Huawei says Chery Luxeed S7 delays will be resolved in April

Huawei said semiconductor shortages and factory relocation issues that delayed the production and delivery of its Luxeed S7 sedan should be resolved starting next month, local media Cailianshe reported on Saturday.

He quoted Richard Yu, Huawei’s chief executive and president of its smart car solutions, discussing issues surrounding Chery’s Luxeed S7 sedan at the think tank’s EV100 annual conference.

Reuters reported in January that Chinese car company Chery and another Huawei partner, Changan Auto, filed complaints with Huawei about production problems with a computer unit made by the tech giant that caused delays in the delivery of their model. main.

The Luxeed S7 sedan – the first model of Chery’s Luxeed EV brand – had received about 20,000 orders as of November 28. Luxeed said in January that buyers could be refunded up to 10,000 yuan if they were unable to collect the car as promised. The S7 is priced from 249,800 yuan ($34,716.62).

The brand was only launched in November and has been heavily promoted by Huawei, and Yu previously claimed the S7 would beat Tesla’s Model S luxury car in performance and at a lower price than the Model 3.

Mr Yu also told the EV100 conference that his auto business unit could be profitable from April, after losing billions of yuan last year, due to strong sales of mid- and high-end models built by its partners.

Huawei launched its smart car division in 2019 with the goal of becoming a smart electric vehicle (EV) in the same era as German automotive supplier Bosch and providing software and components to its partners.

But it was the only loss-making unit among Huawei’s six major divisions and generated just 1 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of 2023, part of Huawei’s 310.9 billion yuan total.

Last year, Huawei announced that it will spin off the division into a new company that will receive the division’s core technologies and resources and receive investment from partners such as automaker Changan. ($1 = 7.1954 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Jason Neely and Clelia Oziel)