BYD is going to join hands with Huawei for a major collaboration

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

BYD is involved in the second half of intelligent driving, with new actions.

On August 8th, it was reported that BYD's high-end brand, Fangcheng Leopard, will use Huawei's advanced intelligent driving system in some models of its new model, Leopard 8. A source close to BYD mentioned that more detailed information about Leopard 8 will be gradually released in September.

Previously, Xiong Tianbo, the general manager of Fangcheng Leopard's car sales, stated that Leopard 8 will bring new surprises in intelligent driving.

Leopard 8 is the second model under Fangcheng Leopard, positioned as a hardcore off-road vehicle with a price range of around 500,000 RMB. The models displayed at the Beijing Auto Show were already equipped with LiDAR.

In this collaboration, the model will be equipped with Huawei's Gan Kun ADS 3.0. This intelligent driving system has been in the works for a while and will be integrated into various models of Aito, IM Motors, as well as other brands like Avita, Voyah, and Trumpchi.

In the past two years, BYD, which has established itself in the mass market, has begun to pursue the high-end market, with Fangcheng Leopard being a key driver.

However, this year, the monthly sales of Leopard 5, a model under Fangcheng Leopard, have been hovering around 3,000 units. To boost sales, on July 29th, BYD reduced the price of Leopard 5 by 50,000 RMB to a range of 239,800 to 302,800 RMB.

According to Xiong Tianbo, Fangcheng Leopard has established nearly 200 direct stores and is also introducing dealers. She also mentioned that the construction of Fangcheng Leopard's 1.0 brand has been completed, and it is now entering the 2.0 era.

Currently, the announced models under Fangcheng Leopard include the hardcore off-road SUV Leopard 5, Leopard 8, Leopard 3, and the sports car SUPER 9. In Fangcheng Leopard's plan, the products will be divided into three product lines using a "2+X" model. Here, 2 represents the off-road and sports car lines, while "X" represents products in niche areas.

However, the main task for Fangcheng Leopard at the moment is to boost the sales of existing models and find more selling points for upcoming models. Partnering with Huawei in intelligent driving is a key strategy.

In fact, since last year, BYD's attitude towards intelligent driving has undergone a significant transformation and has accelerated its involvement in the intelligent driving trend.

In the field of intelligent driving, BYD has chosen to develop its own technology while also collaborating, a path taken by many companies in the industry.

In January this year, BYD showcased its intelligent driving capabilities through a technology conference. At that time, BYD stated that the iteration speed of its intelligent driving system can reach "a small version every day, a major version every week."

During this conference, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu also revealed that BYD has over 4,000 intelligent driving research and development personnel, more than many new players in the industry.

Furthermore, BYD has also brought in many high-level executives from the intelligent driving industry. For example, Liao Jie, former Director of Intelligent Driving Development at Horizon Robotics, Xu Lingyun, former Director of Intelligent Driving at HiPhi Auto, and Zhou Peng, Head of Baidu's Cabin-Driving Fusion Intelligent Driving Technology, have all joined BYD.

Currently, BYD's self-developed intelligent driving solutions are mainly used in models under the Tang brand. In June, Zhao Changjiang, the sales director of Tang Auto, live-streamed the experience of the city's NOA navigation function in the N7 model, showcasing Tang's intelligent driving capabilities At the same time, BYD will also choose to cooperate with suppliers, adopting their intelligent driving solutions and chips. However, previously, it mainly adopted solutions from startups such as Horizon Robotics, Momenta, Black Sesame Intelligence, and DJI. When cooperating with these suppliers, BYD has strong bargaining power, loading different intelligent driving solutions from different suppliers on models in different price segments to reduce costs.

In the era of electrification, BYD has already proven its capabilities. However, in the era of intelligence, many players started earlier than BYD, so BYD also needs to catch up.

On August 8th, BYD's brand launched its first model equipped with LiDAR - the BYD Sea Lion, further improving the intelligent driving puzzle of various brands under BYD.

At the beginning of the year, BYD announced that models priced above 200,000 RMB will be equipped with advanced intelligent driving systems, while models priced above 300,000 RMB will come standard. This is gradually being realized now.

The strong alliance between BYD and Huawei will also bring more imagination to the industry.

Nowadays, the automotive industry is gradually concentrating towards the top players. For those companies still on the edge, the time for elimination is further shortened