(Yicai) Oct. 11 -- Shares of Seres Group, Huawei Technologies’ car-making partner, ended a three-day winning streak after the company reminded investors of the risks associated with trading in its stock.

Seres [SHA: 601127] fell 2.5 percent to close at CNY65.71 (USD9) a share in Shanghai today, after jumping by the 10 percent daily limit in each of the last three trading days. The stock has more than doubled in value since Aug. 25, outstripping a 0.3 percent gain in the Shanghai Composite Index and a 7.2 percent uptick in the auto industry index compiled by broker Shenwan Hongyuan.

The stock’s surge has to do with the Aito marque that Chongqing-based Seres developed in conjunction with Huawei. The tech giant is mainly involved in providing the smart driving suite, vehicle design, and sales channels, while the automaker handles production.

More than 50,000 orders for the new Aito M7, an electric sports utility vehicle, were placed since its launch on Sept. 12, Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s intelligent automotive solutions business unit, said on Oct. 6. These are pre-orders where the customer pays a deposit and has a strong intention to buy. Another new model, the Aito M9, is expected to be released in December.

Deliveries of the Aito M7 are proceeding smoothly, an employee told Yicai. Seres owns the Aito marque, and there is no profit or revenue sharing with Shenzhen-based Huawei, he added.

The new models are expected to give Seres a boost, as the firm had poor sales this year due to the auto market price war at the start of 2023 and other factors, Citic Securities said in a recent report. Sales slid 31 percent to around 137,000 units in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, while shipments of its new energy vehicles sank 25 percent to 68,223.

Determining how many Aito cars need to be sold to break even is not possible, and the marque is not even being exported yet, the Seres staffer said.

The carmaker had a first-half net loss of CNY1.3 billion (USD178 million), 22 percent smaller than in the same period of last year, while revenue dipped 11 percent to CNY11 billion (USD1.5 billion).

Editor: Kim Taylor