Image source: China Visual

BEIJING, December 15 (TMTPOST) — Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd. will recommend smart vehicle partners to prioritize batteries from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (300750.SZ), after they signed a memorandum for cooperation, the battery supplier said on Wednesday. 

As a subsidiary of the Chinese tech giant Huawei, Huawei Terminal is its parent company's  consumer business unit. Together with intelligent automotive solution, the unit focuses on smart vehicle-related businesses. 

According to Richard Yu, chief executive officer of Huawei’s consumer business group, the company has three cooperation models with automobile companies. The cooperation with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) will be the smart selection model, where Huawei involves deeply in the process, from design and marketing to sales of the product. The hybrid vehicle brand AITO was built under such relationship with Seres (601127.SH), an EV and component maker headquartered in the U.S. Under AITO, there are two extended-range hybrid models in the market — M5 and M7. The former has also launched an electric version. In the first 11 months of 2022, the sales volume of AITO reached about 70,000 units.

CATL has formed in-depth cooperation with Seres. In August, Seres signed a five-year strategic partnership agreement with CATL, under which AITO uses batteries from CATL.

Chinese battery giant CATL has taken up 35 percent of the global market in the first half of this year, followed by South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution and Chinese company BYD, according to SNE Research in South Korea. A week ago, Japanese automobile maker Honda Motor (7267.T) announced that CATL would provide batteries to its EVs in China for seven years. However, the company is faced with fierce competition in China, with a market share of less than 50 percent. According to the China Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance for Electric Vehicle, in the first 11 months of this year, the exact market share was 48 percent.