Seres to Acquire Huawei's Trademarks and Patents, Huawei's Future in Auto Industry
TapTechNews July 4th news, Seres Motors has announced that it plans to self-finance 2.5 billion yuan to acquire 919 text and graphic trademarks related to the AITO series of products and 44 automotive appearance design patents from Huawei.
Regarding this issue, relevant personnel from Seres disclosed to the 21st Century Business Herald: For each car sold, a sales service fee will be paid to Huawei. However, the specific proportion of the service fee here is a core business secret, so it is not convenient to disclose.
Public information shows that currently, Huawei's cooperation with auto companies is divided into parts supply mode, HI mode, and Hongmeng Zhixing (Smart Car Selection) mode, and most of the smart cars need to purchase parts from Huawei's Vehicle BU, so Huawei can earn two amounts of money, one is the phased development fee and parts cost obtained by Vehicle BU, and the other is the service fee obtained by Terminal BG through selling cars in Huawei stores.
With the sale of AITO related trademarks, Huawei will no longer have a whole vehicle brand trademark, which is also regarded by the outside world as clarifying the positioning and business boundaries of Vehicle BU and Hongmeng Zhixing to prepare for the independence of Vehicle BU.
TapTechNews noticed that yesterday, the chairman of Changan Automobile, Zhu Huarong, also said that the establishment of a joint venture with Huawei is progressing in an orderly manner. The company is expected to sign the final transaction documents with Huawei no later than August 31, 2024, which means that Huawei's Vehicle BU may soon obtain independence.
On November 25, 2023, Changan Automobile and Huawei signed the Investment Cooperation Memorandum, intending to establish a company engaged in the research and development, design, production, sales, and service of automotive intelligent systems and component solutions.
On January 16, 2024, Huawei completed the registration of the target company, named Shenzhen Yinwang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., and its business scope mainly includes automotive intelligent driving solutions, automotive intelligent cockpits, intelligent automotive digital platforms, intelligent vehicle clouds, AR-HUD and intelligent car lights, etc.
Zhu Huarong also said at the beginning of this year that the promoter of this round of cooperation is Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun. In the cooperation, Huawei promised not to engage in the whole vehicle business. In addition, Zhu Huarong also specifically responded to why Changan Automobile insists on using the HI mode instead of the Hongmeng Zhixing mode:
Changan's strategy is that to make a car must have its own brand, not someone else's brand. If it is to make someone else's brand, that would be wrong. What Changan does must comply with the requirements of the national industrial policy, because I think other modes are problematic.