CATL and Huawei to Jointly Build High-End EV Brand for Global Market

China’s leading battery firm CATL and Shenzhen-based tech giant Huawei signed a new memorandum of cooperation in Ningde, Fujian Province on December 14. The move marks further cooperation between CATL and Huawei’s Device BG after the battery firm partnered with Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit and Changan Automobile to develop electric vehicle brand Avatr.

The cooperation between CATL and Huawei’s Device BG focuses on Huawei Smart Selection Project. Huawei will recommend CATL as the preferred Huawei Smart Selection partner, while CATL will provide high-quality automotive battery products with market competitiveness for the Huawei Smart Selection Project, so as to support vehicle products of this project to be released on the market faster.

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Huawei’s Smart Selection is one of the cooperation modes between Huawei and car companies. This model is mainly led by Huawei, which provides product design and development, parts supply, and more. The final vehicle products will be sold in Huawei stores. At present, the cooperative car company under this model is SERES, and both sides have jointly built the AITO brand. Another cooperation mode, Huawei Inside (HI), mainly provides smart car solutions from Huawei, and its partners include BAIC Blue Valley, ARCFOX and Avatr.

There are now two extended-range models under AITO, the M5 and M7, and a M5 EV pure electric vehicle, all of which use CATL batteries. Since the beginning of this year, the brand’s delivery volume has been on the rise, but it has fluctuated recently. Official data show that the delivery volume of AITO in November was 8,260 vehicles, down 31.3% from the previous month, which is the first drop since the delivery of AITO in March. In the first 11 months of this year, the total delivery volume was 66,000 vehicles.

In addition, on December 14, CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chery, a traditional Chinese automobile manufacturer. In addition to battery supply and technical cooperation for passenger cars, the two sides will jointly explore fields including public transportation, new energy and battery swapping for buses, logistics vehicles, heavy duty trucks and ships.

In fact, Chery and Huawei have reached a cooperation in Smart Selection in order to seek a breakthrough in the field of high-end EVs. In September, Chery announced the smart electric vehicle brand in cooperation with Huawei, and has planned five high-end smart electric models, codenamed E03, E0Y and E05. Chery also released the high-end intelligent electric E0X platform, and the E03 model, which is planned to be officially launched in 2023, will also be equipped with CATL batteries.