Chinese telecom leader Huawei has debuted its electric vehicle that is equipped with the HarmonyOS smart cockpit and 4D imaging radar to compete with Tesla and salvage the impact derived from the US sanction.
Huawei announced the ARCFOX Alpha S HI (Huawei Inside) version alongside the BAIC Group on the 17th, which is the new generation luxury smart electric vehicle that claims to be the only commuting autonomous vehicle in the world that can be mass produced. The model adopts the fast charging technology of Huawei, which provides a driving range of 197km by a 10 minute charge, whereas the smart cockpit is also configured with Huawei’s autonomous HarmonyOS.
Wang Jun, President of Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solution (IAS) Business Unit, commented that the company will be investing US$1 billion in the development of smart vehicle solutions this year, for which the global research team will comprise of more than 5,000 technicians and engineers.
Xu Zhijun, Rotating Chairman of Huawei, expressed that Huawei’s IAS can achieve a driving range of 1,000km within the city that fully fulfills autonomous driving, which is a much better option than Tesla. However, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), believes that both companies have their respective advantages, during an interview by the Global Times, where Huawei excels in the smart network system of autonomous vehicles, and Tesla possesses comprehensive advantages in the technology of autonomous driving, which can be greatly utilized in most cases.
Cui believes that the advantages of Huawei lie on the automotive control system, powerful sensing mechanism, and the mutual interaction between different components, compared to internet giant Baidu and Xiaomi, who are also looking to penetrate into the field of electric vehicles. However, the profit and market scale of automobiles are smaller than that of smartphones, and a growth in IAS will still have a hard time in subverting the net profit generated by smartphones and the impact from a reduction in revenue.
Huawei has been sustaining a continuous depletion in the business of smartphones owing to the US sanction, and is forced to transition to new fields for development, as well as seek for other sources of revenue, such as leasing AI technology to pig farmers, while also looking to achieve intellectualization in the mining industry.
（Image：ARCFOX）