On April 17th, photos emerged of a group of senior Huawei executives visiting GAC, sparking attention and speculation among netizens.
According to reports, the delegation from GAC was led by Feng Xingya, the General Manager of GAC Group, with Huang Yongqiang, General Manager of GAC Passenger Cars, and other key technical personnel present. Leading the Huawei team were Chen Linchun and Chief Expert Hu Runze.
Netizens speculate that the landing party for this cooperation project by GAC should be GAC Trumpchi, as it's highly likely that GAC and Huawei are on the brink of a significant collaboration, possibly to be announced during the Beijing Auto Show.
It's worth noting that the two parties had early contact and planned to develop collaborative products.
In July 2021, GAC announced its agreement for its wholly-owned subsidiary, GAC Aian New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., to implement the Huawei (AH8 model) project.
According to the cooperation agreement, both parties will jointly define, develop, and create a series of intelligent vehicles for the future, based on the new generation intelligent automobile digital platform built on the GAC GEP3.0 chassis platform and Huawei's CCA (computing and communication architecture), equipped with Huawei's full-stack intelligent automobile solution, with the first model being a mid-to-large-sized pure electric SUV.
However, the cooperation between the two parties did not go smoothly. On August 13, 2022, Xiao Yong, Vice General Manager of GAC Aian, complained at a forum that "Huawei is a top supplier, its prices are relatively high, and it's not under control. When we want to cooperate with Huawei, we find that we basically have no bargaining power."
This statement also sparked speculation from the outside world. Subsequently, sources close to Huawei revealed that the deep cooperation project between Huawei and GAC Aian had been terminated, and now the two parties have a relationship of component supply and procurement, with the head of Aian also issuing a denial.
On March 27 last year, GAC Group announced that its holding subsidiary, GAC Aian's AH8 project, had changed from joint development with Huawei to independent development. After this change, Huawei will continue to participate in the development and cooperation of the company's independent brand models as an important supplier.
This indicates the end of the close cooperation between the two parties, and the planned projects have also been terminated.
If the Huawei senior executives visit GAC again and reach relevant agreements, the two parties will once again resume cooperation, which is worth looking forward to.
