(Yicai Global) April 20 -- The first high-end smart electric vehicle jointly built by Changan Automobile, Huawei Technologies and Contemporary Amperex Technology will be released by the end of this year, Changan’s president said.

The new brand’s name will be revealed soon, Wang Jun told Yicai Global today.

The collaboration between the three companies started in the final quarter of last year with a plan codenamed Project CHN. The partners plan to create an up-market smart vehicle brand, a smart EV platform, a series of smart car products and a smart energy ecosystem.

Chongqing-based Changan Auto will introduce 26 new smart EV models in the next five years based on Ark Architecture and CHN Architecture and is set to debut the first two models within the year, Chairman Zhu Huarong said at a press conference held at Auto Shanghai 2021 yesterday.

Changan Auto also announced plans to invest a combined CNY150 billion on software and smart technologies between now and 2025. It aims to be among the first carmakers to market intelligent connected vehicles featuring L4-level autonomous driving tech by 2022.

Shares of Changan Auto [SHA:000625] closed up 3.6 percent today at CNY18.01 (USD2.77), while CATL [SHE:300750] fell 1.4 percent to CNY359.

In the first quarter, Changan Auto had retail sales of 348,000 vehicles and wholesale volume of 367,000, overtaking SAIC General Motors to become China’s No. 3 carmaker behind FAW-Volkswagen Automotive and SAIC Volkswagen Automotive.

Ningde-based CATL focuses on research and development, production and sales of NEV power battery systems.

Tech giant Huawei yesterday announced the launch of its smart car model, Seres Huawei Smart Selection SF5, developed in collaboration with Chinese EV startup Seres. The model is the first EV sold under the tech brand’s belt.

Editors: Xu Wei, Peter Thomas