©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People visit the Huawei booth at the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, February 27, 2024. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Huawei said semiconductor shortages and factory relocation problems that have delayed production and deliveries of its Luxeed S7 sedan should be resolved starting next month, local media Cailianshe reported on Saturday.
He cited Huawei CEO and President of Intelligent Car Solutions Richard Yu as speaking about issues surrounding Chery’s Luxeed S7 sedan at an annual forum organized by think tank EV100.
Reuters reported in January that Chinese automaker Chery and another Huawei partner, Changan Auto, had filed complaints with Huawei about how production problems with a computing unit made by the tech giant had caused delays in deliveries of their model. tip.
The Luxeed S7 sedan, the first model in Chery’s Luxeed EV brand, had received orders for about 20,000 units as of Nov. 28. Luxeed said in January that buyers could be refunded up to 10,000 yuan if they were unable to pick up the car as promised. . The S7 price starts at 249,800 yuan ($34,716.62).
The brand only launched in November and had been highly touted by Huawei, with Yu previously saying the S7 would beat Tesla’s (NASDAQ:) luxury Model S in terms of performance and at a lower price than the Model 3.
Yu also told the EV100 forum that its automotive business unit will likely turn a profit from April after losing billions of yuan over the past year, due to strong sales of mid-to-high-end models built by its partners.
Huawei launched its smart car unit in 2019 with the aim of becoming the equivalent of German automotive supplier Bosch of the smart electric vehicle (EV) era and providing software and components to partners.
But it is the only loss-making unit among Huawei’s top six and generated just one billion yuan in revenue in the first half of 2023, a fraction of the company’s total of 310.9 billion yuan.
Last year, Huawei announced it would spin the unit into a new company that will receive the unit’s core technologies and assets and receive investment from partners such as automaker Changan.
($1 = 7.1954 renminbi)