Great Wall Motor will become the latest to adopt Huawei's smart driving system after BYD, and its first model to feature the system will be the Tank 700 Hi4-T off-road SUV, according to local media.
Great Wall Motor (HKG: 2333) will reportedly adopt Huawei's driver assistance system, becoming the latest Chinese auto giant to do so after BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY).
Great Wall Motor and Huawei are in close talks about a smart driving partnership that will see some of the key products in the automaker's Tank brand powered by Huawei's smart driving and smart cockpit solutions, local media outlet 36kr said in a report today, citing several industry sources.
The first Great Wall Motor model to carry Huawei's smart driving solution will be the Tank 700 Hi4-T -- a hybrid off-road SUV (sport utility vehicle) launched in late February this year, according to the report.
The Tank 700 Hi4-T is the most expensive of the Tank brand's current models on sale, with a starting price of RMB 428,000 ($59,120), and already utilizes Huawei's HiCar cockpit system.
If the partnership is confirmed, Great Wall Motor will become the next local automaker to use Huawei's smart driving system after BYD.
BYD's sub-brand Fang Cheng Bao announced on August 27 that it had signed a deal with Huawei to use its driver assistance system. The hybrid Bao 8 off-road SUV was launched on November 12, and is the first model under BYD's umbrella to use Huawei's smart driving system.
BYD officially launched the Fang Cheng Bao brand on August 16, 2023, and the brand's first model, the Bao 5, went on sale on November 9, 2023, with deliveries beginning at the end of the same month.
Fang Cheng Bao's direct competitor is Great Wall Motor's Tank brand, with the Bao 8 starting at RMB 379,800, which is 11 percent lower than the Tank 700 Hi4-T.
With the Bao 8 already equipped with Huawei's smart driving solution, the Tank brand, one of the local pioneers of hardcore off-road vehicles, will also need to leverage Huawei's tech to consolidate its position, 36kr's report noted.
From January to October, the Tank brand sold 188,933 vehicles, up 49.18 percent year-on-year, contributing 19.47 percent of Great Wall Motor's sales in the same period, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, had said the automaker had been focusing on smart driving as a key strategy, with research and development in the field starting a decade ago.
In November 2019, Great Wall Motor's autonomous driving division was spun off as an independent company, Haomo.AI Technology, which already provides smart driving systems for dozens of models, mainly Great Wall Motor's.
Great Wall Motor's own smart driving hardware and software team has reached more than 600 people and is still expanding rapidly, according to 36kr.
At the same time, the car company is also building its own supercomputing center, with computing power already reaching 3 EFLOPS, according to the report. For comparison, Huawei and Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) are at 7.5 EFLOPS, 5.39 EFLOPS, respectively.
($1 = RMB 7.2392)
BYD Fang Cheng Bao launches Bao 8 with Huawei driver assist system, starting at $52,520
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