Seres Auto takes the wheel at Aito as Huawei retreats to a

Seres Auto takes the wheel at Aito as Huawei retreats to a supplier role

The restructured partnership lands amid a reported 60% profit slide at Seres — and claims that Huawei was pocketing roughly $7,500 from every Aito sold.

Source: CarNewsChina2026-09-161 min read

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Huawei and Seres Auto have rewritten the terms of their Aito partnership. Under the new arrangement, Seres takes charge of product definition, design, production, marketing, sales channels, and after-sales, while Huawei steps back into a supporting technology role. Aito will also open brand-exclusive retail stores, breaking away from the shared outlets used across the group.

The change applies only to Aito. Within the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, the other marques — Luxeed, Stelato, Maextro, and the Shangjie project with SAIC — keep Huawei firmly in charge, with partners Chery, BAIC, JAC, and SAIC handling largely manufacturing duties. HIMA insists Aito remains a "member of the HIMA family" and that owner rights and servicing are untouched.

The shake-up follows a rough stretch for Seres, which has forecast a profit decline of around 60% for the first half of 2026, to between 740 and 970 million yuan. According to Chinese outlet Che Shi Du Ping, the old deal saw Huawei supply over 30% of Aito's components while taking a 50,000 yuan cut per vehicle — up to 22% of the transaction price on a lineup stretching from the 229,800-yuan M6 to a 659,800-yuan top-trim M9.

Seres has meanwhile launched its own brand, Aiva, to reduce its reliance on Huawei, and denied rumors of a ByteDance-linked "TikTok car." Whether it can preserve the HIMA experience on its own terms remains to be seen.

This is an original summary compiled and translated from the source below, not a direct translation of it.

Source: CarNewsChina →