Harmony Intelligent Mobility is fully introducing a second battery supplier, and Gotion High-Tech will supply batteries for AITO models | 36Kr Exclusive
Since the beginning of this year, market competition has further intensified, and the costs of supply chains such as memory have skyrocketed. Seeking to reduce supply - chain costs and make product pricing more competitive has become a more urgent issue for the automotive industry.
Against this backdrop, 36Kr learned from multiple industry insiders that Hongmeng Zhixing, which has a stable position in the mid - to high - end market, has also started to comprehensively introduce multiple power battery suppliers.
“Except for the Zunjie series, which cannot support a second supplier in the short term due to its scale, other series may introduce diversified battery suppliers,” a person with knowledge of the matter revealed.
According to 36Kr, the Wenjie brand, which has long been exclusively supplied by CATL, will introduce two second - tier battery suppliers, CALB and Guoxuan High - tech. The Wenjie M6 has already been designated to use Guoxuan High - tech's 81 - kWh battery pack. A person with knowledge of the matter revealed that Guoxuan High - tech received a designation letter from Hongmeng Zhixing last year, and CALB will also enter the supply system of Wenjie.
In August 2022, SERES signed a five - year long - term strategic cooperation agreement with CATL. The two parties announced that all Wenjie models would be fully equipped with CATL's power batteries. In June last year, CATL's production line in the Wenjie Super Factory was put into operation. This was CATL's first implementation of the “factory - within - a - factory” model and its first battery production line in Chongqing. It is evident that the cooperation between CATL and Wenjie is very close.
36Kr also learned that the power batteries of the Zhijie brand, originally supplied by CATL and CALB, will soon introduce Guoxuan High - tech and Sunwoda.
According to industry insiders close to Sunwoda and Guoxuan High - tech, the Zhijie V9 and Zhijie R7 may be equipped with Sunwoda's 53 - kWh lithium iron phosphate battery packs. Initially, the Zhijie RX and Zhijie R7 are planned to be equipped with Guoxuan High - tech's 81 - kWh lithium iron phosphate battery packs.
Moreover, Guoxuan High - tech's 81 - kWh lithium iron phosphate battery packs may also be installed in models of the Shangjie brand. Previously, the battery suppliers for the Shangjie brand were only CATL and CALB. A person from Guoxuan High - tech said, “Hongmeng Zhixing is conducting pre - mass - production audits of Guoxuan High - tech's factory,” and “Huawei has also sent personnel to Guoxuan High - tech's battery cell production line.”
At the recent Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area Auto Show, both CALB and Guoxuan High - tech displayed the label of “Whale Battery” on their exhibition stands. Huawei has been promoting the concept of “Whale Battery” to the outside world. It is understood that the Whale Battery is Huawei's standard system and is Huawei's battery brand externally. Battery manufacturers can only enter Hongmeng Zhixing's supply chain after passing the audit standards of the Whale Battery.
However, an industry insider close to Hongmeng Zhixing emphasized: “Before being announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are still variables in the above plans. CATL is also actively striving for a higher procurement volume.”
A businessperson in the battery industry told 36Kr that the quotes of Guoxuan High - tech and Sunwoda for Hongmeng Zhixing for lithium iron phosphate battery packs with the same power are “about 10% lower than that of CATL.”
This year, the rising prices of memory and lithium carbonate have brought huge cost pressure to the automotive industry.
For the Hongmeng Zhixing brand, to achieve the goal of delivering one million vehicles in 2026, it needs to reduce supply - chain costs to give the whole vehicle more pricing space. Especially in the mid - to low - end market with a larger market capacity, models such as the Wenjie M6 and Shangjie Z7 need to capture more market share.
36Kr learned that one of the reasons for the Wenjie M6 to designate second - tier battery manufacturers is that the enterprise “is not satisfied with the current order volume of the Wenjie M6” and hopes to make the product more cost - effective by reducing costs and adjusting the selling price.
Supply - chain cost pressure looms over the automotive industry
For a long time, Huawei has been working hard to strengthen the outside world's awareness of the “Whale Battery.” It is Huawei's battery development standard and is Huawei's battery brand externally.
An industry insider told 36Kr that the standards of the Whale Battery are higher than the industry's general standards. “For example, in the high - temperature thermal runaway experiment, Huawei requires that when the battery pack, the whole vehicle, and the surrounding environment are all very hot and the battery is about 100% charged, the battery pack will not explode after thermal runaway. There are few standards more stringent than this.” Only after battery factories pass this set of standards can they enter Hongmeng Zhixing's supply chain.
At the China Auto Chongqing Forum last week, Zhang Xinghai, the chairman of SERES, publicly stated that the cost of each Wenjie vehicle has increased by 15,000 - 20,000 yuan on average, and the pressure is great.
This statement reflects the current industry situation where the supply - chain costs have increased significantly this year, and automobile manufacturers are generally under severe cost pressure.
Even high - end brands with a certain premium space feel stretched when facing storage chips that have “risen to nearly 100 yuan per unit” and lithium carbonate prices that have “increased from 80,000 yuan per ton last year to 180,000 yuan per ton this year.” Li Bin, the founder of NIO, said in an interview with the media in May this year: “Even high - end brands with premiums are seeing their profit margins continuously compressed, and the operating pressure is great.”
To some extent, this has prompted Hongmeng Zhixing to comprehensively introduce second - tier power battery suppliers.
Whenever automobile manufacturers seek to reduce costs, the first component they target is often the power battery, which accounts for about 30% of the whole - vehicle cost. However, in the face of relatively powerful industry leaders, automobile manufacturers often have difficulty in negotiating for better prices. Therefore, introducing second - tier suppliers such as CALB and Guoxuan High - tech is a more direct way to reduce power - battery costs.
