Author | Zhou Zhiyu
Huawei wants to collaborate with partners to create a &#34;mobility intelligent entity.&#34;
On the evening of March 17, Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU CEO Jin Yuzhi and Qijing Automobile CEO Liu Jiaming jointly unveiled the Qijing brand and its first model, the GT7.
Jin Yuzhi set a significant coordinate for this vehicle—not a mobile living space, not a functional transportation tool, but an intelligent mobility entity in the AI era. &#34;We hope to jointly build Qijing into a brand that redefines the intelligent mobility entity of the AI era, a brand born for users.&#34;
The &#34;Jing&#34; series represented by Qijing is seen as Huawei's fourth cooperation model in the automotive field. It is neither a Tier 1 parts supplier, nor the HI model, nor Hongmeng Smart Travel. The Huawei team is stationed in Guangzhou for joint operations, with the IPD R&amp;D process integrated into the Qijing system, full-stack technology binding, but the brand and channels are independently managed by the Qijing team.
The product choice is equally bold. The first product is directly a 300,000-level intelligent shooting brake, with almost no direct competitors in the domestic market. No competitors also mean no validated demand.
Huawei and GAC have fired the first shot into an empty space.
<h2>Blank Space</h2>
The first car points to the shooting brake, which is a very bold choice.
According to statistics from platforms like Dongche Di, last year, the best-selling shooting car in China had a maximum monthly sales of only 6,000 units; moreover, existing players are concentrated in the 200,000 price range, making the 300,000-level intelligent shooting brake indeed a blank space.
Qijing GT7 Product General Manager Xuan Wei said that shooting brakes inherently have the elegant shape of sedans, comparable loading space of SUVs, and the performance of coupes. &#34;These have always been dream cars for everyone, and in the past, no brand could provide accessible products for everyone.&#34;
He does not believe this is a niche market. &#34;The future will not be a small-scale market, but a very large one, meeting the untapped demand potential of young people.&#34; Qijing is betting that this demand truly exists; it just hasn't been addressed in the 300,000 price range before.
The parameters of the GT7 are impressive. 5050×1980×1470mm, wheelbase 3000mm, drag coefficient 0.23Cd. It features the highest global production specification of 896-line laser radar, an 88-inch AR-HUD, three motors, 800V+6C ultra-fast charging with Kirin battery, and both pure electric and range-extended versions. Regarding the ten black technologies announced so far, Jin Yuzhi said, &#34;Many are either first launches or the most advanced functions in the same field.&#34;
But the real differentiation lies in the chassis.
Liu Jiaming revealed a key logic to Wall Street Insights: traditional chassis have precise vector control, but with Huawei's XMC intelligent brain added, &#34;you will find that the original response is not fast enough because the brain is fast, the nerves are fast, but the hands and feet are not fast enough.&#34; This has forced the industrialization of steer-by-wire chassis and brake-by-wire, reducing response time from thousands of milliseconds to milliseconds and hundred milliseconds. In extreme conditions, this speed difference can help drivers avoid danger.
&#34;This industry has been studied before, but without this soil, it is difficult to develop.&#34; Liu Jiaming analyzed, &#34;Technology drives the development of the industry, and the development of the industry drives the iteration of technology, creating a continuous rolling development.&#34;
GT7 has launched the Huawei QianKun Chitu platform and the new generation XMC digital chassis engine, collaborating with former engineers from Aston Martin and McLaren for chassis tuning. Xuan Wei revealed that last month they tested a brand new control mode in Xiangyang, &#34;At that time, all the chassis control engineers were very excited because they felt that this mode had never been tried before.&#34;
The parameters were written on the presentation slides, but the car was tested in extreme conditions.
Jin Yuzhi shared a detail from the winter test. Hulunbuir, minus 40 degrees. He and Liu Jiaming stayed next door, and the hotel had poor sound insulation. Liu Jiaming had a severe cold, and Jin Yuzhi heard him coughing all night. The next day, he skipped breakfast, took medicine, and went straight to the test site.
Liu Jiaming went to the winter test three times. Jin Yuzhi said, &#34;You can see how many CEOs in the car manufacturing industry can truly be hands-on like this.&#34;
<h2>The Fourth Path</h2>
The external focus on Qijing is not really about the car, but rather how Huawei and GAC are cooperating.
Huawei's three models for making cars have been discussed enough. Tier 1 sells components, HI collaborates deeply but the brand belongs to the car company, and Hongmeng Zhixing is led by Huawei in terms of brand and channel. Qijing is the fourth model, situated between HI and Hongmeng Zhixing, but different from both.
The core difference lies in the organizational level.
Cheng Qiutao, CMO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, said that Huawei not only provides a full-stack technical solution but also &#34;effectively imports Huawei's IPD process, with both teams working closely together. Through consensus on concepts and adherence to processes, both sides continuously generate chemical reactions.&#34; It's not just about selling technology; it's about delivering organizational capabilities and R&amp;D processes.
The Huawei team is stationed in Guangzhou, working in a shared office, participating in the entire process from underlying processes to technical architecture. However, the leading authority on brand and channel lies with Qijing—using a &#34;1+N&#34; dealership model, planning to open over 300 stores in 76 cities nationwide by the end of May.
