What is Huawei's intention to transfer the "Three Realms" trademark one after another?

Our reporter Qin Xiao reports from Beijing

A proclamation pierced the quiet night. On the evening of July 2, Cialis (601127. SH) said that its holding subsidiary, Celis Automobile, intends to acquire 919 registered or pending word and graphic trademarks of the Wenjie series and 44 related design patents held by Huawei, with a total purchase price of 2.5 billion yuan.

In this regard, Huawei responded to the reporter of "China Business Daily" that it will continue to support Cialis to build and sell good questions. Huawei has always insisted on not building cars, but using leading intelligent and connected vehicle technologies to help car companies build and sell good cars. Huawei will continue to work with car companies to create excellent smart car products for users and provide the ultimate smart travel experience.

$2.5 billion transfer

At the end of 2021, under the siege of new EV manufacturers such as NIO, Xpeng, and Li, Huawei and Celis jointly launched the AITO Wenjie brand new energy vehicle. On the cars of the questioning world, there will be capital English letters AITO, these letters are actually abbreviations of English words, derived from "Adding Intelligence to Auto", translated into Chinese that is, "integrating intelligence into the car".

Compared with other new car-making forces, the rhythm of the new products launched by Wenjie is intensive. The first car, the M5, was unveiled at Huawei's winter flagship new product launch at the end of 2021; Half a year later, the second model, the M7, and the third model, the M5 EV, were also launched. It took only 15 months to achieve a large order of 100,000 units, becoming the fastest new energy vehicle brand to achieve this milestone.

However, from the beginning of the market, the relationship between Huawei, Wenjie and Cialis has always been a mystery to the outside world.

The outside world is familiar with Huawei, and the predecessor of Cialis Automobile is "Chongqing Baxian Phoenix Electric Spring Factory", since its inception, it has taken parts manufacturing as a starting point, focusing on the production and sales of motorcycles and automobile shock absorbers, and its initial assets are less than 300,000 yuan. Subsequently, in 2003, the company entered the field of vehicle manufacturing and jointly established "Dongfeng Yu'an Vehicle Co., Ltd." with Dongfeng Group. By 2007, Chongqing Xiaokang Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was formally established, and in 2011, the name was changed and officially changed to Chongqing Xiaokang Industrial Group Co., Ltd.

Since 2016, the company has begun to actively deploy in the field of new energy and seek a broader development space. In 2019, Xiaokang and Huawei reached a strategic cooperation to jointly explore the future of smart electric vehicles. After more than two years of in-depth cooperation and research and development, the two parties successfully launched the first model of their cooperation, the Wenjie series M5, in the winter of 2021 and officially went on sale. This milestone event marks substantial progress in the cooperation between the two parties in the field of smart electric vehicles. Subsequently, on August 2, 2022, the company changed its name again, and officially changed its name from "Xiaokang Shares" to "Cialis".

In March 2023, AITO publicly released a promotional poster on multiple platforms, significantly changing the original slogan "AITO Wenjie" to "HUAWEI Wenjie". The move has generated widespread attention and discussion in the automotive industry, and has also sparked speculation and discussion about whether Huawei is personally involved in the automotive manufacturing field.

To this end, Huawei has repeatedly issued internal announcements on its automotive business decisions, emphasizing that "Huawei does not make cars", not allowing the combined use of Huawei's brand and automobile trademarks, and prohibiting the "HUAWEI Wenjie" and "HUAWEI AITO" logos. AITO stores also quickly dismantled promotional materials related to Huawei, and salespeople were no longer allowed to use expressions such as "Huawei Wenjie" and "HUAWEI AITO" to promote products.

Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, Chairman of the Device BG, and Chairman of the Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, also responded to the question of "Does Huawei make cars": "Everyone says that Huawei does not make cars, but in fact, the accurate explanation is that Huawei does not make cars alone. How can you survive if you don't build a car, you must build a car! However, Huawei does not build cars alone, but builds cars together with car companies. ”

In fact, Huawei's cooperation with car companies is divided into three categories: vertical parts supply, Huawei Inside (HI) model, and Huawei Smart Selection model. The HI model provides full-stack smart car solutions for car companies, while Huawei's smart selection model involves Huawei in product definition, styling design, marketing, and user experience. The depth of cooperation between these three modes ranges from shallow to deep.

Wenjie is the representative of Huawei's intelligent selection model, and today, the Wenjie series has become the "top stream" of new energy vehicles. According to the data, the monthly delivery of all AITO Wenjie series in June 2024 exceeded 40,000 units, a record high. Among them, AITO Wenjie M9 delivered 17,241 vehicles in June, with a total of more than 100,000 units; AITO delivered 18,493 units of the new M7 in June, and the cumulative sales in the first half of the year exceeded 110,000.

Under such a favorable situation, the transfer plan of Huawei and Cialis on the "Wenjie" series of trademarks exceeded the expectations of people inside and outside the industry.

