This major smartphone OEM wants Mercedes and Audi to use its software
Huawei, a major smartphone OEM, telecom supplier, and (formerly) silicon designer, is engaging German carmakers Mercedes and Audi over a potential stake in its vehicle software business. Huawei currently supplies vehicle software to several Chinese domestic OEMs, including Seres Group, Changan Automobile, and Arcfox, as well its own joint ventures, Luxeed (co-owned by Chery) and Avatr (co-owned by CATL).
According to the report from Automotive News Europe, Huawei is enticing Mercedes and Audi to buy small stakes in its automotive technology group — likely laying the foundation for partnerships on software (i.e., for Audi and Mercedes to use Huawei’s in-vehicle OS and possibly its artificial intelligence suite). This comes on the heels of rumors that Huawei is trying to sell off its automotive business unit entirely, likely as part of efforts to distance the division from Huawei itself, which remains the target of crippling US sanctions.
Apparently, Mercedes has all but turned down Huawei, saying it has no interest in the venture and wishes to continue developing its own vehicle software in-house. The report is much less certain about Audi’s response, but as part of the larger VW Group, Audi is heavily invested in the work coming out of Cariad, Volkswagen’s own software division. However, given Cariad’s recent struggles — which possibly led to Porsche’s decision to adopt Android Automotive — perhaps Audi is interested in exploring alternatives.
That same report says Audi and Huawei could partner on autonomous driving technology… for vehicles in the Chinese market produced as part of Audi’s venture with FAW Group.
Electrek’s Take
As someone who covered Huawei extensively in my career as a tech journalist, I’m very familiar with its struggles in the international market. After brutal US sanctions were enacted, Huawei’s presence globally vanished almost overnight. While it sold off its Honor smartphone unit (though Huawei phones remain on sale in China), Huawei still has its hands in many, many businesses — automotive is just one on a long list.
Now, whether Huawei’s in-vehicle software is actually good is another question entirely. My suspicion is not that Huawei anticipates western car manufacturers wanting to adopt that software in the cars they sell in their home markets, but for the cars they sell and co-manufacture in China. The Chinese market has rather different expectations and standards when it comes to what constitutes “good” software; take a look at any Chinese smartphone running domestic apps and services and you’ll feel utterly bombarded by information and garish design elements. Couple that with the overhead of providing proper localization for all the content and interfaces in a car, and it’s not hard to see why working with a third-party software supplier for China-specific vehicles could be a defensible business position.
However, vehicle OEMs feel a deep sense of ownership over all elements of their products, even the ones they aren’t directly responsible for creating. This has been a real sticking point in getting manufacturers to adopt Android Automotive and the next generation of CarPlay, both of which tend to have applications that look and feel like their respective parent mobile operating systems (and also prominently feature their services). While Android Automotive is available as an open source platform that is fully de-Googled, I personally believe there remains intense stigma in the OEM space about using a Google software product in a vehicle. Whether that stigma is deserved is harder to say, because I don’t believe Google’s strong-arming of smartphone manufacturers over Android’s look, feel, and function would be at all replicable in the automotive space.
My guess on this whole story is that Huawei simply wants the attention in media because it believes any press is good press at this point. The company’s car software being mentioned in the same breath as brands like Audi and Mercedes supports its high valuation in the private marketplace and potentially gets it in the door for conversations with other brands. But if Mercedes’ response is any indicator, I still have serious doubts Huawei will convince anyone outside China to play ball, let alone that it can escape the US-inflicted taint on its brand.
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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