufacturer partners such as Chery, BAIC Motor, and JAC Motors will apply the similar business model.[3][4]

The name AITO stands for "Adding Intelligence to Auto".[5]

History

[edit]

In December 2021, Huawei announced the launch of AITO brand and unveiled its first vehicle AITO M5, the first vehicle Huawei developed with Seres Group. The hardware of the car was based on Seres SF5 SUV.[6] At that time, the Seres is responsible for the entire life cycle of the vehicle, including the research and development, manufacturing, and after-sales service. Huawei is involved in product definition, development, and channel sales. Both companies are engaged in joint quality control and joint marketing. Later in 2023, Huawei started handling after-sales and deliveries alongside Seres.[7] AITO vehicles are officially distributed by Seres Auto Sales Co., Ltd.[8]

In March 2023, the brand was briefly rebranded from "AITO问界; AITO Wènjiè" to "华为问界; Huawei Wènjiè" before Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG and CEO of Smart Car Solution BU, personally issued that all promotional materials related to Huawei will be removed on April 1 from AITO stores.[9]

In June 2023, the AITO's Chinese name (问界; Wènjiè) and its trademark was transferred from a company called Beijing Ruidekaizhuo Technology and Trade Co., Ltd. to Huawei.[7] However, the trademark transferred to Huawei at that time does not include the English trademark "AITO" and its logo in the Class 12 of the Nice Classification (for vehicles), which still belongs to Seres.[10]

In July 2024, Huawei announced to transfer the English trademarks of AITO and the patents it holds related Seres Group at the cost of 2.5 billion RMB.[11] According to Yu Chendong, the Chairman of the Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions, the reason for the transfer was due to regulations of Chinese government, that the brand of automobile must be owned by its manufacturer.[12]

Operation

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According to Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal Business Group and CEO of Smart Car Solution Business Unit, that AITO brand is an eco-system brand and a new business model. Huawei will not directly manufacture cars while dedicated to helping car companies sell their vehicles through product design, supply chain management, quality control, software ecosystem, user experience management, brand marketing, and sales channels.[13][14]

Each Huawei's partner manufacturer will specialize in certain vehicle category and class and each manufacturer's product lineup is non-overlapping, and will all be combined under the Huawei's comprehensive solution.[14]

Technology

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HarmonyOS Cockpit

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The HarmonyOS Cockpit is Huawei's solution for electric and autonomous cars powered by its Kirin line of a system-on-chip (SoC), augmented reality head-up displays (AR-HUD) and smart instrument cluster. Huawei opened up the APIs of HarmonyOS Cockpit to help automobile OEMs, suppliers and ecosystem partners in developing different features.[15][16]

Autonomous Driving System

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AITO vehicles are equipped with ADS (Autonomous Driving System) developed by Huawei. For the current ADS 2.0, it is composite of 128 LiDARs, 11 HD cameras, 3 MMW radars, and 12 ultra sonic radars and Huawei self-developed chipset.

The ADS is trained on real-world driving data and can achieve Level 2+ autonomous driving. It can perform human-like judgment and operation such as accurate turning, giving way to pedestrians, recognizing and avoiding irregular obstacles, as well as detecting and avoiding animals. It can also perform automatic and valet parking.

According to Huawei, the ADS 2.0 was priced at 36,000 RMB (~5200 USD) per vehicle when sold to partner manufacturer.[17]

Products

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Current models

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  • AITO M5 (2022–present), mid-size SUV (EV/EREV)
  • AITO M7 (2022–present), mid-size SUV (EREV)
  • AITO M9 (2023–present), full-size SUV (EV/EREV)
  • AITO M8 (upcoming), mid-size SUV
  • AITO M5
    AITO M5
  • AITO M5 EV
    AITO M5 EV
  • AITO M7
    AITO M7
  • AITO M9
    AITO M9

Sales

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Sales of AITO brand
Year AITO
2022 76,180[18]
2023 94,380

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "重磅！"问界"商标已转让给华为-开源基础软件社区-51CTO.COM". ost.51cto.com. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  2. ^ Roberts, Graeme (2023-09-13). "Huawei's Aito launches new model with self driving". Just Auto. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  3. ^ NNR (2023-04-01). "Huawei partners Chery, BAIC, Anhui Jianghuai to produce Aito electric vehicles". NewsnReleases. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  4. ^ Zhang/CnEVPost, Phate (2022-06-14). "Huawei reportedly adds Chery and JAC to its automotive partners". CnEVPost. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  5. ^ "AITO M5 review". ArenaEV.com. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  6. ^ Krijgsman, Lars (2021-12-27). "Aito M5: met een vleugje Huawei". AutoWeek (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  7. ^ a b "Huawei acquires "Wenjie" trademark". Gasgoo. 2023-06-14. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  8. ^ "销量下滑45%！赛力斯成立AITO问界事业群". www.sohu.com. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  9. ^ "AITO问界汽车改名，华为汽车真的要来了吗？ - OFweek新能源汽车网". nev.ofweek.com. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  10. ^ "不造车但有大动作！华为受让AITO商标 - 华为 — C114通信网". www.c114.com.cn. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  11. ^ Kang, Lei (2024-07-03). "Huawei to transfer Aito trademarks and patents it holds to Seres for $340 million". CnEVPost. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  12. ^ "余承东揭秘"25亿元转让问界"：国家法规要求，问界品牌至少值上百亿元". www.yicai.com. Retrieved 2024-07-15.
  13. ^ Pandaily (2023-03-09). "Huawei Emphasizes Dominance of EV Brand AITO". Pandaily. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  14. ^ a b "华为余承东：奇瑞、北汽、江淮新车将至，统一使用"问界"生态品牌 - IT之家". www.ithome.com. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  15. ^ Li, Deng (2021-10-22). "First HarmonyOS smart car cockpit will launch by the end of this year, check user interface". Huawei Central. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  16. ^ Amit (2022-03-19). "HarmonyOS Cockpit: AITO's new medium and large SUV interior leaked". HU. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  17. ^ "Huawei ADS 2.0: A Promising New ADAS in Marke". Counterpoint Research (in Simplified Chinese). 2023-05-18. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  18. ^ "AITO问界系列12月交付再超1万辆，全年交付76180辆 - 手机中国 -". smartcar.cnmo.com. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
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