With the recent sweeping market presence of Huawei-related cars, particularly after the release of AITO M9 on December 26, I suddenly found that when mentioning Huawei, the first thing that came to my mind was not mobile phones, but cars. I wonder if anyone shares the same feeling with me.
Such a feeling arose because after the release of AITO M9, I deeply felt that Huawei’s art in defining a car increasingly resembles the perfection of making mobile phones, even like the grunt in “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” – only making an appearance to defeat all other heroes.
With such strength, at the beginning of the AITO M9 launch, Huawei Terminal BG CEO and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solutions BU, Yu Chengdong, boldly declared that “the best SUV under 10 million is here.”
Interestingly, the title Huawei officially bestowed on AITO M9 has no relation to modesty and low-key demeanor — Technology Car King.
If these four words are to be translated, then what Huawei wants to express is that AITO M9 has ascended to the pinnacle of technology in the current stage of new energy vehicles, just as Yu Chengdong put it:
The AITO M9 is a milestone product of the intelligent era, and we have brought all the best Huawei intelligent car black technology on board.
AITO M9 is indifferent to new forces
If you want to experience the comprehensive strength of Huawei, then taking a look at AITO M9 should be a good choice.
Regardless of whether AITO M9 can be a “milestone product of the intelligent era” as Yu Chengdong said, one fact is certain — the M9 is a bona fide compilation of Huawei’s technologies.
To put it more bluntly, AITO M9 is the Mate 60 series of HarmonyOS intelligent driving ecosystem, not only holding up the high-end facade of the brand single-handedly, but also shouldering the task of sales growth.
According to officially disclosed data, before the large order stage, the number of blind orders for AITO M9 had already reached 54,000; within two hours after the large order stage, the large order quantity of AITO M9 broke through 10,000 units.
_20231227184013.jpeg)
It is worth mentioning that within four or five hours after the launch of AITO M9, AITO quickly devised a new strategy that added fuel to the M9’s rise:
- All AITO user centers nation-wide open until 24:00;
- All AITO experience centers remain open until the malls closed.
Faced with this situation, the large order number of AITO M9 will be a figure that frightens competitors and shocks users.
However, what really frightens competitors and shocks users is Huawei behind AITO M9.
In fact, looking at the AITO M9 product itself, Huawei’s ADS 2.0, Tulink chassis, Magalink and other technologies have been released successively on AITO M7 and LUXEED S7; the method of external interaction through front and rear lights is not new; and having fridges, TVs, and large sofas has virtually become a stock phrase for everyone in the new energy car industry.However, on the AITO M9, Huawei has once again introduced some new tricks, and these specifications stand out uniquely under the halo of “Huawei”.
One must first mention the evolved security capabilities of Huawei ADS 2.0. According to official information, the AITO M9 comes as standard with the advanced version of Huawei ADS 2.0 and is equipped with a brand-new 192-beam laser radar.
Based on top-level hardware configurations and consistently improved model capabilities, the application level of Huawei ADS 2.0 is continuously improving. Take AEB for instance, the current usable range of AITO M9’s AEB has further expanded to 4-150 km/h. More importantly, Yu Chengdong announced that by the end of this year, intelligent driving in NCA urban areas can be realized nationwide.
Another crucial part that’s evolving alongside Huawei ADS 2.0 is driving control. The AITO M9’s Tutling chassis adopts a front 4-ball head long double fork arm + multilink rear suspension configuration, and it comes standard with CDC variable damping shock absorbers and closed air suspensions. Together with the digital capabilities of the intelligent control cluster, AITO M9’s driving capabilities will continuously strengthen with subsequent OTA upgrades, and the integration with ADS 2.0 will deepen.
Also, Huawei’s definition of commercial and private vehicle has reached a new level.
Actually, starting with the release of AITO M7 last year, Huawei had begun to aim at the new energy vehicles for both commercial and private use. However, due to reasons such as vehicle size and price positioning, the AITO M7 had to make compromises in many aspects.
But, after reaching the size of 5,230 × 1,999 × 1,800 mm and a starting price of 46.98 hundred thousand yuan with AITO M9, Huawei has completely unleashed its design for the multipurpose vehicle market.
For instance, the AITO M9 is fitted with a 32-inch liftable projection screen cloth. The co-driver’s backrest can fully fold forward to create more space for passengers in the second row on zero-gravity seats. Through Magalink, each passenger can have their own exclusive screen. Noise shields are set for the driver to ensure talk or call privacy for passengers in the back…
Nevertheless, the most astonishing and novel feature continues to be Huawei’s “light”.
Huawei has launched the HUAWEI AR-HUD Reality Heads-Up Display System with the premiere of AITO M9, merging driving and reality deeply. Not only will there be a more precise navigation arrow display, it can also serve as a width indicator when the user is driving on narrow roads or meeting vehicles.
