Seres Takes Lead on Aito as Huawei Retains Cockpit and Driver-Assist Role

Seres and Huawei have announced an adjustment to their cooperation model for the Aito brand. Aito is moving away from the previous full-chain Smart Selection vehicle model to one in which Seres leads brand, products, channels and after-sales, while Huawei continues to provide HarmonyOS cockpit and Qiankun intelligent driving technology. HIMA clarified that the adjustment applies only to Aito, while Zunjie, Xiangjie, Zhijie and Shangjie remain under Huawei's full-process Smart Selection model. Under Huawei's Qiankun system there are also two brands bearing the character "Jing" — Yijing and Qijing — which adopt a joint co-creation path distinct from Smart Selection.

Within Huawei Qiankun's cooperation ecosystem, the core logic of the "Jing" brand model is that the automaker holds the lead on brand, vehicle architecture, channels and after-sales, while Huawei Qiankun supplies a full set of intelligent technology solutions. The two sides jointly define, jointly develop and work together in shared offices from the early stages of a project, achieving native integration at the software and hardware foundation rather than simple component procurement or add-on modification. Dongfeng and Huawei Qiankun created Yijing, and GAC and Huawei Qiankun jointly launched Qijing, both applying this co-creation system and choosing differentiated product segments based on each automaker's own vehicle-building heritage. Yijing targets the high-end family travel market, with its first model, the Yijing X9, focused on the large six-seat family flagship SUV segment and emphasizing the Tianqiong Zhidun safety architecture. Qijing targets younger consumers, offering the GT7 shooting brake and GX7 SUV, leveraging GAC's strengths in chassis, electric drive and vehicle manufacturing. Unlike the "Jie" Smart Selection model, Jing-series products are not sold in Huawei stores, with channel operations built independently by the automakers.

Yijing is jointly and deeply co-created by Dongfeng and Huawei Qiankun. The two sides jointly define, jointly develop and work together in shared offices, concentrating core resources to build product development, quality control, brand channel and service systems. Yijing and Huawei adopt a full-stack native co-creation model. From the outset of the project, Dongfeng's vehicle team and Huawei Qiankun's software and electrical/electronic teams planned and developed in parallel, with engineers working together in shared offices on a long-term basis. The vehicle's underlying architecture has no add-on adapter modules, and intelligent driving, cockpit and vehicle control data are natively interconnected. At the same time, Dongfeng's vehicle safety system and Huawei's IPD research and quality control standards are combined to achieve software and hardware integration at the foundation. Yijing treats safety as its core brand strategy. The Yijing project plans to invest resources at the RMB 10 billion level over two to three years and build a joint engineering team of several thousand people. The brand starts from zero and must independently build its channels, marketing and user service systems.