In November, American electric vehicle maker Tesla announced the planned expansion of its Shanghai factory which is to take place from December this year to April 2022. Weeks after, Chinese telecommunications company Huawei announced that it has released details on a new electric vehicle which has been touted to rival Tesla.
Apart from that, Tesla is also facing competition in China from another Chinese vehicle startup, Nio, which produced more than ten thousand vehicles in November 2021.
Huawei is highly popular for its technology products, but it has recently started to make leaps into the electric vehicle market. At the company’s winter launch, Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu said that the first vehicle to run on the HarmonyOS, developed by Huawei, is the Aito M5 which runs on both fuel and electricity. The vehicle will start deliveries in February 2022.
The HarmonyOS is an operating system designed to work in Android phones, to directly rival the general Android Operating System developed by Google.
Initial prices of the Aito M5 sit at just above $39,000, considerably lower than the new Tesla Y model which costs $60,440.
During the winter launch, Yu said that Huawei’s Aito M5 will provide direct competition with Tesla when it comes to peak power and range, specifically the Model Y. One thing that the Aito M5 has over the Tesla Model Y is the existence of a gas tank which helps to push the car further when it runs out of battery, effectively making the Aito a hybrid.
Another vehicle company is giving Tesla a run for its money. Lio Auto, another startup, offers the same features as the Aito M5, giving a fuel-powered extension feature for its latest car, the Li One. The Li One costs about $53,000 without subsidies.
The Aito M5 also directly competes with a double-layered sound-proof glass, which has been described by Richard Yu as a library-grade sound experience.