Huawei enters the car market. Not yet with your own car, but with the Seres SF5 with Huawei technology on board. An electrically powered car with a range extender.
Huawei is working on its own electric car, we learned at the beginning of this year. It puts in no less than 1 billion dollars and hooks up with Chinese car giants such as BAIC, GAC and Changan Automobile. In Shanghai, Huawei now presents its ‘first car’, but that is one that we already know and that is ahead of the arrival of its ‘own EV’. Huawei is going to sell the Seres SF5 in its largest Chinese stores. A car that was unveiled two years ago and was developed by the Chinese-American Seres, a manufacturer that recently offers the S3 here in the Netherlands.
So not much Huawei, you would say. Yet the tech giant is indeed responsible for technology in the SF5. Huawei, in its own words, developed the technology together with Seres that should help the 4.7 meter long SF5 to reach a range of ‘more than 1,000 km’. Huawei DriveONE is what they call it. What exactly is meant by it is not yet entirely clear, Huawei probably took care of the development of the car’s system software. The SF5 is equipped with two electric motors that together distribute 552 hp and 820 Nm over all four wheels and get their electricity from a small battery pack that is recharged by a 112 hp 1.5. Without the range extender, a fully electric range of 180 km (NEDC) is possible, according to Huawei. Those who kick the SF5 on their tail can accelerate from 0 to 100 km / h in 4.7 seconds.
Another aspect for which Huawei is responsible is the connectivity of the infotainment system. Huawei HiCar works in the Seres SF5, making it possible to connect your smartphone to the infotainment. Huawei’s version of Android Auto and Apple Carplay, straightforward. This makes it possible to use mobile apps on the infotainment screen and you can also operate everything with the voice assistant. The car can also be linked to other ‘smart devices’ that are located at home, for example, so that you can set the desired temperature at home from the car. Huawei is also responsible for adjusting the 11-speaker sound system in the SF5.
Huawei will start selling the SF5 in its stores in China this month, for a starting price of the equivalent of € 30,000. Since Seres now also sells cars in the Netherlands, you should not be surprised if the SF5 eventually becomes available here. However, that could be another version that might be more attractive: the SF5 was also presented two years ago as a fully electric variant without a range extender, with 694 electric horsepower, a 90 kWh battery pack and a driving range of 480 km ( NEDC).