In addition, there is Huawei’s XPIXEL million-pixel smart projection headlights, capable of achieving a 100-inch projection size, maxing out the outdoor ambiance.
Obviously, these are just the tip of the iceberg of the technologies equipped on the AITO M9. In order to ensure the experience of AITO M9, Huawei has fully loaded the technology, which are the results of Huawei’s years of accumulation in ICT, mobile phones, digital energy and other businesses. Seeing the AITO M9 is, to some extent, witnessing the “million-strong army” Huawei has gathered over the years.
This “million-strong army” has a clear target, to capture the market of traditional luxury fuel vehicles – at the AITO M9 launch, AITO M9 did not benchmark any new force models, but directly pointed at Cullinan, Maybach, BMW, Land Rover and others.
Huawei still needs to convey confidence
What can AITO M9 bring to Huawei? Confidence.
Perhaps some people will feel that the new AITO M7 and LUXEED S7 are so popular, with the large-scale orders of the new AITO M7 already exceeding 120,000. Isn’t the confidence conveyed by Huawei enough?
Not enough, of course not enough.
For users, the new AITO M7 has allowed them to see Huawei’s ability to create hot products through a series of magical operations. But what they have not yet seen is whether the high-end tone of the AITO brand can stand firm? Where exactly is Huawei’s ability boundary in defining a car?
At present, with the launch of AITO M9, these questions have been answered. And user feedback on this is reflected in the growth of over 10,000 orders in just two hours.
As users have a deeper understanding of Huawei and are willing to support it with real money, Huawei’s future journey will be much smoother. The key lies in that AITO M9 is a car that can truly bring profits to Huawei.
The previously released new AITO M7 and LUXEED S7 are certainly explosive, but the profits are very slim. The LUXEED S7 is even losing money across the whole line. In contrast, the AITO M9, whose starting price is almost double that of the new AITO M7 and LUXEED S7, is different. An industry insider told me that if AITO M9 sells more than 10,000 units a month, its profit margin can exceed 15%.
This means that after a long initial period of making a splash at a loss, AITO M9 has accelerated Huawei’s profitability.
_20231227184125.jpeg)
With this, on the one hand, as a heavyweight product in the HarmonyOS Auto Eco, AITO M9 can show the market the vitality and prospects of the HarmonyOS Auto Eco, thus attracting more automakers to join. On the other hand, as the first product after Huawei announced the spin-off of the car BU to form an independent company, AITO M9 also takes on the responsibility of attracting more automakers of strategic value to invest in shares. For this new company, solid profits are the only real draw.Therefore, the successful launch of the “AITO M9” is not only Huawei’s display of market power, but also reassures current and potential partners.
With the “AITO M9”, Huawei is further strengthening its desired role as the ‘locomotive’ in the new energy industry, following the new “AITO M7”.
It is worth mentioning that the “AITO M9” not only marks Huawei’s first product since the announcement of its car BU being spin-off into a separate company, but also the first car to implement a large number of vehicular applications under the leadership of Jin Yuzhi, the CEO of the car BU.
_20231227184141.jpeg)
Additionally, Huawei, with over 30 years of core technology accumulation in the field of photonics, has created a brand-new intelligent vehicular light solution for its new energy vehicle layout. This was showcased in April this year by technologies such as the one-million-pixel projection headlights and AR-HUD seen in the “AITO M9”.
With Jin Yuzhi in charge of photonics and car BU, the goal is to integrate the vehicular light and intelligent car businesses to commercialize vehicular light products. From this perspective, “AITO M9” not only stimulates the commercialization of vehicular light products through its own sales, but also has a certain advertising effect attracting more corporate clients for Huawei’s vehicular light products.
Additionally, this advertising effect is not limited to vehicular light products, the success of “AITO M9” could potentially boost traffic to the “AITO”, “LUXEED”, and Huawei’s 3C products collectively.
This time, Huawei truly hit the jackpot.
In conclusion
With the emergence of the “AITO M9” at the junction of 2023 and 2024, an extremely large firework was ignited in the new energy vehicle market.
The “AITO M9” shows the market that, with the support of top-tier intelligent technology, a vehicle’s potential and how many customers are willing to pay for it.
As technology continues to evolve and costs decline, the revolutionary upgrades brought about by intelligence to automobile experience will gradually penetrate and become accessible to more people.
In fact, the large fireworks are not only the “AITO M9”, but also the “NIO ET9” on the 23rd, “ZEEKR 007” on the 27th, and “Xiaomi SU7” on the 28th. The new energy vehicle market at the end of 2023 is particularly dazzling.
This brilliance, to some extent, illuminates the new energy vehicle market in 2024, but if we look to the future through this light, we may see an even fiercer competition than this year, with a hint of bloodshed already detectable.
This article is a translation by AI of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.