Huawei hopes to become key smart car solution provider despite US ban

Huawei is constantly expanding its smart car solution business despite the US ban. After developing advanced EV techs, the company now aims to become a key supplier in the Chinese smart car industry. And some analysts believe this could be possible.

The Chinese tech giant never had plans to build smart cars. It has clarified this statement many times at interviews and launch events. However, the OEM focuses on becoming the top-class solution provider for its automobile-making partners.

In a recent interview, the Rotating Chairman of Huawei – Eric Xu said the company’s automotive solution business holds 10 to 20% of the Chinese market.

Xu added that Huawei’s automotive business ambitions were to become the Chinese version of Bosch. For reference, Bosch is a German multinational engineering company. It supplies hardware and software for various car parts and systems.

Bosch also provides car services and has a multi-brand car service network in 150 countries. It looks after car maintenance, inspections, repairs, and part replacements. It even earned a revenue of $50 billion last year with its car service business.

Just like Bosch, Huawei aims to turn into a major smart car solution supplier in China amid US ban. Analyst Vincent Sun from research group Morningstar added his views on Eric Xu’s statement and said that Huawei is a different animal.

He further mentioned that older carmakers and automotive solution providers need to increase their investment in the R&D sector or else, they will soon outdated like Nokia which has significantly settled at the bottom of the smartphone market.

Huawei hopes to become key smart car solution provider despite US ban (Image Credits: Huawei)

So far, Huawei has invested around $5.6 billion in the smart car R&D sector. It has even generated a revenue of 4.7 billion yuan ($655 million) via its nascent automotive business unit in 2023. In January 2024, nascent turned into the NewCool unit to build advanced smart car parts and autonomous driving software.

Huawei is also looking for new investors for its automotive solution business. Due to the U.S. ban, the company is unable to enter foreign markets with its car solutions.

Although Huawei’s advanced driving solutions have caught the attention of some global firms. BYD, Audi, and Nissan which have Chinese joint ventures are now joining forces with Huawei, adding more figures to its automotive business revenue.

An executive at Swiss engineering software group AutoForm says:

“Huawei has shown how tech groups with little experience in the car industry could rapidly grow market share and pose an existential threat to incumbents. It is putting everyone else under even more pressure.”

(source)