Seres can no longer rely solely on Huawei.

Seres is really making huge profits.

Recently, Seres released its semi - annual report: its profit in the first half of the year reached 2.941 billion yuan, with a year - on - year growth rate of over 80%, leading the pack among A - share automakers. However, behind the impressive profit figures, potential problems for Seres are starting to emerge.

What's quite obvious is the slowdown in revenue growth and the year - on - year decline in sales. To cope with the sales pressure, Seres still pins its hopes on the next hit model of the Wenjie brand, such as the all - electric version of the Wenjie M8, which was launched on August 25th.

However, as the new energy vehicle market enters its second half, the effect of hit models is waning. The focus of competition has shifted from "betting on hit models" to "building moats". Especially in the highly integrated intelligent and electrified vehicle market, it's difficult to gain a firm foothold without systematic R & D capabilities.

R & D is easier said than done, and it requires substantial financial investment. Seres still lags significantly behind its major competitors in R & D investment. Coupled with its persistently high asset - liability ratio and continuous financing pressure, the prospects for continuous R & D investment are overshadowed.

What's more delicate is that the number of Huawei's "Jie - series" partners has now expanded to five. Although Seres was the first to reap the benefits, as Huawei's resources and attention are being shared among multiple partners, the once - dominant position that Seres enjoyed is no longer exclusive to it.

Profits Leading the Way

Seres didn't start with a high profile.

In 1986, it was just a small business making auto parts and motorcycles. It officially entered the automotive manufacturing industry in 2003 through a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor. It started to transform into the new energy vehicle field in 2016 but failed to succeed for a long time, and its financial situation was under long - term pressure.

The turning point came in 2021. That year, Seres and Huawei joined hands to launch the "Wenjie" brand, creating the so - called "smart - selected vehicle" model.

However, rather than a true partnership, it was more of a Huawei - led cooperation. In their collaboration, Huawei was in charge of product design, definition, production quality control, and sales. Wenjie products are also equipped with a full set of components from Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit. Even in the early stage of the cooperation, the Wenjie brand itself belonged to Huawei.

Yu Chengdong once talked about the origin of the cooperation with Seres during the HarmonyOS Smart Mobility annual live - broadcast. He said that at that time, Huawei had been under sanctions for several years, with no chips and products to sell. Then they thought about where Huawei's products could be used in cars and found that Huawei's intelligent automotive motor components could be applied to Seres' models.

"At that time, no one was optimistic about us, and no one was willing to cooperate with us." Yu Chengdong also revealed that Huawei had contacted several automakers for cooperation, but only Zhang Xinghai, the chairman of Seres Group, readily agreed to cooperate, thus kicking off the first cooperation in HarmonyOS Smart Mobility.

However, this combination that "no one was optimistic about" has changed the industry landscape.

In the first year after its launch, in 2022, the Wenjie brand sold over 70,000 vehicles, which made the outside world suddenly recognize Huawei's capabilities. Even inspired by Seres, Chery Automobile, Jianghuai Automobile, and BAIC Group successively reached cooperation agreements with Huawei Terminal. In November 2023, the smart - selected vehicle model was upgraded to the HarmonyOS Smart Mobility Technology Ecosystem Alliance.

In 2024, the annual sales of the Wenjie brand reached 387,100 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 268%. Seres also tried to further strengthen its tie - up with Huawei. In August of that year, Seres invested 11.5 billion yuan in Shenzhen Yinwang Intelligent Co., Ltd., acquiring a 10% stake. Yinwang is a new asset entity of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit.

Boosted by the Wenjie brand, Seres also turned a profit. In 2024, Seres achieved an operating revenue of 145.1 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 305.5%; the gross profit margin reached 23.8%, a year - on - year increase of 16.6 percentage points. In the same period, the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent company was 5.9 billion yuan, compared with a net loss of 2.4 billion yuan in 2023.

In the first half of 2025, the Wenjie brand continued to support Seres' performance. The cumulative delivery of all models exceeded 147,000 vehicles, with the single - month delivery in June exceeding 44,000 vehicles, setting a new monthly delivery record for the Wenjie brand. Meanwhile, due to the relatively high prices of the Wenjie M9 and M8 models, with 62,000 and 38,000 units sold respectively in the first half of the year, the average transaction price of the Wenjie brand exceeded 400,000 yuan.

Based on this estimate, the Wenjie brand contributed nearly 60 billion yuan in revenue to Seres in the first half of the year.

Benefiting from Huawei and the Wenjie brand, Seres' profit figures are leading among A - share automakers. In the first half of the year, Seres' net profit attributable to the parent company reached 2.941 billion yuan, with a year - on - year growth rate as high as 81%, ranking first in the A - share automotive sector.

In contrast, BYD's growth rate in the same period was only 13.8%, and established automakers such as SAIC, Great Wall, and Changan all saw declines.

However, there are hidden problems behind the glory. Although the profit has increased significantly, Seres' revenue declined in the first half of the year, and its sales are also under pressure.

Sales Falling Behind

Shortly before the release of the semi - annual report, Seres announced its sales figures for the first seven months of this year. The overall sales volume decreased by 12.75% year - on - year, and the sales of new energy vehicles decreased by 10.87% year - on - year.

In fact, the decline has been evident since the beginning of the year.

In January this year, Seres sold 22,430 new vehicles, a year - on - year decrease of 45.82%. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles were 17,906 units, a year - on - year decrease of 51.39%. The situation was similar in February. In that month, the total sales of all Seres models were 21,329 units, a year - on - year and month - on - month decrease of 39.4% and 4.9% respectively. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles in February were 17,841 units, a year - on - year and month - on - month decrease of 41.0% and 0.4% respectively.