Why GAC? The cooperation logic of Huawei QianKun &#34;Jing&#34; series is to find car companies with a foundation in vehicle manufacturing but have not yet broken into the high-end intelligent market. GAC happens to fit this profile—within the independent brand system, Trumpchi maintains a base in fuel vehicles, Aion focuses on volume, and Haobo aims for high-end but with limited results. The 300,000-level intelligent high-end market is a clear blank space.
GAC has the foundation for car manufacturing but lacks the brand momentum for intelligence; Huawei has the technology and brand appeal and needs a partner with manufacturing experience willing to provide independent mechanism space. Qijing operates independently from GAC's existing independent brand lines, with its own brand system and operation team, and this mechanism itself is GAC's sincerity.
The integration of the two systems is bound to have friction.
Liu Jiaming did not shy away from this: &#34;In cooperation with General Jin's team, disputes are inevitable.&#34; He defines the collisions as a healthy mechanism—&#34;As someone from the automotive industry, working with General Jin's team from the intelligent technology field, we view the future from different dimensions. This opposition and discussion can actually help us understand the same issue more thoroughly.&#34;
In his words, &#34;arguing is healthier.&#34;
He also acknowledged that the empowerment from the Huawei team is not just technical. &#34;General Jin's team, during the empowerment process, brought us a very effective working method. This method has made our execution more efficient and allowed us to grasp market trends more quickly and accurately
For Huawei, Aito is the beginning of the QianKun 'Jing' series. Jin Yuzhi said that Huawei QianKun is 'unreservedly supportive of the Aito brand.' If this model works, other brands like Dongfeng's 'Yijing' will follow a similar path. Aito is not just a new car; it is a new testing ground for Huawei's automotive business.
<h2>Defining AI Cars</h2>
The challenges faced by players like Aito and others in the 'Jing' category are very real: this year, at least a dozen car manufacturers and over 15 models are focusing on the AI concept. How exactly do we define AI cars?
Behind this question lies the anxiety of the entire industry. When everyone is talking about AI in cars, AI cars become a label that anyone can attach, but no one can clearly define.
Jin Yuzhi did not provide quantitative standards but offered a framework. He calls it the 'third generation of cars.' The first generation is transportation tools. The second generation is mobile living spaces, focusing on space and comfort. The third generation is intelligent travel entities, with AI as the core variable.
Aito's English name AISTALAND breaks down to AI Start New Land—opening a new realm of automotive travel with AI. This is not just a brand name; it feels more like a declaration: Aito aims not to compete in the existing track but to define a new category.
He broke it down into four dimensions: driving, where ultimately there will be a robotic driver to help you drive; the cabin, which should know when to proactively serve and when not to, and it should understand you; the whole vehicle, transforming from a cold machine into an emotional passenger; control, where AI intervenes to predict and actively adjust, shifting from passive safety to active safety.
'Standing at the wave of this great era of AI, we have just begun, and opportunities have just opened up,' Jin Yuzhi said.
Liu Jiaming added another layer from the perspective of the industrial chain. He believes that AI cars are currently difficult to define precisely. 'In the past, we talked about what L3 and L4 were, but even today, there are no specific definitions.' However, technology is driving change—AI is creating a demand for digital chassis, which in turn forces the industrialization of drive-by-wire chassis, and the maturity of drive-by-wire chassis further promotes the release of AI capabilities. 'This third generation of cars in the AI era is indeed a complete industrial revolution.'
This is the underlying logic of Aito's gamble. Whether a 300,000-level station wagon is a false demand and whether Huawei's fourth model can succeed are specific business questions. But what Jin Yuzhi and Liu Jiaming are really betting on is something bigger—the automotive industry in the AI era does not yet have a standard answer. Whoever first translates the concept into a perceivable product experience will gain the right to define it.
This is not just a matter for one company. Over the past decade, China's new energy vehicle industry has completed a leap from catching up to running alongside, with the core driving force being the domestic replacement of the three electric technologies. The competitive dimension for the next decade has already shifted from electrification to intelligence, from hardware stacking to AI-defined experiences. The ticket to this round of competition is not batteries and motors, but integrated system capabilities like intelligent driving algorithms, digital chassis, and AI cabins.
Huawei and GAC have chosen Aito to present their first answer sheet. If the GT7 is accepted by the market after its launch in June, it will validate not just a car or a brand, but the industrial model of 'Chinese tech companies + Chinese car manufacturers' deep co-creation
Once this model is established, there will be more &#34;Jing&#34; series in the future, and more car companies will attempt similar paths.
Liu Jiaming recounted a past story. He graduated in 1998 and joined Guangzhou Automobile Industry during its lowest point. Out of 63 classmates, he was the only one still involved in car manufacturing. &#34;At that time, we couldn't even assemble a car after our studies.&#34;
From being unable to produce cars, to being able to produce cars, to producing good cars, and then to defining cars, the Chinese automotive industry has gone through nearly thirty years. Qijing may be able to open up this new decade

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- Huawei has introduced the AISTALAND brand and its first model, the GT7, emphasizing a transformative approach to intelligent mobility.  
- This initiative represents Huawei's fourth collaboration model in the automotive sector, integrating its technology while allowing independent branding and operation by its partners.  
- The GT7 aims to meet unfulfilled market demands in the 300,000 CNY segment and seeks to redefine AI-driven automobiles by focusing on an AI-centric driving experience and innovative functionalities.

Huawei partners with GAC to open the door to AI cars