(Yicai) March 18 -- The Intelligent Automotive Solutions business unit of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies will likely achieve a profit next month, according to its chairman.

Huawei’s Smart Selection business model turned losses into profits in the first quarter of the year, while the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU was only close to achieving a turnaround, Richard Yu said at an automotive industry forum on March 16.

The Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU is Huawei’s only loss-making business segment. It had racked up annual losses of about CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion), according to Yu.

Founded in 2019, Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU focuses on intelligent driving, connected vehicles, cockpit, vehicle lights, vehicle control, electric drive, vehicle cloud, and other intelligent segments.

The Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU cooperates with carmakers based on three approaches: vertical parts supplier, intelligent systems provider through the Huawei Inside partnership model, and full-set solutions provider via the Huawei Smart Selection business model.

Among these three approaches, the third has been the most successful so far, while the first two have yet to achieve significant commercial results.

The automakers cooperating with Huawei under the Smart Selection model are BAIC Group, Chery Automobile, JAC Motors, and Seres Group.

Huawei’s cooperation with Seres is the one achieving the greatest success. Their jointly-developed Aito M7, priced at above CNY300,000 (USD41,680), received 60,000 orders in the first month after its launch, while the Aito M9, priced at around CNY500,000, has so far received more than 60,000 orders, according to Yu.

Next year, Huawei and JAC Motors will launch a luxury electric vehicle priced at up to CNY1 million (USD138,940), Yu said at the forum.

Meanwhile, Huawei and Chery Auto will resume production of the Luxeed S7, a medium-to-large electric sedan priced at CNY249,800 to CNY349,800, next month after a suspension due to a chip shortage and relocation of the factory, Yu noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione