(Yicai Global) Aug. 30 -- Chinese electric carmaker Li Auto has reportedly hired a former software executive at Huawei Technologies to take charge of research and development of intelligent technologies including self-driving chips.

Xie Yan will head Li Auto’s systems research and development department and will rank second only to founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Li Xiang, 36Kr reported today. The department has been growing fast and covers Li Auto’s self-developed operating system and autonomous driving chip project, it said.

Xie joined Huawei in 2019 as vice president of the consumer business group’s software department and was one of the heads of HarmonyOS, its self-developed operating system. Before that, Xie was in charge of AliOS, a vehicle operating system developed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding.

His is expected to fill the gap left by Chief Technology Officer Wang Kai, the report noted. Wang joined Li Auto as CTO in 2020, having worked for US auto electronics giant Visteon, but left to join Vision Plus Capital as a partner at the venture capital firm less than two years later.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global auto industry has been plagued by a chip shortage. This has led many Chinese carmakers to begin developing their own. Yicai Global reported that Li Auto set up a chip unit in May, but it has yet to announce its chip research and development plans.

Editor: Tom Litting