Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance

Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, trading as HIMA () is an automotive alliance and sales network initiated and led by Chinese multinational technology company Huawei. Established in 2023, the members of the alliance include AITO ( Seres Group), Luxeed (Chery), Stelato ( BAIC BluePark), Maextro ( JAC Group) and SAIC ( SAIC Motor).

Under HIMA, Huawei contributes in product planning, design, marketing, user experience, quality control and provides intelligent vehicle software and hardware for the traditional automobile manufacturers. Currently, HIMA only operates in mainland China.

History

Pre-HIMA establishment

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 model is based on Seres SF5 SUV. At that time, Seres managed the entire vehicle lifecycle, encompassing research and development, manufacturing, and after-sales services. Huawei contributed to product definition, development, and channel sales. Both companies collaborated on quality control and marketing efforts. In 2023, Huawei expanded its role to include after-sales services and vehicle deliveries, working alongside Seres.

In March 2023, AITO was briefly rebranded as "Huawei AITO" before Huawei reverted the rebranding. In June 2023, Huawei acquired the AITO trademark in Chinese language (问界/Wenjie) from Seres Group. Huawei returned the English AITO trademarks and related patents back to Seres Group in July 2024 for 2.5 billion RMB, citing Chinese regulations requiring automobile brands to be owned by their manufacturers.

HIMA establishment

In November 2023, Huawei announced the establishment of HIMA during the launch of the Luxeed S7, the first model developed in collaboration with Chery. Unlike the previous approach, where Huawei mainly provided sales channels and had control over vehicle development with its partners, HIMA aims to build a more connected ecosystem for electric vehicles by incorporating Huawei's Harmony operating system into the cars. HIMA will allow closer cooperation with partners to create a unified smart mobility platform, focusing more on system integration and joint development across different manufacturers.

In December 2023, Huawei transferred several trademarks under the name "Stelato" to BAIC BluePark, the HIMA brand developed in collaboration with BAIC.

In July 2024, Yu Chengdong (Richard Yu), Chairman of Huawei Consumer BG and Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, revealed in an interview that the fourth HIMA brand, developed in collaboration with JAC Group, would be named Zunjie (尊界) in Chinese. In August 2024, during the Stelato S9 and Huawei new product launch event, Huawei officially introduced Maextro, the fourth brand under the HIMA collaboration with JAC. The first Maextro vehicle is expected to roll off the production line by the end of 2024 and launch in the first half of 2025.

In April 2025, SAIC Motor and Huawei jointly unveiled the fifth brand under HIMA, SAIC (dubbed "尚界" in Chinese), during the HIMA new product launch event.

Operations

In the HIMA business model, Huawei does not directly manufacture cars but focuses on assisting car companies with product design, supply chain management, quality control, software ecosystem, user experience management, brand marketing, and sales channels. Under the alliance, each of Huawei's partner manufacturers will specialize in a certain vehicle category and class. Each manufacturer's product lineup will be non-overlapping, and all will be combined under Huawei's comprehensive solution.

Huawei has been establishing independent HIMA stores in the Chinese market. Huawei planned to have around 800 newly built HIMA stores by 2024, and plans to expand to 1,000 stores by 2025. By 2023, HIMA had already opened franchise outlets ("user centers") in 78 cities nationwide. These outlets provide integrated services, including sales, delivery, and after-sales support, embodying a one-stop-shop approach. One of the criteria for selecting partners is a preference for those with expertise in luxury car sales and maintenance (both mechanical and paint). In addition to opening new franchise user centers, the existing outlets were rebranded from "AITO" to "HIMA" as the outlets started offering Luxeed, Stelato and Maextro vehicles.

Technology

HarmonyOS Cockpit

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.

Huawei ADS

AITO vehicles are equipped with ADS (Autonomous Driving System) developed by Huawei. For ADS 2.0, current in 2023, it was a 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 (~US$5200) per vehicle when sold to partner manufacturer.

Tuling platform

Huawei Tuling platform is equipped with a multi-modal fusion perception system, DATS (Dynamic Adaptive Torque System) and xMotion intelligent body collaborative control system.

Brands

The brands of the alliance include AITO ( Seres Group), Luxeed (Chery), Stelato ( BAIC BluePark), Maextro (JAC Motors) and SAIC ( SAIC Motor). Although the Western names of each alliance brand are not closely related, their Chinese names are all named after the Chinese character "界", such as ( AITO), ( Luxeed), ( Stelato), ( Maextro) and (SAIC).

Originally, the ownership rights for the alliance brands' Western and Chinese names were separate. The Western trademarks are owned by the alliance manufacturers, whereas the Chinese trademarks are owned by Huawei. However, due to the regulations of Chinese government, that the brand of automobile must be owned by its manufacturer, in July 2024, Huawei announced to transfer the Chinese trademarks and patents of AITO brand to its partner Seres Group.

AITO

AITO () is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with Seres Group.

File:2022 Seres AITO M5 (front).jpg, AITO M5
File:Aito M5 EV 003.jpg, AITO M5 EV
File:Aito M7 facelift 003.jpg, AITO M7
File:AITO M8 001.jpg, AITO M8
File:Aito M9 011 (cropped).jpg, AITO M9

Luxeed

Luxeed () is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with Chery.

File:2023 Luxeed S7 (front).jpg, Luxeed S7
File:Luxeed R7.jpg, Luxeed R7

Stelato

Stelato () is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with BAIC BluePark, a subsidiary of BAIC Group.

File:(CHN-Hubei) Showcar Stelato S9 No-plate 2024-12-04.jpg, Stelato S9

Maextro

Maextro () is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with JAC Group.

File:Maextro S800 001.jpg, Maextro S800

SAIC

SAIC () is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with SAIC Motor.

Sales

Since HIMA is not considered as an automobile manufacturer by government of China, the sales figures of each HIMA brand is overlapping with its partner manufacturers.

See also

Huawei's partnership with automobile manufacturers

Huawei's partnership with automobile manufacturers has taken the form of three models, the standardized parts supply model, the "Huawei Inside" (HI) model, and the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA).

* Tier 1 — Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA), Huawei provides a complete set of vehicle solutions and participates in product definition, design, marketing, user experience, quality control and delivery, while the manufacturers are responsible for vehicle manufacturing.
* Tier 2 — Huawei Inside (HI), Huawei provide full-stack smart car solution and Huawei's smart cockpit to car manufacturers. In this mode, Huawei empowers vehicle intelligence through the supply of both software and hardware, but does not participate in the design, development, and marketing of the vehicles. Arcfox is currently adopting this model.
* Tier 2 — Huawei Inside Plus (HI Plus), with Avatr becoming the first company to invest in Yinwang, the Avatr's previous "HI"(Huawei Inside) model has been further upgraded to a new "HI Plus" model, enabling Huawei to get more deeply involved in Avatr's product definition.
* Tier 3 — Standardized parts supply, Huawei provides automobile parts and components like Lidar, electric motor, cameras and power management to car manufacturers, the most basic model.

Other articles

* Automotive industry in China
* List of Huawei products

References

{{Automotive industry in China

Huawei
Huawei products
Car brands
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