Huawei-JAC's Maextro aims to rival Rolls-Royce

In the burgeoning Chinese electric vehicle market, tech giant Huawei has launched models catering to various market segments through collaborations with local automakers.

The Maextro S800, which made its debut on Tuesday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, aims to compete with brands such as Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Maybach.

It is the first model of Maextro, the fourth brand Huawei has launched with a local automaker — JAC, and the most expensive under Huawei's Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance.

Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei's intelligent automotive solutions business unit, announced at the launch event that the electric limousine, to be priced around 1-1.5 million yuan ($138,000 to $207,000), is open for pre-sales, with buyers required to place down a deposit of 20,000 yuan.

Measuring 5,480 millimeters in length, 2,000 mm in width, and 1,536 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,370 mm, Yu said the Maextro S800 is bigger than 99.99 percent of cars on Chinese roads.

The model is designed under the Level 3 intelligent driving architecture and is the first to be built on Huawei's second-generation Tuling Intelligent Chassis. However, Huawei refrained from disclosing extensive details about the model or a specific launch date.

Xiang Xingchu, chairman of JAC Motor, said the Maextro has been given the highest level of resources of both Huawei and JAC with a strong focus on its development, manufacturing, delivery and service support, positioning it as a top-priority project.

Huawei announced that the S800 garnered 2,100 pre-orders within two days of its debut.

Huawei's HIMA now has four brands. The other three are Aito developed with Seres; Luxeed with Chery; and Stelato with BAIC.

According to Yu, HIMA achieved cumulative deliveries of 500,000 vehicles over past 32 months. He said that it is the fastest delivery record for Chinese NEV startups and most of the cars are priced at more than 300,000 yuan.

The best-selling models are the Aito M7 with cumulative orders of 300,000 units and the Aito M9, which has sold more than 180,000 units in 11 months since its launch.

At the event, Huawei also launched the new Luxeed S7 and Stelato S9 Ultra long-range version.

The new Luxeed S7 electric sedan with upgraded comfort, performance and intelligence comes at a starting price of 229,800 yuan — 20,000 yuan lower than its predecessor. Deliveries will begin from Dec 1.

Yu stated that Chery, as its partner in Luxeed, is tasked with building the 200,000-yuan-level product to the standards of a 1-million-yuan luxury car. He said he hopes to increase production capacity and leverage economies of scale to reduce losses.

He once said that most cars priced below 300,000 yuan of HIMA are essentially operating at a loss.

Over several years, Huawei's automotive business unit had been operating at a loss, but it saw revenue soar to 10.45 billion yuan and a net profit of 2.23 billion yuan in the first half of this year thanks to its high-end models.

Yu stated that HIMA aims to become No 1 in the Chinese high-end car market within the next five years.