Meizu secures an order from Mercedes-Benz, and Flyme Auto will be installed in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class | Exclusive from 36Kr
The traditional luxury brand Mercedes-Benz is trying to make up for its shortcomings in intelligence.
36Kr Auto learned from multiple informed sources that Mercedes-Benz has reached a cooperation with ECARX and Xingji Meizu, and Flyme Auto is about to enter the lineup of Mercedes-Benz models in China. The first Mercedes-Benz model to be equipped with Flyme Auto is the long-wheelbase E-Class.
A source revealed that the cooperative models are expected to be launched in 2027. 36Kr learned that the long-wheelbase E-Class will indeed undergo a facelift in 2027.
36Kr contacted Mercedes-Benz for verification of the above information, but as of press time, no response was received.
ECARX is a subsidiary of Geely that focuses on building full-stack automotive platforms.
This company was founded in 2017. At that time, Shen Ziyu was still the CEO of Botai Internet of Vehicles, and Geely Group was planning to layout its intelligent business. So Li Shufu invited Shen Ziyu to jointly establish ECARX Technology, with the two parties holding 70% and 30% of the shares respectively. In 2022, ECARX was listed on the US stock market.
Currently, in addition to its intelligent cockpit business, ECARX is also involved in fields such as intelligent driving and underlying components.
Meizu is a mobile phone company acquired by Geely in 2022 and is also a key part of Geely's layout in the "driver-vehicle interconnection" field.
According to Shen Ziyu's previous public statements, Geely's positioning for ECARX and Meizu is as follows: ECARX's role is equivalent to Huawei's automotive BU, and Meizu Technology is equivalent to Huawei's consumer BG.
In March 2023, Flyme Auto, jointly developed by Meizu and ECARX, was launched. The first model to be equipped with Flyme Auto was the Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, which was launched in the same year. Since then, more and more Geely models have been equipped with Flyme Auto. To some extent, Flyme Auto has contributed to the sales growth of models such as Galaxy and saved Geely's reputation in the cockpit field.
Now that the core model of Mercedes-Benz, the E-Class, has selected Flyme Auto, it shows that Mercedes-Benz is trying to stop the downward trend of its sales in the Chinese market by making up for its shortcomings in intelligence.
Flyme Auto Once Saved Geely's Reputation in the Cockpit Field
According to the sales data released by Mercedes-Benz, it delivered more than 714,000 new vehicles in the Chinese market in 2024, a year-on-year decline of nearly 7%. In the first half of this year, according to media reports, Mercedes-Benz sold 293,200 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-on-year decline of 14%.
This downward trend must not continue. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz has cooperated with Momenta in the field of assisted driving and now has selected Flyme Auto in the field of intelligent cockpits to make up for its intelligence lesson.
Before the launch of the Flyme Auto in-vehicle system, the intelligent cockpit was once a weakness of Geely Group. The launch of this in-vehicle system has improved the user reputation of Geely's cockpits, and many car owners have called on Geely to adopt the Flyme Auto in-vehicle system across all its models.
Flyme Auto was officially launched in March 2023. It uses a 7nm Longying chip and supports functions such as borderless desktop and seamless connection. The concept behind these functions is to break the barrier between mobile phones and cars and regard mobile phones as one of the components of cars. For this reason, on the day of the press conference, Meizu also coined the new term "mobile phone domain".
The first model to be equipped with Flyme Auto was the Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, which was launched in 2023. Since then, brands under Geely such as Galaxy, Geely, and Lynk & Co have also successively adopted Flyme Auto.
As of May this year, official data from Geely shows that Flyme Auto has been installed in 23 Geely models, including popular models under Geely such as the Galaxy E5 and Lynk & Co 900. In addition, data from Meizu shows that as of June 16, the total sales volume of models using Flyme Auto exceeded 1.16 million, with 130,000 new installations in May 2025 alone.
Currently, the Flyme Auto 2.0 version is being gradually installed in Geely models. Compared with previous versions, the 2.0 version of the in-vehicle system will be optimized in terms of AI, design, etc.
In addition to the past market performance of Flyme Auto in Geely models, the relationship between Geely, the parent company of Meizu and ECARX, and Mercedes-Benz may also be an important factor prompting Mercedes-Benz to select Flyme Auto.
The relationship between Mercedes-Benz and Geely can be traced back to 2018. At that time, Geely spent $9 billion through an overseas company to buy 9.7% of the shares of Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and thus became the largest shareholder of Daimler. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz and Geely jointly established the smart Global Company through a joint venture, with each party holding 50% of the shares, to jointly promote the electrification transformation of the smart brand.
