TMTPost --  Huawei Technologies Ltd unveiled major developments of its co-developed electric sedan and an artifical intelligence (AI) model-powered personal computer, but the highly-anticipated flagship smartphone P70 has not shown up as expectation. 

Credit：Huawei

 The mass delivery of the Luxeed S7 electric sedan has started as every minute now sees a vehicle rolls off the production line, Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Group, announced at an event of HarmonyOS ecosystem held on Thursday. Luxeed S7, an electric vehicle (EV) brand created by Huawei and Chery, is the first sedan featuring HarmonyOS under Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA). Huawei also launched autonomous driving system Huawei ADS at the event, which debuts in the new Luxeed S7 car. The sedan boasts five variants--S7 Pro, S7 Max, S7 Max+, S7 Max RS and four-wheel drive S7 Ultra, priced at a range from RMB249,800 (US$34,694) to RMB349,800. 

Yu spent a majority of his time at the event to introduce the Luxeed S7. The head of Huawei’s automotive business was resigned to admit the cutthroat competition in Chinese EV market when revealing pricing of the S7. “Experience of Huawei's premium intelligent driving is very good as it is the top in the industry. However, if it is deployed in cars with a price of less than RMB300,000, there will be a loss ( for the automaker). What a rat race!” Yu sighed.

HIMA is an alliance of intelligent automotive technology, aiming to advance the development of smart automotive technologies with Huawei’s partners. In addition to Chery, members of the alliance include Chongqing Sokon's brand Seres,  BAIC BluePark, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, and JAC Motors.  AITO, a brand jointly developed by Huawei maintained its leadership among emerging EV startups in China for three months till March. AITO shipped 31,727 vehicles in March, up about 50% month-over-month (MoM), and shipment in the first quarter increased to 85,800 units. While the sales didn’t break the month record of 32,73 units that shattered in January, the figure showcased a recovery compared with February with a 36% MoM decrease. March is the first complete month that new M7 model commenced delivery. Out of the monthly shipments, 24,598 units, or 77.5%, came from the updated model.  

Yu said AITO has received more than 174,000 preorders in the first seven months since the launch of new M7 last September. Moreover, over 70,000 preorders of AITO M9 were accumulated after the flagship six-seater SUV was rolled out last December. AITO started delivery of M9 across China on February 26. Yu said its monthly delivery has topped 25,000 units to date.

During the event, Huawei released new MateBook X Pro running its proprietary HarmonyOS. It is the first laptop that allows users to tap into services of Huawei’s Pangu AI model. With AI Space, the MateBook laptop user can enjoy over 100 AI-powered applications. Yu said the laptop was lighter than the Apple Macbook Air and more powerful than the Macbook Pro.

Unexpectedly, P70 series are absent from the event. Recent rumors said Huawei will launch the flagship this month. It was said that P70 series will consist of four models: P70, P70 Pro, P70 Pro+, and P70 Art. It is expected that all models will be powered by the Kirin 9010 chipset and support 5G network like Mate60 series.The tipster at Chinese social media Weibo posted a picture of P7 back, which showcased the smartphone has a  triangular camera island and three cameras placed in a somewhat symmetrical triangle formation. The biggest camera seems to be the 50MP OmniVision main camera as the previous rumor said , while the other two are the telephoto and ultrawide units.

Credit：Weibo