Aito is a premium car brand launched by Seres with Huawei on December 2, 2021, and is the first new brand launched by Huawei in partnership with a carmaker.
Chinese tech giant Huawei will transfer the trademarks and patents it holds related to the Aito brand to its car-making partner Seres Group, reinforcing its commitment about not building cars.
A subsidiary of Seres plans to acquire Huawei's trademarks and design patents relating to Aito for RMB 2.5 billion yuan ($340 million), according to a stock exchange announcement by the Shanghai-listed company yesterday.
The assets include 919 registered or pending trademarks for the Aito family of characters and graphics and 44 design patents held by Huawei.
The transaction does not affect the conduct of Seres' joint business with Huawei, and the two sides will further deepen their partnership, the announcement said.
Huawei, for its part, told local media that it will continue to provide support to Seres for better sales of the Aito brand.
Huawei has consistently maintained that it does not build cars, but instead utilizes its leading smart internet-connected vehicle technology to continue to help car companies build better cars and sell better cars.
Huawei has consistently held that it does not build cars, but instead utilizes smart connected car technology to help car companies build and sell cars better, local media Cailian quoted the tech giant as saying.
Aito is a premium car brand launched by Seres with Huawei on December 2, 2021, and is the first new brand launched by Huawei in partnership with a car company.
In addition to Aito, Huawei has created more new brands with Chery, Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC), and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC).
Huawei's automotive business has turned profitable in the first quarter of this year as sales exploded, especially for the Aito brand, said Richard Yu, head of Huawei's smart car solutions, in an interview with Tencent News in May.
The sale of Aito-related assets is expected to pave the way for Huawei's automotive business to become independent.
Changan Automobile signed an investment cooperation memorandum with Huawei on November 25, 2023, to jointly support a company established by Huawei to provide automotive smart system and component solutions.
Huawei planned to integrate the core technologies and resources of its smart car solutions business into the new company, which will aim to become a world-class industry leader in automotive smart driving systems and components, according to Changan's previous announcement.
The joint venture was tentatively named Newcool, Zhu Huarong, Changan's chairman, said on January 16 at its global partner conference.
Under their agreement, Huawei had pledged not to engage in the automotive manufacturing business and not to engage in the business of the new company, Zhu said.
($1 = RMB 7.2713)
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