(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- Chinese new energy vehicle maker Seres Group and telecoms giant Huawei have agreed to deepen their cooperation in order to make and sell 1 million NEV by 2026.

Huawei and Seres will jointly release a new vehicle platform, with its first flagship model equipped with an advanced smart driving system and slated for launch this year, the Chongqing-based carmaker said in a statement on Feb. 25, citing the deal the pair signed the same day.

The two companies began to cooperate in 2019. The Seres SF5, the first model they co-developed, was launched in April 2021. At the end of that year, they released the high-end Aito marque. Sales of the three Aito-branded models exceeded 75,000 units as of the end of last year.

Seres is the carmaker most deeply involved with Huawei, Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group and business unit for intelligent automotive solutions, said at the signing ceremony. The pair has laid solid foundations for cooperation, he added, noting that they will keep up the alliance well into the future.

At the end of January, Seres said it expects the automaker’s net loss to have doubled to between CNY3.5 billion and CNY4 billion (USD503.2 million and USD574.6 million) last year because of higher chip and power battery prices and increased amortization charges brought about by previous fixed asset inputs.

In the middle of this month, an online rumor claimed that Huawei had withdrawn its research and development team from Seres, sparking market concerns about the collapse of the tie-up. The pair denied the rumor.

Huawei’s goal is to make its intelligent auto solutions business unit profitable by 2025 and help its auto partners reach sales of 100 million units, Yu said recently. He also said that car companies that cooperate with Huawei are expected to be the first to achieve profitability.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione