AITO is accelerating its overseas expansion once again, planning to fully enter the European market in 2027, and what it values is far more than just orders?

The overseas expansion of AITO is set to speed up.

On November 2, Seres publicly released the Investor Relations Record. In the record, Seres stated that AITO is firmly positioned as a global high-end brand, and all AITO vehicle models are advancing the EU WVTA E1 whole-vehicle type certification. The company will also strictly follow high standards throughout the whole process to ensure that products go overseas in a compliant and reliable manner.

(Image source: Seres)

At the Paris Motor Show held in mid-October, Seres officially announced that the AITO brand will officially enter the European market in the fall of 2027, and exhibited four models: AITO M6, M7, M8, and M9.

So why did AITO choose to go overseas at this time? What significance does entering the European market hold for AITO? The following is the analysis from EV Insight.

Targeting the high-end market, AITO brings premium intelligence to Europe

As early as 2024, the AITO brand made its debut at the Paris Motor Show. But at that time, the main purpose of AITO's participation in the exhibition was to centrally display its brand image, and promote the "AITO Mountains & Rivers · Intelligent Driving Europe Tour" event that lasted 38 days, crossed 12 countries, and traveled 15,000 kilometers.

After that, the AITO brand carried out preliminary attempts or practices for overseas expansion targeting different overseas markets.

For example, in August 2025, the AITO brand held the "AITO Mountains & Seas · Intelligent Travel ASEAN Launch Conference" at the Seres Super Factory in Chongqing, announcing that the brand will set off from Chongqing and head south through Southeast Asia, taking this opportunity to gain insight into the needs of overseas users.

At the Munich IAA Mobility Show held in September 2025, AITO released three Middle East versions of models: AITO 5, AITO 7 and AITO 9, and officially announced that these three models have passed the UAE market certification and are about to be launched locally.

In February this year, Seres signed a strategic cooperation agreement with ADM, a leading dealer group in the UAE, under which the dealers under the group are exclusively responsible for sales, delivery and after-sales services in the UAE. In the same month, Seres officially announced that the AITO brand had received the first batch of 200 vehicle orders in the UAE.

However, in the view of EV Insight, the previous preliminary exploration and practice of AITO for the ASEAN and Middle East markets are completely different in importance from this appearance at the Paris Motor Show and the official announcement of entering the European market.

(Image source: Seres)

First of all, Europe, as the birthplace of the automotive industry, has relatively strict access certification standards. For example, the crash test rating and detailed results given by Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) are widely recognized by the industry and serve as one of the important references for measuring vehicle safety.

That means if a vehicle model can pass the European access certification and be launched and delivered locally, it will be much easier for it to develop markets in other regions in the future.

To successfully enter the European market, the AITO brand has made considerable adjustments to its existing models.

According to 36Kr reports, the models sold by AITO in overseas markets will adopt Bosch's full set of intelligent solutions, covering high-level assisted driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent chassis and other aspects; this news has not been officially confirmed, and Bosch is also scheduled to mass-produce the high-speed NOA assisted driving function in September next year.

So the question arises: Why did the AITO brand choose to go overseas at this stage? Why did the AITO brand, co-created by Huawei and Seres, choose to adopt Bosch's solution on its overseas models?

Entering a new stage of exclusive franchising, AITO moves towards a broader blue ocean

In the just past October, the cooperation between AITO and Huawei entered a brand new development stage. The two sides reached a new five-year cooperation agreement on October 1, the core of which is that AITO and Huawei will continue to cooperate closely, and the AITO brand channels will adopt an exclusive franchising scheme.

Less than two weeks later, on October 12, AITO exhibited four models including M6, M7, M8 and M9 at the Paris Motor Show, and officially announced its overseas expansion plan.

Although neither Seres nor Harmony Intelligent Mobility has mentioned the operation mode of the overseas market, judging from the current results, AITO's overseas expansion is still the responsibility of Seres itself. In addition, the fact that AITO's overseas models can change the supplier of intelligent solutions from Huawei to Bosch also reflects Seres' autonomy in this regard.

In the view of EV Insight, the "de-Huaweiization" of the AITO brand in the overseas market has the following significances:

First of all, Huawei is still subject to sanctions in many overseas countries. If a certain Huawei-supplied technology equipped on AITO vehicles happens to fall within the scope of sanctions, it may affect the compliance of overseas expansion and slow down the overseas progress. Moreover, if the local government issues corresponding bans to impose restrictions after the vehicles are launched, it will have a certain negative impact on AITO's overseas expansion process and the interests of local consumers in the European market.

Secondly, European users' demand for in-vehicle human-computer interaction is also somewhat different from that of Chinese consumers. For example, Polestar, a brand under Volvo, has two versions of the infotainment operating system for its global model Polestar 4: a Chinese version and a global version. If the domestic cockpit is directly used in the models sold to the European market, it may not necessarily conform to the car purchasing habits of local users.

In addition, Bosch is a long-established supplier in the automotive industry headquartered in Europe. Seres choosing it as its intelligent partner for the European market can better meet the car purchasing needs of local consumers and promote the early launch of products.

So why did AITO choose to go overseas at this time?

On the one hand, the competition in the domestic luxury SUV segment is extremely fierce. Many automakers have launched six-seat and seven-seat SUVs, and even more and more models are equipped with Huawei's assisted driving and HarmonyOS cockpit. These models keep cutting prices to pursue higher sales, which to a certain extent squeezes the living space of AITO's own models.

Seres has stated on many occasions that it insists on not participating in price wars and internal cutthroat competition. For this reason, it is necessary to explore a broader blue ocean market overseas.

On the other hand, the conflicts between China and the EU in the field of electric vehicle exports are being resolved. Choosing to go overseas at this stage can seize the window of opportunity and avoid policy changes in the later period that will affect the brand's launch in the European market.

(Image source: Seres)

In addition to AITO, Luxeed, which is also under Harmony Intelligent Mobility, also officially announced its overseas expansion plan in October. According to the information disclosed by Luxeed, its first overseas stop targets the UAE market. The first batch of overseas models are the LLounge built based on the Luxeed V9 and the Stormax built based on the Luxeed RX. These two models will also not be equipped with Huawei's software and hardware, but adopt the self-developed Falcon Intelligent Driving and Lingxi Intelligent Cockpit.

In conclusion, for AITO, going overseas to Europe in 2027 is a great opportunity with favorable timing, geographical conditions and human support. It is expected that after AITO vehicles land in the European market, they can drive further growth in total sales, and finally achieve the goal of overseas sales accounting for one third of total sales.

Accelerating the overseas journey, AITO values far more than just sales

For AITO, the core significance of going overseas is to drive the growth of sales and revenue and promote healthier development.

Brands including BYD, Geely and Chery have recently increased their focus on overseas markets, achieving further growth in overseas sales, which largely mitigates the risk of sales decline caused by reduced automotive demand in the domestic market. At the same time, the relatively high vehicle prices in the European market can also improve the overall gross profit margin of vehicles.

In addition, due to the stricter product certification in the European market, if AITO's overseas version models can pass the access certification and gain consumer recognition in terms of quality, it will largely prove the reliability of its products, thus strongly countering the long-standing negative public opinion on the quality of AITO models on domestic social media and enhancing consumer confidence.

Overall, AITO's this overseas expansion to Europe can not only broaden the sales channels in overseas markets, but also better prove its own strength.

There is less than a year to go before the fall of 2027. It is expected that AITO can make steady progress during this period and achieve fruitful results in the European market.

This article is from "EV Insight", authorized for release by 36Kr.