Huawei Enters China’s Electric Car Race

Chinese tech giant Huawei may be about to give Tesla a run for its money in China’s electric vehicle market.

This week the company released details on a vehicle with specs that it claims beat Tesla’s Model Y.

The first car with Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system will be the Aito M5, a car that runs on both electricity and fuel, said Richard Yu, executive director and CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group. Yu made the comments at the company’s winter product launch event.

Deliveries are set to begin around Feb. 20 after the Lunar New Year, said Yu, who is also CEO of Huawei’s intelligent automotive business solution unit.

Yu claimed in his one-hour presentation that the Aito M5 offers peak power and driving range that are better than the Model Y.

The Aito M5 however, in comparison to the Model Y, is not purely powered by electricity as it has a fuel tank for extending driving range when the battery has run out of power.

Some of the numerous other features Yu described included double-layered sound-proof glass.

“You will know whether it is premium or not by the sound,” Yu said according to English translation. “We are able to offer the ‘library grade’ quality experience.”

The Aito M5 is the first model under the Aito brand, which stands for “adding intelligence to auto.” It’s part of automaker Seres, whose cars have previously incorporated Huawei components, but not design, Yu said.

Post-subsidy prices for the Aito M5 start at 250,000 yuan ($39,063), which comes in lower than Tesla’s Model Y, which starts at starts at 280,752 yuan after subsidies.

It was less than a week ago that Chinese electric car start-up Nio announced its latest competitor to Tesla as well.

On Saturday, Nio revealed deliveries of its ET5 electric sedan with a starting price of 328,000 yuan ($51,250) pre-subsidy. Nio’s ET7 sedan, set for delivery in March, starts at 448,000 yuan.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.