Just now, Yu Chengdong announced on the social platform that the first model equipped with the new HarmonyOS 4 car-machine system will be the smart car selected by Huawei and Chery – the pure electric coupe internally code-named EH3. This pure electric coupe, which claims to adopt a subversive design language, will be officially released this quarter.
From the spy photos released by Yu Chengdong, it can be seen that this pure electric coupe has a top-mounted lidar, and a surround-view camera is installed on the left and right side fenders. The front of the car adopts Chery’s high-performance brand “LUXEED” Xingtu car logo. The front face is somewhat similar to Porsche Taycan and Leap S01. The streamlined body and hidden door handles make the vehicle’s appearance design language focus on youth and sportiness.
In fact, this pure electric coupe came slower than we thought.
At the end of last year, after the news of the cooperation between Huawei and Chery came out, an insider close to Huawei revealed that this pure electric coupe model, code-named EH3 internally, will be built on the Chery E platform and enter the price range of 200,000. Tesla Model 3 competes on the same stage, and the new car is expected to be officially launched in April 2023.
The release track of EH3 has deviated a bit, but “a good meal is not afraid of being late”, we will soon see the true face of this “Model 3’s strongest opponent”.
Benchmark Model 3, Huawei and Chery cooperate to upgrade
In the price range of 200,000 yuan, a pure electric car model, when the two labels are superimposed, it is easy to think of the pure electric car at this price-Tesla Model 3. If you want to succeed in the 200,000 pure electric market, you cannot avoid direct confrontation with Tesla Model 3.
However, Huawei and Chery seem to intend to enter this model market that has become a “sea of blood”. Judging from the current leaked information, Huawei and Chery are fully prepared for a tough battle on the Xingtu EH3.
At the end of last year, there was a report that although the two parties had reached a cooperation to launch a new model, the two parties still had some “differences” in terms of the intelligent driving of the new car. In the initial cooperation plan, it may be due to technology or the market. The reason is that Xingtu will not use Huawei’s self-developed intelligent driving solution for the time being. The cooperation between Huawei and Chery is a bit “tasteful”.
It may be that the technical problems have been resolved in the near future, or it may be that Tesla’s sense of oppression in this market segment is too strong. The two parties seem to have made progress in ADS cooperation.
Combined with the latest spy photos of Xingtu EH3, the cooperation between Huawei and Chery has come to fruition. We can find clues from the position of the fenders in the spy photos. I don’t know whether it is intentional or not. The entire Xingtu EH3, which is tightly covered by anti-counterfeiting stickers, only exposes the side view camera. Below the large-area chrome-plated surround-view camera, you can clearly see the words “Power By HUAWEI ADS”, which is almost the same as the camera component on the Qjie M5.
The intention is self-evident. On this pure electric coupe, it can basically be confirmed that Xingtu EH3 has finalized Huawei’s ADS solution, plus the HarmonyOS 4 smart cockpit and the lidar hardware on the rendering. In the level of intelligent driving at a price of 200,000, it is easy to “sit on the other side and look at the other”.
The high-end intelligent driving plan of both parties “breaks the ice”. This pure electric coupe can also add a bit of confidence in the direct dialogue with Model 3.
Huawei “weight loss”, Chery New Energy has accumulated a lot
2025 is a critical time node for Huawei, and Huawei’s car BU needs to be profitable before then.
At Huawei’s internal meeting in December last year, Yu Chengdong determined that the car BU would achieve profitability in 2025. If you want to pursue “profit”, it may not work just to talk about it. Huawei’s own intelligent driving solution needs to “slim down”.
Before the end of 2022, Huawei has further reduced the cost of intelligent driving solutions. After reducing the number of lidar hardware, the overall price has reached 18,000-20,000 yuan, of which the cost price of MDC 3.0 ranges from 5,000-6,000 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that Huawei’s self-developed MDC intelligent driving computing platform, lidar and vehicle vision camera, a complete set of intelligent driving system is expected to be launched in 2023; After the layout of the smart driving solution in 2019, the profitability of Huawei’s car BU has already met the initial profitability conditions.
The joint launch of the smart car with Chery is the next step in Huawei’s pursuit of profit.
Chery is indeed a “high-quality partner”, and 2022 will be a “big year” for Chery to achieve healthy growth. From January to November 2022, Chery’s sales volume exceeded 100,000 for six consecutive months, and its total sales reached 1.127 million units (a breakthrough of one million units for the first time), of which new energy sales were 220,900 units, a year-on-year increase of 147.9%. 19.6% of sales.
Chery New Energy’s “profound accumulation and steady development” cannot be separated from the comprehensive new energy strategy of Chery Multi-brand. In April of this year, Chery announced its product strategy at the “iCAR” conference. In the future, Chery’s brands will be fully new energy, and the energy structure will be distributed in hybrid, extended range, pure electric and hydrogen energy, and three electric systems. (Motor, battery, electronic control) will be the focus of Chery’s efforts this year.
It was at this point in time that Chery announced that it would enter high-performance electric vehicles. The E0X high-performance electric platform built by it will meet the advanced needs of a younger market. LUXEED is Chery’s high-performance electric brand .
I have a basic disk with millions of sales, and you have the best smart driving solution; you have the need to transform profits by volume, and I also have the need to transform into a young and intelligent. Chery and Huawei have what they need and hit it off. This account, no matter how you look at it, is a “win-win”.
Avoiding the mistakes of Beiqi Jihu “losing its soul”, Chery and Huawei’s Xingtu smart cars are expected to become the most powerful threat to Tesla Model 3.