Teaming up with ByteDance to build AI-powered vehicles priced at around 200,000 yuan, Seres no longer wants to be just a contract manufacturer.

"The amorous prodigal" Huawei is taking concubines everywhere, and the number of "children" is increasing. The "first wife" Seres is also looking for a new love.

Tonight (June 9th), Saidou Technology, jointly held by the Chongqing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Seres Group, ByteDance, CATL, etc., launched a new automotive brand - AIVA in Beijing.

The official said that the four letters of AIVA are taken from "Artificial Intelligence Voyage Ahead", which means that AI will accompany you all the way forward and explore the future.

The new brand will take "AI-native vehicles" as its core selling point, emphasizing the concept of having AI first and then the vehicle. The nearly one-hour press conference only addressed one question: "What will the future of mobility be like when AI takes on the form of a vehicle?"

Li Bo, President and Product Manager of the AIVA brand

Li Bo, the president of the AIVA brand, painted a "grand vision" of an AI vehicle intelligent agent in an almost emotional language. He described the launch of the AIVA brand as "a beautiful encounter between carbon-based life and silicon-based life."

At the press conference, AIVA also unveiled its first concept car, the Origin Concept, and announced that the brand's first mass-produced model, the ME7, will be unveiled within this year. The entire vehicle lineup will cover the mainstream market above 200,000 yuan.

The first concept car of the AIVA brand

Of course, apart from the content at the press conference, what the on-site media was more concerned about was actually another topic - does the establishment of Saidou Technology mean that Seres will reevaluate its relationship with Huawei?

NO.1, ByteDance's reach is not as long as Huawei's

As soon as the news of the establishment of Saidou Technology came out, many media turned their attention to Seres' first-quarter financial report.

The financial report shows that in the first quarter of this year, Seres' revenue was 25.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34%. The comprehensive gross profit margin was as high as 26.2%, far higher than the industry average.

However, the disconnect is that in the first quarter, Seres' net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was only 103 million yuan, a year-on-year plunge of 73.87%.

The revenue and gross profit margin look good, but the net profit has plummeted, which easily makes people think of another set of data - Seres has to pay Huawei 136,000 yuan for each AITO vehicle sold.

This disconnected reality seems to confirm Seres' label as a "contract manufacturer." Therefore, in the capital market, as Huawei has more and more partners, Seres' stock price has also shrunk significantly, dropping from a peak of 300 billion yuan to 130 billion yuan.

Under the dual pressure of capital and profitability, Seres urgently needs to prove to the public that it can achieve something even without relying on Huawei. Saidou is its first step in self - proof.

In fact, most people attended the brand press conference of Saidou Technology with a "watch - the - show" mentality. Everyone wants to see how Seres, the "wronged daughter - in - law" burdened with the title of contract manufacturer for a long time, will fight back. After all, this kind of dramatic plot has always attracted a lot of attention.

The newly established Saidou Technology, although the largest shareholder behind it is the State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shapingba District, Chongqing, its predecessor was the former Seres sub - brand Landian Technology, and the new vehicle production base is the currently being renovated Seres Phoenix Factory.

In addition, the core management of Saidou Technology almost all come from Seres. Zhang Zhengyuan, the chairman, is a veteran of Seres and also the nephew of Zhang Xinghai; the president of the AIVA brand was once the president of Seres' overseas business department.

Last year, the State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shapingba District, Chongqing, acquired 34.5% of the shares of Landian Technology at a cost of 3.433 billion yuan and became the largest shareholder; Seres currently holds 32.96% of the shares and is the second - largest shareholder; other shareholders include the employee shareholding platform (16.48%), CATL (9.89%), and Bojun Technology (5.12%).

Names of Saidou Technology's shareholders, their respective capital contributions, and share proportions

The most significant meaning of this restructuring is that the profits and losses of Landian Technology will no longer be included in Seres' financial statements. It seems like an operation to shed a burden, but in fact, it is to allow Seres to move forward lightly and have more room for error.

On the product side, Saidou Technology has joined hands with ByteDance to propose the concept of AI - native vehicles. It seems that the core technology will be provided by ByteDance, and Seres still seems to be the "contract manufacturer."

But in fact, ByteDance's business scope in the automotive industry is far less extensive than Huawei's. It currently mainly focuses on the intelligent cockpit field and will not touch hardware and sales channels at least for the time being.

According to relevant reports, the AIVA brand will establish a dedicated sales channel, which will be prepared and operated by Seres. At the same time, the products will be sold in both domestic and overseas markets.

