The two major turning points in China’s automotive market by 2025 are both related to smart cars. One is the widespread adoption of intelligent driving led by BYD, and the other is the adaptation of Huawei’s HIMA (Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance) by all automakers.
Whether it’s smart cockpits or intelligent driving systems, automakers are faced with a difficult choice: to engage in arduous, self-reliant development or to surrender and adopt a third-party unified solution. Many are caught in a dilemma, wavering between conflicting options.
Dongfeng Motor and Chang’an Auto have fully embraced Huawei, while GAC Group and SAIC have followed up their initial rejection of Huawei with strategic cooperation.
However, GAC doesn’t need Huawei, and Huawei can’t bring any fundamental change to GAC’s future development.
At the peak of its ambition, Aion chose to abandon its partnership with Huawei to fully control the development of intelligent automotive technologies. Today, GAC has implemented a massive collaboration with Huawei, not only incorporating Huawei’s HIMA into its existing models but also launching a new joint brand.
In fact, GAC has invested heavily over the years and already possesses a complete smart car ecosystem, including battery, electric drive, and intelligent driving technologies. GAC should not blindly follow Huawei’s lead but should strive for independence, just like BYD.
From the central control screens and systems to intelligent driving, Aion has invested significant time and costs, arduously walking the path of self-reliant R&D, a visionary breakthrough.
In the process of turning Huawei from a co-creation partner into a third-party supplier for its A8H model, we have already seen the long-term risks of becoming overly dependent on Huawei.
By leveraging Huawei’s traffic, smart cockpit, and intelligent driving technologies, traditional automakers can rapidly and cost-effectively achieve smart transformations, increasing sales scale. However, this does little for the brand itself, often reducing it to just an “OEM” role.
Huawei’s HIMA provides a complete, unified solution. The first automaker to adopt it might gain significant attention and success, but once the entire market adopts the same design and user experience, the automaker’s soul will have nowhere to go but into the void.
GAC understands that this is an inevitable outcome of cooperating with Huawei. Yet, instead of expanding upon the achievements of Aion, it allows other models to become fully Huawei-dependent.
Whether it's the scale of 4 million new energy vehicles or the widespread adoption of intelligent driving, it’s hard to imagine the number of detours BYD had to take and the costs it paid to become a global leader. GAC should be able to empathize with this journey.
Of course, not every automaker has to lead the market and technology development. Companies like Toyota and Tesla are rare exceptions.
The GAC Group we remember isn’t just the GAC Honda and GAC Toyota glory we saw in the past, nor the current confusion and struggles with hybrid models. It is a company that survived against the odds.
Once the smallest and weakest among the “Four major and four small state-owned automobile enterprises”, and carrying the failure of Guangzhou Peugeot, GAC managed to secure collaborations with Honda and Toyota, becoming one of the strongest joint venture carmakers. This success then fueled its own independent brands, giving birth to Trumpchi and Aion.
GAC’s boldness at the time was nothing short of remarkable.Now, GAC is set to go from a market leader to a follower. It may rise again with Huawei’s help, but how is this different from Dongfeng and Chang’an?
GAC’s choice to survive is undeniably valid, but there are more important things to do.
Huawei’s HIMA, though good, is not a long-term solution, as the Chinese market will soon be dominated by Huawei. State-owned carmakers still cannot compete with BYD, Geely, and Chery in R&D capabilities, and Huawei’s presence will become a significant constraint on expanding into overseas markets.
One of the key focuses of GAC’s “Panyu Action” is to elevate its own brands. Striking the right balance between growing in the present and strengthening for the future is the challenge that GAC’s new chairman, Feng Xingya, must navigate.
Whether in the past or now, GAC has no successful model to follow. The successful case of state-owned carmakers, besides Chang’an, is GAC itself, and achieving a dual balance of joint ventures and independent brands is something GAC alone has accomplished.
Both Trumpchi and Aion did not follow the “buy, buy, buy” approach of the past but instead created a model for the development of independent brands in state-owned carmakers.
Independent brands have become the unstoppable mainstream in the market. For GAC, while it can grasp both Huawei's support and self-reliant development, the latter must be stronger. It must firmly seize control of its own future.
Currently, GAC needs Huawei’s help to break through its predicament, but it also needs the courage to take bold risks like BYD. This is the key to the rise and fall of state-owned carmakers over the years.
To break through and reign supreme, GAC needs not Huawei, but the confidence it once had in its own glory, and the calm resolve in the darkest hour before the dawn.