That is to say, behind the prosperity of the profit statement, the sales engine has already slowed down.

What's rather embarrassing is that this happened against the backdrop of the overall high - growth of the industry. In the first half of the year, China's automobile production and sales exceeded 15 million vehicles for the first time, a year - on - year increase of over 10%; the production and sales of new energy vehicles were close to 7 million vehicles, with a growth rate of over 40%.

What's the crux of the problem? The intense competition in the luxury SUV market is the key.

The Wenjie M9 won the sales championship of luxury models priced over 500,000 yuan in China for several consecutive months, attracting the attention of many competitors. For example, Denza, Lynk & Co, Chery, and Deepal have all entered the market, while traditional luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes - Benz are accelerating their electrification transformation with brand premium and channel advantages. New - force automakers such as Li Auto and NIO are also rapidly expanding their layouts.

The industry expects that up to 17 six - seat new energy SUVs will be launched in 2025, and the luxury SUV market is about to enter a real "fierce battle". For Seres, the Wenjie series is on the front line of the battle, and the competition pressure is imaginable.

What's more delicate is that Seres' dependence on Huawei has also become a potential risk. In the past few years, the rapid rise of the Wenjie brand was due to Huawei's full support in technology, channels, and marketing.

However, as the number of members in the "HarmonyOS Smart Mobility" alliance continues to increase, Huawei has to balance its resources among partners such as Seres, Jianghuai, and BAIC. This means that Seres has changed from being "the only child" to "a member of a big family", and the dilution of Huawei's resources is inevitable. In the future, it's uncertain whether Seres can continue to reap the biggest "Huawei dividends".

Facing the pressure of declining sales, Seres' strategy is still to "bet on hit models". On August 25th, the all - electric version of the Wenjie M8 was officially launched, with a starting price of 359,800 yuan. The number of large - scale orders exceeded 7,000 within two hours, seemingly replicating the success of a hit model.

But in the long run, what really determines survival is not a short - term hit model, but systematic R & D capabilities, product matrix, and long - term user reputation.

In Urgent Need of Financing

In the second half of the highly competitive new energy vehicle market, relying on a single hit model is no longer enough for automakers to secure a "ticket to the finals". Only with systematic R & D capabilities can they gain a firm foothold in the intelligent vehicle market.

Seres clearly understands this, so in this year's semi - annual report, it spent a lot of space emphasizing its R & D advantages.

For example, Seres said that it has invested nearly 30 billion yuan in the R & D of high - end intelligent electric vehicles and built the "Magic Cube Technology Platform", which can meet the R & D needs of vehicles of different levels, categories, and power forms.

Relying on this platform, Seres launched the 2025 extended - range version and all - electric version of the Wenjie M9, as well as the extended - range version and all - electric version of the Wenjie M8 in the first half of the year, achieving breakthroughs in R & D efficiency and cost control.

In addition, Seres also revealed that it has 6,984 R & D personnel, with a year - on - year increase of 154.9% in R & D investment, and has accumulated 6,826 authorized patents.

These descriptions are undoubtedly aimed at sending a signal that "we have technological barriers". However, the cold numbers show that Seres' R & D investment still lags far behind its mainstream competitors.

In the first half of 2025, Seres' R & D expenses were 2.93 billion yuan, less than 10% of BYD's. There is also a significant gap compared with SAIC's 8.17 billion yuan, Great Wall's 4.24 billion yuan, and Changan's 3.28 billion yuan.

If we look at the cumulative investment over the past few years, the gap is even greater. From 2022 to 2024, BYD's cumulative R & D expenses exceeded 100 billion yuan, reaching 111.42 billion yuan. SAIC Group's cumulative R & D investment was 54.05 billion yuan, and Great Wall and Changan also had cumulative investments of 23.78 billion yuan and 16.8 billion yuan respectively. However, Seres' cumulative investment was less than 10 billion yuan, only 8.6 billion yuan.

This makes people wonder if Seres has been overly dependent on Huawei's technological "comfort zone" in the past few years, and its own core R & D barriers are still weak.

What's more troublesome is that the high debt - to - asset ratio is squeezing the R & D space.

From 2023 to 2024, Seres had the highest asset - liability ratio among A - share automakers, with ratios of 85.95% and 87.4% respectively. In mid - 2025, its asset - liability ratio was surpassed by BAIC BluePark, but it still remained as high as 76%, higher than BYD's 71%, SAIC's 61.5%, Great Wall's 62%, and Changan's 56.7%.

This means that Seres has long needed financing to survive.

According to statistics from the Economic Information Daily, since its listing, Seres has directly raised a total of 24.065 billion yuan. From 2020 to 2022, it was the peak period of Seres' direct financing, and the company raised a total of 13.573 billion yuan through three private placements.

In 2025, Seres started a new round of financing cycle.

On April 1st this year, the company announced its plan to list on the H - share market. Some industry insiders expect that the financing scale this time will exceed 7 billion yuan. In addition, Seres is also introducing strategic investors at the level of its subsidiary, Seres Automobile. According to the announcement disclosed by Seres on June 25th, Seres Automobile has completed the introduction of strategic investors, with a total capital increase of 5 billion yuan. Before that, the China Development Bank Manufacturing Fund invested 1.12 billion yuan in Seres Automobile in December 2024.

While the financing actions continue, the sales volume continues to decline. Although the profit is eye - catching, Seres' real test has just begun. Whether it can break through in the long - distance race of R & D and technology, reduce its dependence on Huawei, and build its own core competitiveness still needs time to tell.

Reference Materials:

Economic Information Daily, "Seres Highly Depends on Financing to 'Replenish Blood' Due to High Debt Pressure"

Yicai, "Ser