With the official launch of the AIVA brand, Seres has set up a new stage, but the future is still uncertain.

In fact, the former Landian Technology, the predecessor of Saidou Technology, was initially established by Seres to reduce its dependence on Huawei. As a result, it has become a burden to be shed.

Repeating the past is definitely meaningless. For Saidou Technology and the new AIVA brand to survive, they first need to make the logic of the "AI - native vehicle" story clear.

NO.2, Is "AI - native" a marketing concept or something real?

ByteDance and the Roewe brand under SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Co., Ltd. also told the story of "AI - native vehicles" not long ago. Some media reported that ByteDance's cooperation with Saidou is even deeper than its cooperation with Roewe.

On October 9, 2025, Seres Phoenix and Volcengine signed an embodied intelligence cooperation agreement in Beijing.

Yang Liwei, the vice - president of Volcengine, said: Traditional smart cars first have a hardware foundation, and then consider how AI can optimize the experience on this hardware foundation. The core concept of "AI - native" is to first figure out what kind of experience AI can bring at the stage of vehicle development, and then work backward to determine what kind of architecture, hardware, and design the vehicle should have to achieve such an experience.

This explanation seems to have a relatively high understanding cost and is very much like a new marketing concept that combines "software - defined vehicles" and "AI empowerment" and repackages them.

But from the perspective of product experience, after the AI large - model is applied to vehicles today, the biggest change is that the voice assistant seems to be better at chatting, more capable of thinking, the recognition and response speed to commands have become faster, and it can also understand some vague commands.

But in essence, the AI large - model is still a passive executor, and there is still a considerable distance from the intelligent agent that we imagine, which can independently perform complex tasks, actively perceive, think, and serve.

The "AI - native vehicle" aims to address this shortcoming in experience. It hopes to make AI not just a passive executor, but a super - butler that can actively think and has the authority to call all the functional modules of the whole vehicle to complete complex tasks.

At the press conference, Li Bo used many examples to illustrate this. For example, when the user asks to set the air - conditioning temperature to 22 degrees, the AI vehicle should not execute mechanically but should match the temperature that the user really needs according to the scenario.

"22 degrees when wearing a T - shirt in summer is not the same as 22 degrees when wearing a woolen sweater after taking off a down jacket in winter. 22 degrees when a child is sleeping in the car is not the same as 22 degrees when the child is playing in the car." Li Bo said.

Of course, so far, these imaginations still remain at the PPT stage. How much can be achieved when the first mass - produced AIVA vehicle is launched and when the functions can be fully implemented are still unknown.

In addition, many enterprises have mentioned and are working on similar concepts. From a technical perspective, what these functions and experiences are called is not important. The key is to be able to implement them.

But from a marketing perspective, "AI - native" tries to draw a line: in the past, it was called "smart cars," and now and in the future, it is called "AI - native vehicles." This is not only a marketing position but also a strategic determination, using the concept to force the internal R & D system to make changes.

For example, Li Bo emphasized on - site that AI - native is not only about the product but also requires an AI - native organization, and AI tools need to be deeply applied to the perception, decision - making, and execution levels of the entire organization.

Similar views were also expressed by Li Bin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, at the "Yijing Si" forum not long ago.

NO.3, In conclusion

As soon as the news of the establishment of Saidou Automobile came out, rumors about ByteDance's entry into the automotive industry spread like wildfire.

Subsequently, the official personally refuted the rumors, stating that ByteDance has no plan to build cars or launch an automotive brand. Its main task is to help automotive industry partners improve the intelligent cockpit interaction experience.

This is a very familiar statement. Huawei also issued many similar statements back then.

This kind of statement is in line with the logic of industrial changes. From January to April this year, the profit margin of the entire industry was only 3.4%. Most automakers are making little profit at a loss. On the contrary, super - suppliers like CATL and Huawei behind the automotive industry are making a fortune.

So, ByteDance probably has the same ambition as Huawei to dominate the industry. For it, the most ideal situation is that every vehicle in the future will be equipped with the Doubao large - model. Therefore, it is obviously unwise to give up a forest for a single tree.

As for Seres, they helped Huawei open up the situation in the automotive industry but got the label of "contract manufacturer."

If this cooperation with ByteDance can achieve good results, the situation will probably be different.

This article is from the WeChat official account "AutoReport Automotive Industry News", author: Gan Meng, republished by 36Kr with authorization.