Seres and Huawei have been tied together for another five years.

Author | Zhou Zhiyu

The "upgrade of cooperation model" between Seres and Huawei has reached a critical juncture.

Wall Street News learned on October 1 that on September 30, the signing ceremony for the strategic cooperation agreement on the upgrade of HarmonyOS's intelligent mobility business was held in Shenzhen. Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Terminal BG, and Zhang Xinghai, Chairman of Seres Group, attended the ceremony, and the two parties reached a cooperation agreement for the next five years.

Both parties stated that they will continue to uphold the Wenjie high-end intelligent vehicle brand positioning, jointly establish a dedicated Wenjie business team, better serve users through exclusive dealerships, and promote the Wenjie brand upward.

However, sources familiar with the matter said that how the two parties will form a dedicated team for the Wenjie business will gradually become clear in the future.

Two weeks ago, the two parties announced that Seres would lead the product definition, design, marketing, channels and services of the "Ask Boundary" platform, with Huawei Terminal providing support. On September 28, Yu Chengdong reiterated this arrangement and stated that more resources would be allocated to strengthen the other four aspects.

The newly announced five-year cooperation includes the addition of a joint team to establish a dedicated business team for the "Quest for the World" initiative, while the exclusive operation will continue to be promoted.

Within a multi-brand collaboration system, dedicated stores can concentrate sales resources, while a dedicated team helps both parties allocate manpower and coordinate business around the needs of the brand. Technology can be applied to more car models, but the R&D team, marketing budget, and sales staff's time cannot be increased indefinitely. While the brand already has its own users and stores, the other four areas still require more investment, and brand management necessitates more meticulous resource allocation.

For established players in the market, channel management requires more meticulous planning. In 2025, Seres' sales expenses reached 24.194 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.12%, faster than the revenue growth rate of 13.69%. The company explained that this was mainly due to the growth in new energy vehicle business volume, leading to increased advertising and sales service expenses. While increased scale brought revenue, it also brought more sales investment.

In the first half of this year, Seres' net profit attributable to the parent company turned from a profit of 2.941 billion yuan in the same period last year to a loss of 1.717 billion yuan. The company attributed the profit decline to changes in product sales structure, iteration of main models, price increases for components such as batteries and chips, and asset impairment provisions. When products and procurement are under pressure, the efficiency of sales investment will also affect how much profit the company can retain.

Sharing channels among multiple brands can reduce investment in duplicate store construction and also allow brands to compete for the same sales resources. A source close to HarmonyOS points out that currently, over half of HarmonyOS's revenue and customer traffic comes from Wenjie, but the proportion of sales resources it receives does not match this level. For Wenjie, exclusive distribution helps it concentrate its booth space, sales leads, and sales staff's energy on its own products and customers.

This also benefits from an existing store base. According to Kang Bo, Director and Vice President of the Seres Group, Wenjie has established over 400 user centers, covering more than 200 cities nationwide, with Seres consistently leading the delivery and after-sales service. Exclusive stores also rely on sales to cover rent and personnel costs. With sales resources becoming more concentrated, whether existing customers continue to visit stores and whether sales leads can be converted into orders will still affect customer acquisition costs.

The previous collaboration between HarmonyOS and Seres had already had a certain impact on consumers. Many consumers who planned to order the Huawei M8 or M9 told Wall Street Insights that they began to hesitate after the adjustment of the collaboration. What they valued was Huawei's R&D capabilities and subsequent upgrades.

Now, the two parties have reached a new five-year cooperation agreement and jointly established a dedicated team, providing a clearer cooperation arrangement for the continued operation of Wenjie.

Technological cooperation already has a long-standing foundation. Seres holds a 10% stake in Invenview, and Kang Bo previously stated that Invenview will continue to receive relevant technologies, products, and supply guarantees from Huawei. Invenview provides intelligent solutions and collaborates with Huawei Terminal on product definition, marketing, and retail—these represent different levels of cooperation. Once the technology is implemented in vehicles, the specific product and operational details—such as vehicle positioning, configuration selection, and target customers—still require concrete product and operational planning.

If Seres wants to retain more profit from the industry, it needs to generate more orders with the same sales investment, while retaining customers who recognize Huawei and are willing to pay high prices for the industry.

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