Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance

Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance
Product type	Automotive
Owner	Huawei
Country	China
Introduced	November 2023; 10 months ago
Related brands	AITO (Seres); Luxeed (Chery); Stelato (BAIC BluePark); Maextro (JAC);
Markets	China
Website	hima.auto

Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, trading as HIMA (Chinese: 鸿蒙智行; pinyin: Hóngméng Zhìxíng) is an automotive alliance initiated and led by Chinese multinational technology company Huawei. The members of the alliance include AITO (Seres Group), Luxeed (Chery), Stelato (BAIC BluePark), and Maextro (JAC Group).^[1]^[2]

Under HIMA, Huawei participates in product definition, design, marketing, user experience, quality control and provides intelligent vehicle software and hardware for the traditional automobile manufacturers. Currently, HIMA only operates in mainland China.

History

In December 2021, Huawei announced the launch of AITO brand and unveiled its first vehicle AITO M5, the first vehicle Huawei developed with Seres Group. The hardware of the car was based on Seres SF5 SUV.^[3]

In June 2023, Huawei acquired the AITO trademark in Chinese language (问界/Wenjie) from Seres Group.^[4]

In November 2023, Huawei announced the foundation of Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance on the news press of Luxeed S7, the first model Huawei collaborates with Chery.^[1]

In December 2023, Huawei has transferred multiple trademarks called "Stelato" to BAIC BluePark, the HIMA brand Huawei collaborates with BAIC.^[5]^[6]

In July 2024, Yu Chendong, the Chairman of the Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions, revealed in an interview that the fourth brand of HIMA which collaborates with JAC would be named as Zunjie (尊界) in Chinese.^[7] In August 2024, at the Stelato S9 and Huawei new product launch conference, Huawei officially announced the fourth brand of HIMA collaborated with JAC, the Maextro (Chinese: 尊界). The first vehicle of Maextro is scheduled to roll off the production line by the end of 2024 and would be launched in the first half of 2025.^[8]

Operations

Huawei will does not directly manufacture cars while dedicated to helping car companies sell their vehicles through product design, supply chain management, quality control, software ecosystem, user experience management, brand marketing, and sales channels.^[9]^[10]

Under the alliance, each Huawei's partner manufacturer will specialize in certain vehicle category and class and each manufacturer's product lineup is non-overlapping, and will all be combined under the Huawei's comprehensive solution.^[10]

Huawei plans to establish independent HIMA stores in Chinese market. According to the plan of Huawei, it will have around 800 newly built HIMA stores by 2024, and plans to expand to 1,000 stores by 2025. By 2023, HIMA has already opened franchise user centers in 78 cities nationwide. These user centers provide integrated services, including sales, delivery, and after-sales support, embodying a one-stop-shop approach. One of the criteria for selecting partners is a preference for those with expertise in luxury car sales and maintenance (both mechanical and paint). In addition to opening new franchise user centers, there is also an ongoing transformation of existing user centers, with some outlets rebranded from "AITO" to "HIMA".^[11]

Technology

HarmonyOS Cockpit

The HarmonyOS Cockpit is Huawei's solution for electric and autonomous cars powered by its Kirin line of a system-on-chip (SoC), augmented reality head-up displays (AR-HUD) and smart instrument cluster. Huawei opened up the APIs of HarmonyOS Cockpit to help automobile OEMs, suppliers and ecosystem partners in developing different features.^[12]^[13]

Autonomous Driving System

AITO vehicles are equipped with ADS (Autonomous Driving System) developed by Huawei. For the current ADS 2.0, it is composite of 128 LiDARs, 11 HD cameras, 3 MMW radars, and 12 ultra sonic radars and Huawei self-developed chipset.

The ADS is trained on real-world driving data and can achieve Level 2+ autonomous driving. It can perform human-like judgment and operation such as accurate turning, giving way to pedestrians, recognizing and avoiding irregular obstacles, as well as detecting and avoiding animals. It can also perform automatic and valet parking.

According to Huawei, the ADS 2.0 was priced at 36,000 RMB (~US$5200) per vehicle when sold to partner manufacturer.^[14]

Touling Platform

Huawei Touling platform is equipped with a multi-modal fusion perception system, DATS® (Dynamic Adaptive Torque System) and xMotion® intelligent body collaborative control system.^[15]

Huawei's partnership with automobile manufacturers

Huawei's partnership with automobile manufacturers has taken the form of three models, the standardized parts supply model, the "Huawei Inside" (HI) model, and the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA).^[2]^[16]

Tier 1 — Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA), Huawei provides a complete set of vehicle solutions and participates in product definition, design, marketing, user experience, quality control and delivery, while the manufacturers are responsible for vehicle manufacturing.

Tier 2 — Huawei Inside (HI), Huawei provide full-stack smart car solution and Huawei's smart cockpit to car manufacturers. In this mode, Huawei empowers vehicle intelligence through the supply of both software and hardware, but does not participate in the design, development, and marketing of the vehicles. Arcfox is currently adopting this model.

Tier 2 — Huawei Inside Plus (HI Plus), with Avatr becoming the first company to invest in Yinwang, the Avatr's previous "HI"(Huawei Inside) model has been further upgraded to a new "HI Plus" model, enabling Huawei to get more deeply involved in Avatr's product definition.

Tier 3 — Standardized parts supply, Huawei provides automobile parts and components like Lidar, electric motor, cameras and power management to car manufacturers, the most basic model.

Brands

The brands of the alliance include AITO (Seres Group), Luxeed (Chery), Stelato (BAIC BluePark), and Maextro (JAC Motors). Although the Western names of each alliance brand are not closely related, their Chinese names are all named after the Chinese character "界", such as 问界; Wènjiè (AITO), 智界; Zhìjiè (Luxeed), 享界; Xiǎngjiè (Stelato), and 尊界; Zūnjiè (Maextro).

Originally, the ownership rights for the alliance brands' Western and Chinese names were separate. The Western trademarks are owned by the alliance manufacturers, whereas the Chinese trademarks are owned by Huawei.^[4]^[16] However, due to the regulations of Chinese government, that the brand of automobile must be owned by its manufacturer, in July 2024, Huawei announced to transfer the Chinese trademarks and patents of AITO brand to its partner Seres Group.^[17]^[18]

AITO

AITO (Chinese: 问界; pinyin: Wènjiè) is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with Seres Group.

Luxeed

Luxeed (Chinese: 智界; pinyin: Zhìjiè) is the brand used for Huawei's collaboration with Chery.

Luxeed S7

Stelato

Stelato (Chinese: 享界; pinyin: Xiǎngjiè) brand used for Huawei's collaboration with BAIC BluePark, a subsidiary of BAIC Group.

Stelato S9

Maextro

Maextro (Chinese: 尊界; pinyin: Zūnjiè) brand used for Huawei's collaboration with JAC Group.

Sales

Sales of HIMA brands
Year	Total	AITO	Luxeed	Stelato	Maextro
2022	76,180	76,180^[19]	-	-	-
2023	95,279	94,380^[20]	899^[21]	-	-

Since HIMA is not considered as an automobile manufacturer by government of China, the sales figures of each HIMA brand is overlapping with its partner manufacturers.