Now that the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has selected the Flyme Auto cockpit system developed by Geely's subsidiary, the relationship between the two has deepened. This round of cooperation may help Mercedes-Benz's fuel vehicles remain competitive in the Chinese market.
The Evolution of the Cockpit System: Mercedes-Benz Hopes to Maintain the Competitiveness of Its Fuel Vehicles
The main models of Mercedes-Benz available for sale in the Chinese market, such as the long-wheelbase C-Class, E-Class, and GLC, are all equipped with the third-generation MBUX system launched by Mercedes-Benz in 2023.
In terms of hardware, the third-generation MBUX system uses a Qualcomm 8295 Snapdragon chip and is also equipped with a 5G communication module. The interior of the car consists of three screens: a dashboard, a central control screen, and a passenger screen, and is also equipped with an in-vehicle camera that supports video conferencing.
The software upgrades are mainly reflected in two aspects. First, the voice assistant now supports wake-up-free, continuous commands, and semantic understanding. The voice feedback speed has been shortened to 0.5 seconds, and the number of commands has also increased to more than 2,000.
On the other hand, the built-in map of the Mercedes-Benz in-vehicle system has also been optimized. In addition to the improved rendering effect, Mercedes-Benz has specially upgraded the lane-level navigation for the Chinese market.
For Mercedes-Benz users, this is indeed a major upgrade of the Mercedes-Benz cockpit functions, but the domestic self-owned brands are clearly moving faster.
Brands such as Li Auto and XPeng have functions such as continuous dialogue and gesture recognition. The newly launched Zunjie S800 this year supports innovative functions such as opening and closing the car door with gestures and tracking the opening and closing of the interior induction lights.
In order to catch up with the rapidly developing intelligent level in the Chinese market, the new all-electric CLA to be launched by Mercedes-Benz in 2025 will be equipped with the new self-developed MB.OS operating system.
According to Mercedes-Benz, the MB.OS solves the problem of the slow update speed of the previous system, which was only updated once a year, and can achieve an OTA frequency comparable to that of domestic new energy brands. In terms of AI, the MB.OS will use generative AI and large language models.
However, the MB.OS has not been delivered yet, and it is an operating system developed by Mercedes-Benz based on a new electrical architecture. According to the plan, the MB.OS will be used on four platforms: MMA, MB.EA, AMG.EA, and VAN.EA.
That is to say, the currently available fuel models of Mercedes-Benz cannot support the application of the latest MB.OS system for the time being, but these fuel models account for more than 80% of Mercedes-Benz's total sales in China.
In the face of the uncertain market reaction of new products, Mercedes-Benz must maintain the competitiveness of its main-selling fuel models. The cooperation with Meizu is one of the measures taken by Mercedes-Benz.
The official website of Flyme Auto shows that the highlights of this system include an interactive design that combines a customizable desktop and a small window mode, a voice assistant that supports wake-up-free, multiple commands, and dialect recognition, as well as the seamless transfer of navigation, music, and call applications from multiple brands of mobile phones to the car.
For Mercedes-Benz's existing in-vehicle system, the application of the above functions will be a significant upgrade. From this cooperation, we can also see the transformation of Mercedes-Benz's intelligent strategy.
With the goal of "equal intelligence for fuel and electric vehicles", Mercedes-Benz is continuously establishing an independent R & D layout with its Chinese team playing an important role.
The new-generation long-wheelbase E-Class launched by Mercedes-Benz at the end of 2023 is equipped with a high-speed pilot assistance system developed by the Chinese team. At the same time, the Chinese team is also the main participating team in the development of the latest system, the MB.OS.
In the Chinese market, where there is a strong demand for intelligence, Mercedes-Benz has embarked on a path of accelerating cooperation with local suppliers.
The all-electric CLA to be launched in 2025 will adopt the high-level assisted driving solution of the local enterprise Momenta. The cooperation with ECARX and Meizu is a new signal of Mercedes-Benz's active pursuit of change.
However, cooperation is only the beginning, and the real test lies in implementation.
Can the speed of installing the cooperation results in the cars keep up with the speed at which users' patience is running out? Can the final effect truly meet the needs of users who have been "spoiled" by domestic intelligent cockpits? These are the challenges that Mercedes-Benz cannot avoid in the process of its intelligent transformation.
Brand sentiment is indeed an advantage of Mercedes-Benz, but a continuous and satisfactory intelligent experience is the fundamental to retaining users.
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