BEIJING, October 11 (TMTPost)— An executive of Huawei Technologies Ltd applauded Aito’s recent model achieved a sales milestone.

Credit：AITO

AITO, a brand jointly developed by Huawei and Chongqing Sokon's brand Seres, has received orders of more than 50,000 units of its latest M7 SUV since the model launched on September 12, posted Yu Chengdong, or Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, on WeChat Moments. M7’s orders in two days alone topped 10,000 vehicles, of which October 5 and 6 saw 3,500 units and 7,000 units respectively, Yu revealed. M7 was “brought back from the dead, which is by no means easy,” Yu said. “I appreciate workers at (Huawei) Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Group and related departments, thank you for your hard work, and congratulations!”

Yu’s announcement suggested orders over two days earlier this month made up about one fifth of first three weeks’ order volume. Initial sales reversed downward trend of M7 this year. Prior to launch of new M7 version, AITO sold over 400 M7 vehicles in June, around one third of monthly sales in the beginning of the year, and sales of the model were less than 1,000 units for fourth straight months.

The turning point came as AITO unveiled new variants of M7 on September 12. The new M7, priced at between RMB249,800 and RMB329,800 (US$34,270 and US$45,250), is RMB40,000 cheaper than the original version. The updated model features Huawei's ADS 2.0 system, which enables high-level autonomous driving in both urban areas and on expressways without reliance on high-definition maps. The intelligent driving function will cover the whole country by the end of the year, said Yu Chengdong said at the launch event. The model is also empowered by Harmony operating system, which enables a smooth connection with the Huawei mobile phones. Huawei invested RMB500 million in the new model to improve intelligent driving and comfort,Yu said.

Huawei is stepping up expansion of consumer businesses including part of them led by Yu Chengdong. Yu, as the former CEO of Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Group, was just promoted as chairman of the group more than two weeks ago. Jin Yuzhi, head of Huawei’s opital fiber business, took over Yu’s CEO role. The appointment suggests Yu will remain as CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group. The reshuffle was made to help Huawei achieve commercial success in the intelligent automotive industry, Chinese business and financial media outlet Yicai cited an insider. The source said Huawei will continue to double down investment in automobile-related fields. Yu Chengdong’s exit as CEO of smart car unit may result from strong comeback of smartphone as the new role could allow him to focus more on the smartphone business, another media outlet The Paper learned.

At its autumn new product event on September 25, a slew of offerings ranging from tablets to smart watch, but kept silence on the highly-anticipated Mate 60 series and the Kirin Chip that empower the flagship smartphone. Huawei announced Luxeed S7, its first electric vehicle model under the brand Luxeed co-developed with Chery, will roll out in the late November. Yu Chengdong claim the model, backed by HarmonyOS 4 and ADS 2.0 high-end smart driving system, is superior to Tesla’s Model S in various aspects. Huawei also forecasted the electric SUV Aito M9 will be launched in December. Yu called it the best SUV under the price tag of RMB10 million.