© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is seen on its headquarters building in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020. REUTERS/Matthew Childs/File Photo
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies is partnering with more legacy automakers to produce Aito-branded electric cars, the company’s top executive said on Saturday, in a move to expand its presence in the auto industry.
Huawei will partner with Chery Automobile, BAIC Motor and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group to jointly develop and manufacture Aito-brand vehicles, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Smart Car, said at the China EV 100 forum in Beijing.
Huawei, which has already partnered with Seres Group to make Aito cars, plans a series of models including SUVs, sedans and multipurpose vehicles under the Aito brand, Yu added.
“We would like to make full use of the automakers’ production capacity resources,” Yu said.
Seres sold a total of 80,000 Aito cars running Huawei’s HarmonyOS system, developed by the company as an Android alternative, in 2022, more than six times as many as a year ago, according to company documents.
Huawei Chairman Eric Xu reiterated at a press conference on Friday that the company does not make cars on its own, but only helps other automakers make better vehicles.
Huawei has been hit with a series of export controls by Washington which it says is a security risk, which the company denies. The sanctions have prevented Huawei from buying key components and from using Google’s (NASDAQ:) Android operating system.
The sanctions have also affected Huawei’s partnerships with global automakers, which have stopped using Huawei’s vehicle connectivity technologies in the past two years, Yu said on Saturday.
The tension with the US saw Meng detained for three years in Canada for alleged attempts to cover up attempts by Huawei-linked companies to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions.