Harmony Intelligent Mobility is now at a crossroads.

Yu Chengdong's "HarmonyOS Smart Mobility" originally only aimed to create a car brand - AITO. It planned to find three automakers for contract manufacturing.

Huawei takes the lead in product development, marketing, and user services. Nominally, it doesn't manufacture cars, but it's just one step away from doing so. If one day the ban on "not manufacturing cars" is lifted, it will acquire the brand and factories. Around 2021, Yu Chengdong was closest to what he wanted.

Subsequently, things probably didn't turn out exactly as he expected. The number of collaborating automakers increased from three to five, each developing their own brands and ambitions. The Vehicle BU was spun off to form Yinwang. Members of the team he built, including Zhou Ping, the President of the Vehicle BU Solution Department, and Li Bo, the President of the AITO Product Line, left one after another to join a company affiliated with Seres. Meanwhile, Seres is working on a new brand called AIVA, which has nothing to do with Huawei.

Meanwhile, the product line of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility continues to expand. In the second half of this year, four MPVs will be launched simultaneously: one from Luxeed, two from Maestro, and one from Stellato. Three brands, the same vehicle category, and the same release cycle.

This is a crossroads for HarmonyOS Smart Mobility. It's also a crossroads for Yu Chengdong.

Crossover

The five brands originally had clear positioning.

AITO targets Li Auto and focuses on mid - to high - end SUVs. Luxeed competes with Tesla. Stellato aims to be like Mercedes. Maestro aims to rival "Maybach, Bentley, and Rolls - Royce". Shangjie, the latest addition, entered a market where the segment above 200,000 RMB was already saturated, so it's positioned as an economy car under 200,000 RMB, competing with Volkswagen and Toyota. Each of the five brands has its own target audience and doesn't interfere with the others.

However, as time passed, the boundaries began to blur.

Originally, only Maestro planned MPV models - the short - wheelbase version competes with the Toyota Alphard, and the long - wheelbase version competes with the Lexus LM. Then, Stellato acquired the same platform as Maestro and planned MPV, sedan, and SUV models on this platform. The MPV and sedan models of Stellato are one level lower than Maestro's, and its SUV model conflicts with the positioning of AITO M8, so it was changed to a boxy off - road vehicle.

Luxeed, which competes with Tesla, also wants to produce MPVs. Instead of purchasing Huawei's platform, it modified a platform from Chery Xingtu and was the first to launch an MPV under the name of "the first MPV of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility" before Maestro.

Shangjie, originally positioned for the mass market, started to move upmarket. The subsequent planned SUV models have a similar positioning to AITO M8 and M7, directly encroaching on AITO's market share.

AITO is the most aggrieved in this expansion. It's the cornerstone of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility, accounting for 70% of the sales volume in 2025, but it faces the most restrictions. It originally planned to develop models down to M3 and enter the market under 200,000 RMB, but to make room for other brands, it can only develop up to M5 and only produce SUV models. Realizing its situation, Seres launched AIVA, a new brand in deep cooperation with Volcengine.

No one ordered a battle, but each brand is expanding and encroaching on others' territory.

This is just the internal conflict within HarmonyOS Smart Mobility. Externally, there's also the "Jing" series jointly launched by Yinwang and automakers.

In 2024, Huawei spun off the Vehicle BU and established Yinwang, taking away the R & D team. It also split off the "Solution Department" established by Yu Chengdong in the Vehicle BU. This department is responsible for the implementation of cooperation projects with automakers, and its president, Zhou Ping, is from the Consumer BG. According to "Yunjian Insight", after the spin - off of Yinwang, Zhou Ping applied several times to return but was unsuccessful. Eventually, he left Huawei and joined "Phoenix Technology", a subsidiary of Seres, to develop an intelligent system for Seres.

The Vehicle BU originally only had an R & D team and no product team. The product was under Yu Chengdong's Consumer BG, led by Wang Yanmin. After the split, Yinwang established its own product team and transferred many people from the "Solution Department" to support the "new business".

The new business is the "Jing" series - Qijing from GAC and Yijing from Dongfeng. Yinwang calls it the HI Plus model, which is actually very similar to Yu Chengdong's HarmonyOS Smart Mobility. Some within the company call it the "Small Smart Selection".

The first shooting brake GT7 of Qijing was launched in June this year, and the first family car of Yijing was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show. These two models don't enter Yu Chengdong's terminal stores but are sold through independent channels. However, this doesn't prevent them from directly competing with HarmonyOS Smart Mobility's products: Yijing's six - seat SUV competes with AITO M8, and Qijing GT7 competes with Shangjie Z7T in the same price range, using the same technology base and targeting the same group of consumers.

From the HI model and Smart Selection to the current "Jing" and "Jie" series, the tug - of - war between the two forces within Huawei has always existed. They've never truly determined a winner, only constantly changing forms.

Starting Point

Back in 2020, Ren Zhengfei signed a document for the first time, stating that Huawei wouldn't manufacture cars, with a validity period of three years. At the same time, he assigned the Vehicle BU to Yu Chengdong and merged it with the original Consumer BG to form the Terminal BG.

Yu Chengdong obtained a 5,000 - person automotive R & D team and three years. He couldn't manufacture cars, but he could prove that this direction was correct.

Before him, the leader of the Vehicle BU was Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating president. He advocated that Huawei act as a supplier, providing core components related to intelligent vehicles for automakers. Among them, the cooperation model where automakers adopt Huawei's full - stack technology and five major solutions is called HI (Huawei Inside). The BAIC ARCFOX Alpha HI version and Changan Avatr are products of this model.

The HI model didn't succeed. One reason was the lack of competitiveness of the products themselves, and another reason was hidden: automakers were afraid of becoming Huawei's contract manufacturers. Chen Hong, the chairman of SAIC, hit the nail on the head: "We must keep the core in our own hands."

Yu Chengdong's breakthrough was finding someone willing to hand over the core. Seres, a Chongqing automaker that had been transforming into the new - energy vehicle field for years without a clear direction, chose to "give in": it let its R & D team of thousands of people be at Huawei's disposal, built new factories, and bet its future on cooperation with Huawei.

Later, more partners joined this story: Chery, BAIC, Jianghuai, and SAIC. According to people close to Huawei, the Smart Selection Vehicles have five internal product departments. Among them, Product Departments One, Two, and Three are responsible for AITO, Luxeed, and Stellato respectively. The Product Innovation Department provides technological support for all models and currently mainly serves Maestro. The project of jointly developing new - energy vehicles for the Maserati brand by Huawei, Jianghuai, and Stellantis, as previously reported by "Yunjian Insight" here, is also under the Product Innovation Department. Shangjie is managed by an independent Shangjie Division.

All five automakers have reached cooperation agreements with Huawei, but their levels of cooperation vary. According to people close to Huawei, some invest in R & D, build factories, and follow Huawei's instructions; some are cooperative in attitude but have a rigid system, making project promotion difficult; some claim to cooperate but back off when it comes to investing resources; some cooperate with Huawei while looking down on it.

Each of the five automakers has its own plans, but they all see the same thing that Huawei can offer: a chance to turn things around.

Success

Seres, the first to see this clearly, was the first to reap the rewards.

The first three models developed in cooperation with Huawei, SF5, M5, and M7, didn't perform well in terms of sales and reputation. Their greatest value was helping Huawei figure out the car - manufacturing process.

Then, a turning point came. In August 2023, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, equipped with a self - developed Kirin chip, was quietly launched without a press conference or pre - promotion. It suddenly appeared on the shelves. This was seen as a signal of Huawei's breakthrough in technological blockade, igniting long - pent - up social emotions.

This emotion spread from mobile phones to cars. The new AITO M7, launched in September of the same year, caught the first wave of benefits, receiving 100,000 orders in less than three months. Three months later, the AITO M9 was launched, further detonating the market.

Even the team developing the M9 didn't expect this. People close to the project revealed that the M9 was originally targeted at the Li L9. Yu Chengdong required it to be more luxurious, more intelligent, and more expensive.

He originally wanted to set the price at 500,000 RMB, but the team unanimously opposed it. Eventually, the starting price was set at 468,000 RMB, 10,000 RMB more expensive than the Li L9, with a 20,000 - RMB promotion margin planned to be "given away as benefits during the off - peak sales period", according to the above - mentioned person.

Unexpectedly, the actual average price of the M9 soared to 500,000 RMB after its launch, and its monthly sales volume remained above 10,000 units for nearly two years.

The M9 single - handedly supported the Smart Selection Vehicles team, the Vehicle BU, and Seres.

Huawei mainly earns two types of income from the cooperation: one is the income from components, which belongs to the Vehicle BU - according to Seres' annual report, in 2025, the procurement cost from its largest supplier reached 56.05 billion RMB, accounting for 33.8% of the total procurement amount; the other is the product management, marketing, and sales fees, which account for about a dozen percentage points of the vehicle's total revenue and belong to the Smart Selection Vehicles team.

The popularity of the AITO series enabled Seres to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2024, transforming from a "Huawei concept stock" into a blue - chip stock with considerable profits. In the middle of the year, Yu Chengdong also announced internally that the Vehicle BU had achieved semi - annual profitability.

Three years ago, few people really believed that Yu Chengdong could make the Vehicle BU get out of the red. Ren Zhengfei imposed a ban on car - manufacturing on him, but he managed to achieve what no one was optimistic about within the constraints of the ban.

