Great Wall Motorwill reportedly adoptHuawei's driver assistance system, becoming the latest Chinese auto giant to do so afterBYD.
Great Wall Motor and Huawei are in close talks about a smart driving partnership that will see some of the key products in the automaker'sTankbrand powered byHuawei's smart driving and smart cockpit solutions, local media outlet 36kr said in a report today, citing several industry sources.
The first Great Wall Motor model to carry Huawei's smart driving solution will be theTank 700 Hi4-T-- ahybrid off-road SUV(sport utility vehicle) launched in late Feb this year, according to the report.
Great Wall Motor Tank 700 Hi-4 T
The Tank 700 Hi4-T is themost expensiveof the Tank brand's current models on sale, with a starting price of RMB 428,000 (USD59,120), and already utilizesHuawei's HiCar cockpit system.
If the partnership is confirmed, Great Wall Motor will become the next local automaker to use Huawei's smart driving system after BYD.
BYD's sub-brandFang Cheng Baoannounced on Aug 27that it had signed a deal withHuaweito use its driver assistance system. The hybrid Bao 8 off-road SUV waslaunched on Nov12, and is the first model under BYD's umbrella to use Huawei's smart driving system.
BYD officially launched the Fang Cheng Bao brand on Aug 16, 2023.
Fang Cheng Bao'sdirect competitoris Great Wall Motor'sTankbrand, with the Bao 8 starting at RMB 379,800, which is11% lowerthan the Tank 700 Hi4-T.
With the Bao 8 already equipped with Huawei's smart driving solution, theTankbrand, one of thelocal pioneers of hardcore off-road vehicles, will also need to leverage Huawei's tech to consolidate its position, 36kr's report noted.
From Jan to Oct, the Tank brand sold 188,933 vehicles, up 49.18% year-on-year, contributing 19.47 percent of Great Wall Motor's sales in the same period, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, had said the automaker had been focusing onsmart drivingas a key strategy, with research and development in the field starting a decade ago.
In Nov 2019, Great Wall Motor'sautonomous driving division was spun offas an independent company, Haomo.AI Technology, which already provides smart driving systems for dozens of models, mainly Great Wall Motor's.
Great Wall Motor's own smart driving hardware and software team has reached more than 600 people and is still expanding rapidly, according to 36kr.
At the same time, the car company is also building its ownsupercomputing centre, with computing power already reaching3 EFLOPS, according to the report. For comparison,Huawei and Li Autoare at 7.5 EFLOPS, 5.39 EFLOPS, respectively.