36Kr learned that the quotes of Guoxuan High - tech and Sunwoda for lithium iron phosphate battery packs are “about 10% lower than that of CATL.” An industry insider analyzed to 36Kr that taking an 81 - kWh lithium iron phosphate battery as an example, a 10% price difference may correspond to a cost difference of nearly 2,000 yuan. In today's situation where supply - chain costs are squeezed to the limit, this is a considerable cost - reduction amplitude.
In addition, second - tier power battery manufacturers such as Sunwoda and Guoxuan High - tech are often more cooperative with vehicle manufacturers.
People from Guoxuan High - tech and Sunwoda told 36Kr that automobile manufacturers actually need to pay a certain price when introducing second - tier battery suppliers. “For example, they need to make many prototype vehicles, arrange personnel for calibration and matching, and handle the announcements for the whole vehicle and the battery. However, Guoxuan High - tech and Sunwoda are willing to bear the costs of battery announcements and other expenses in order to enter Hongmeng Zhixing's supply chain.”
Of course, CATL will not easily give up Hongmeng Zhixing as a leading customer. A source revealed that in order to compete with second - tier battery factories for Hongmeng Zhixing's orders, CATL will also evaluate its pricing strategy.
Hongmeng Zhixing accelerates its penetration into the mid - to low - end market
Perhaps considerations regarding sales volume also contributed to Hongmeng Zhixing's decision to introduce second - tier battery suppliers on a large scale.
At the end of 2025, Yu Chengdong, an executive director of Huawei, said in a live - broadcast on CCTV that Hongmeng Zhixing will launch more than 10 new models in 2026, with an annual delivery target of 1 - 1.3 million vehicles. The five brands will cover the price range from 150,000 to 1.5 million yuan, and new products will drive sales growth.
Currently, new models such as the Shangjie Z7, Zhijie V9, and Wenjie M6 have been successively launched, but the increase in the number of models on sale has not yet translated into a significant increase in Hongmeng Zhixing's sales. In May this year, Hongmeng Zhixing's sales increased by nearly 3.8% year - on - year, and the sales growth rate was lower than that of new - force brands such as Leapmotor and XPeng.
According to official information from Hongmeng Zhixing, from January to May this year, the cumulative delivery volume of Hongmeng Zhixing did not exceed 200,000 vehicles, of which more than 130,000 vehicles were contributed by the Wenjie brand. Compared with the goal of delivering one million vehicles a year, Hongmeng Zhixing faces a large task gap and has not yet got rid of its excessive dependence on the single Wenjie brand.
The high - end market is still Hongmeng Zhixing's comfort zone, but the market capacity of the price range where models such as the Wenjie M9 and Zunjie S800 are located is ultimately limited. Moreover, the new Wenjie M9 is being besieged by a group of competing models such as the Zeekr 9X, Li L9, and NIO ES9.
As strong competitors emerge in the high - end market, in the mid - to low - end market with a larger market capacity, brands such as XPeng and Xiaomi are also launching price - cuts and adding features to impact models such as the Shangjie Z7, Wenjie M6, and Zhijie R7.
In January this year, the XPeng P7+ was launched, with the starting price reduced by more than 30,000 yuan to 186,800 yuan. The Xiaomi YU7 added a standard - version model, with the starting price lowered to 233,500 yuan, still equipped with a full set of lidar and high - level assisted driving.
Cost - effectiveness is one of the most important selling points for mid - to low - end consumer groups. However, due to the high costs of Huawei's intelligent solutions and CATL's power batteries, previously launched mid - to low - end models such as the Shangjie H5, Zhijie S7, and Zhijie R7 of Hongmeng Zhixing have not achieved ideal market performance.
Now, Hongmeng Zhixing, which is under sales pressure, is trying to accelerate its penetration into the mid - to low - end market by reducing supply - chain costs.
An industry insider close to Wenjie told 36Kr that each of the five series of Hongmeng Zhixing has its own cost - reduction methods. Wenjie has actually been learning cost - reduction from the other series for a long time and has long wanted to introduce second - tier battery suppliers. Huawei and SERES have negotiated on this issue many times. As the enterprise gradually realizes that the cost of the Huawei + CATL solution is too high, Guoxuan High - tech's 81 - kWh battery pack will be installed in the Wenjie M6 this year.
At the Hongmeng Zhixing Spring New Product Launch in April this year, the starting price of the Wenjie M6 was 259,800 yuan. After introducing second - tier battery suppliers, the Wenjie M6 added two new models, the Max Pure - Electric Rear - Wheel Drive 81 - kWh and the Max+ Pure - Electric Rear - Wheel Drive 81 - kWh, with prices of 229,800 yuan and 249,800 yuan respectively.
This means that the starting price of the Wenjie M6 is several thousand yuan lower than that of the Xiaomi YU7 and about 20,000 yuan lower than that of the Li i6. In today's highly competitive auto market, discounts of several thousand yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan may become a powerful boost for product sales.
Zhijie is also trying a more cost - effective power - battery solution. A person close to Hongmeng Zhixing said that Zhijie is evaluating the installation of CATL's ternary and lithium iron phosphate hybrid - system batteries.
According to preliminary estimates, for a 100 - kWh battery, the cost of the hybrid - system battery pack is several thousand yuan lower than that of the ternary battery pack. “A 5,000 - yuan reduction in BOM cost means that the terminal selling price of the whole vehicle can be lowered by more than 10,000 yuan.”
For a long time, Hongmeng Zhixing's strategy has been to quickly occupy the high - end market through technological empowerment and brand premium. However, as the camp of cooperative brands expands and the market coverage widens, it also needs to strictly control supply - chain costs to maintain market competitiveness. This may be the beginning of its expansion of market share.
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