Despised Competitor

After the M9, Yu Chengdong overruled the majority and launched a major project: the Maestro S800, aiming to create a Chinese equivalent of "Maybach, Bentley, and Rolls - Royce".

Once again, the whole team opposed it. "Only he insisted," recalled a person close to Maestro. Yu Chengdong's reason was that the Chinese market lacked its own Maybach, and if anyone could enter this market, it was Huawei.

He won the bet again. The Maestro S800 exceeded the annual sales volume of the Mercedes S in just half a year. "We later comforted ourselves, saying that the old guy knows what he's doing," said the above - mentioned person.

The Maestro S800 and AITO M9 target the same group of users: wealthy people who have requirements for quality and face, and also have a bit of hidden national pride. They highly overlap with Huawei's high - end mobile phone users. Yu Chengdong noticed this and created products that made them willing to pay.

However, there are also things he doesn't understand.

There, a competitor he despises quietly touched the nerve he cares about the most.

The Xiaomi SU7 was launched, setting one traffic record after another. Even more worryingly, the sales of Xiaomi's mobile phones also increased along with the car. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra once threatened the sales of the Huawei Mate 70 series. Lei Jun turned himself into a product, the product into traffic, and the traffic into sales. Judging from the data, the gross profit margin of Xiaomi's automotive business is not low (the gross profit margin of its intelligent electric vehicles and AI and other innovative businesses in 2025 was 24.3%), but the fan economy makes users feel that they're getting a bargain and that they're supporting an industrious person.

It's no secret that Yu Chengdong looks down on Lei Jun. He believes that Xiaomi cars lack core technology, copy the design from Porsche, and focus on the traffic business. In contrast, Huawei's accumulation in intelligent driving, cockpits, and chips is far beyond Xiaomi's reach.

However, he can't ignore the results. If Xiaomi continues to erode Huawei's user base, it poses a greater threat than any other competitor - mobile phones are Huawei's profit pillar.

So, he asked the five brands to develop models to compete with Xiaomi. Xiaomi has only two models, while the five brands have more than a dozen. With more cards in hand, it's enough to compete. The Shangjie Z7 and Luxeed S7 sandwich the Xiaomi SU7 from above and below, the Luxeed RX and R7 target the YU7, and the Stellato S9 and a sedan to be launched next year will compete with the SU7 L.

Attacking when seeing an enemy is Yu Chengdong's instinct. However, the five brands originally had five separate tracks, and this move further overlapped the tracks.

He disrupted the order he had established to some extent.

The Wall

As the five brands deviate from their original directions, Huawei's top management's attitude towards the automotive business is gradually tightening.

In March 2023, before the expiration of the "not manufacturing cars" document, Ren Zhengfei signed the document again, reaffirming this principle and extending the validity period to five years. Xu Zhijun explained to the media: "As the three - year period was coming to an end, we issued a new five - year document."

After that, the AITO stores removed the promotional materials with the Huawei logo overnight. Yu Chengdong posted on the internal network: "The times have changed. This will only make our situation more difficult!"

The story continued. In November 2023, Huawei decided to spin off the Vehicle BU and establish Yinwang. Yu Chengdong's HarmonyOS Smart Mobility was left with only products and no R & D. Later, Huawei sold all the trademarks of the five brands to the corresponding automakers.

The trademarks of the five brands were registered by Huawei. According to regulations, the brand names can only belong to automakers, so they were deliberately made complex - Luxeed, Stellato, Maestro. Some are combinations of Latin letters, and some are variants of Italian letters, making them almost impossible for consumers to remember. This was exactly Huawei's intention: to make users only remember the Chinese trademarks and lock the brand awareness in Huawei's hands.

However, under the iron rule of not manufacturing cars, these trademarks may no longer be useful.

Some people speculate that the five brands may not all exist in the future. The product line is too crowded, and some projects are bound to incur losses. After incurring losses, some may withdraw. Conflicting models will undergo a survival - of - the - fittest process and be cleared within the HarmonyOS Smart Mobility system.

Huawei will safeguard its core business and maintain a delicate balance with automakers to ensure that both parties can make money.

While all this is happening, ordinary people in the Smart Selection Vehicles team are experiencing their own confusion.

Some say they don't know who they're making cars for. They're Huawei employees, but Huawei doesn't manufacture cars. They're working on the five brands, but the trademarks of these brands have been sold to automakers. Many of the people they used to work with in the automakers have been promoted, while they've received low scores due to internal organizational frictions that have hindered project progress.

Internal organizational strife affects individuals, and an ordinary person's career gradually wears away in the gap between two departments.

Yu Chengdong may also be confused. He established an automotive ecosystem essentially led by Huawei, turning several automakers into Huawei's execution ends. Under the iron rule of not manufacturing cars, he has reached the limit of what he can do within this system. However, this system has never truly belonged to him. He fought a battle that