However, according to people familiar with the matter, the current cooperation model between Huawei and Cialis will not be affected, and the two sides have also signed a "further deepening joint business cooperation agreement", and at the same time, the consumer experience will not be affected.

It is reported that according to the cooperation agreement, under the premise that the original cooperation framework remains unchanged, Sailis and Huawei will give full play to their respective advantages, focus on the AITO Wenjie brand under Sailis Automobile, and jointly design and market to provide users with high-end intelligent electric vehicle products and smart travel solutions, and jointly achieve commercial success.

"Users will not be affected by the purchase, use, after-sales experience and rights and interests of AITO Wenjie Automobile, so there is no need to worry." The above-mentioned people familiar with the matter said. As for whether Huawei's offline terminal flagship store will continue to place and sell related vehicles, the reporter asked Huawei for confirmation, but as of press time, no reply has been received. The reporter called some Huawei offline stores, and the other party said: "I have not received relevant notices." ”

More than "Boundary Words"

In November last year, Huawei officially released a new strategy for smart mobility solutions and launched a new ecosystem for Huawei's smart car business, HarmonyOS Zhixing. According to the WeChat public account of "Hongmeng Zhixing" on the evening of July 1, Hongmeng Zhixing delivered a total of 194207 vehicles in the first half of 2024, ranking first in the sales of China's new power brand in the first half of the year, of which in June, Hongmeng Zhixing delivered 46,141 vehicles.

The "Jiezi generation" is also regarded as the representative of Huawei's intelligent driving. Up to now, Hongmeng Zhixing has launched 3 brands, in addition to the above-mentioned Wenjie models, and Chery jointly launched the Zhijie S7, and the Xiangjie S9 is jointly built by Huawei and BAIC.

It is worth noting that Huawei has recently transferred the trademark of "Jiezigen". At the end of May this year, Huawei transferred its registered "Xiangjie" trademark to Beijing New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. The trademark was applied for by Huawei in May last year and registered in November. At the beginning of June, Huawei transferred two of its registered "Zhijie" trademarks in the transportation category to Chery. The above-mentioned trademarks were applied for by Huawei in October 2013 and September 2019, and were registered in April 2015 and April 2020, respectively.

In the eyes of industry insiders, drawing a clear line with the "Jiezi generation" is for Huawei to better increase its intelligent driving business. The above-mentioned person said: "Huawei's attitude and HarmonyOS Zhixing plan remain unchanged, after the trademark transfer, the boundary of Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing/Zhixuan model is clearer, and Huawei further stated that it does not make cars, but helps car companies build and sell good cars." ”

Yu Chengdong also said earlier this year that Huawei has limited energy and is currently only focusing on the "Four Realms" brand. Next, redefining customer relationships, diversifying ecosystem cooperation, and doing business with all car companies will be the main ideas of Huawei's automotive business.

2024 is regarded as the first year of large-scale commercial use of intelligent driving. Entering 2024, Huawei's car BU will continue to move, and the circle of friends will continue to expand. In January, Shenzhen Yinwang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., wholly owned by Huawei, was established. In March, Shenzhen Yinwang also established subsidiaries in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Dongguan, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places. According to the analysis of the Orient Securities Research Report, Shenzhen Yinwang may be loaded with Huawei's car BU technology and resources, and will become a technology open platform with diversified equity in the future.

In April this year, Huawei launched Huawei's new intelligent vehicle solution brand, Huawei Qiankun, with intelligent driving as the core, bringing newly upgraded solutions such as "Qiankun ADS", "Qiankun Vehicle Control", and "Qiankun Car Cloud". Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said that Huawei's Qiankun Intelligent Vehicle Solution aims to bring intelligence to every vehicle and lead the second century of global automotive transformation.

Jin Yuzhi said that intelligence is the next 100 years of transformation of automobiles, so the second half of electrification is also intelligent, which is the general trend, so we use Huawei's accumulated technologies in the ICT field for more than 30 years, including communication technology, IT technology, wireless technology, optical communication technology, data communication technology, and Huawei's public cloud technology in the cloud. We will unswervingly continue to make high-intensity investments in this direction to ensure that we can help car companies stay ahead of the big changes in this field and revitalize the entire automotive industry in China."

According to incomplete statistics, in 2024 alone, more than 10 models from more than 10 brands, including Dongfeng's Lantu and Mengshi, Changan's Deep Blue and AVATAR, GAC Trumpchi, BAIC's Jihu and Xiangjie, as well as more than 10 brands such as Cialis Wenjie, Chery Zhijie, and JAC, will be launched with the HUAWEI ADS solution. Huawei expects that by the end of 2024, the number of models equipped with Huawei's intelligent driving system will exceed 500,000.

(Editor: Zhang Jingchao Review: Li Zhenghao Proofreader: Zhang Guogang)