New AI Alliance New Seres Car Brand Without Huawei

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With its new AI brand, AIVA, Seres is breaking away from its partner Huawei. In the future, the onboard computer will be supplied by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. In this way, the manufacturer is seeking a second source of revenue.

The Chinese manufacturer Seres has unveiled a new car brand. The electric cars will be called “AIVA.” The first model in the series, called “ME7,” is set to hit the market before the end of this year. Exact prices have not yet been announced. According to media reports, however, Seres is targeting the mass market with all of its planned models, with prices starting above 200,000 yuan (about $30,000).

Unlike with the successful “AITO” model, which was developed in collaboration with Huawei, Seres is partnering this time with the AI company Bytedance. Among other things, the company is the parent company of the video app known as TikTok abroad and as Douyin in China.

For the new brand, Volcano Engine, a Bytedance subsidiary, is providing the Doubao language model—which is widely used in China—and the cockpit system. When it came to assisted driving, Seres also opted against Huawei and chose Deep Route AI instead.

“First Comes AI, then the Car”

During the brand launch, the company went to great lengths to position AIVA as an example of “AI-defined driving”: “First comes the AI, then the car,” said AIVA CEO Li Bo. Traditional vehicle development relies on surveys and human judgment. In the AI era, however, user needs can be anticipated on a large scale.

Li Bo, a former Huawei executive, used an analogy from the mining industry: “In the past, people mined the ore. Now AI does the mining, and people focus on finding the gold.”

AITO's Success Became A Risk

For most analysts in China, who have long been accustomed to grandiose AI promises, however, Huawei's shift in strategy and the new alliance with Bytedance are the main focus.

The AITO brand, developed in collaboration with Huawei, has been very successful: Of the 472,000 electric and hybrid vehicles that Seres sold in 2025, 426,000 were AITO models (90%). In contrast, Seres’ own brands—without Huawei—barely sold at all. AITO temporarily drove Seres’ market capitalization to more than 300 billion yuan (approximately $44 billion), making the company one of the most successful manufacturers of electric cars in China’s premium segment.

From Seres’ perspective, however, it was precisely this success that became a risk. Some observers now viewed the company merely as a kind of hardware supplier that assembles cars for Huawei. Seres wants to shake off this reputation as a contract manufacturer.

High Royalties Paid to Huawei

Beyond image, there are concrete economic facts at play: According to estimates by Chinese trade media, Huawei receives approximately 136,000 yuan (about $20,000) for every AITO sold. The latest results for the first quarter of this year show what this means for Seres. Revenue rose by 34 percent year-over-year to 25.7 billion yuan (about $4 billion). Net income, however, adjusted for one-time items, plummeted by 74 percent to just over 100 million yuan (about $15 million).

Seres is therefore in urgent need of a second source of revenue. The company is repositioning itself as an ecosystem partner not only for Huawei but also for the AI company Bytedance. If the AIVA cars sell even close to as well as the AITO, this is likely to be seen as a smart move in the future. To achieve this, however, the new assistance system must first prove itself in practice.

New Contract Manufacturer With A Municipal Investor

The AIVA series will be manufactured by a new, legally independent company. On May 29, the former Seres subsidiary Landian Technology was renamed “Chongqing Saidou Technology.” Shortly before that, the company completed a capital increase of approximately 6.7 billion yuan (about $1 billion) and took on several new shareholders.

Since then, the largest shareholder has no longer been Seres, but rather “Shaci Zhiyuan,” a municipal investment platform of the Shapingba District in Chongqing. It holds a 34.5 percent stake, while Seres holds 33.0 percent. The battery manufacturer CATL holds a 9.9 percent stake through its investment company, Wending Investment. In addition, there are employee stock ownership plans and several smaller investors.

Saidou thus became an independent company in which a public investor holds a majority stake. Observers view this arrangement as an attempt by Seres to avoid conflicts with Huawei. Nevertheless, the cars will be built—at least initially—at Seres’ “Phoenix Plant” in Chongqing.

Betting on New Business Models

However, interpreting the new partnership solely as a move to distance itself from Huawei would be an oversimplification. For Seres and Bytedance, it is also a gamble: the ongoing convergence of AI and the automotive industry requires not only new products but also new business models.

If successful, Bytedance could use AIVA as a springboard for a larger entry into the automotive industry—similar to what Huawei did with its HIMA Alliance. In addition to the AITO developed with Seres, Huawei launched the Luxeed in partnership with Chery, the Stelato with BAIC, and the Shangjie with SAIC. Bytedance could replicate this winning formula used by its rival electronics conglomerate. Ideally, its language model, Doubao, would then be used in as many cars as possible.

For Seres, whose partnership with Huawei is not exclusive to begin with, the goal is to prove its capabilities as an automaker outside the Huawei ecosystem. The plan seems well thought out. The first AIVA model—the acronym stands for “Artificial Intelligence Voyage Ahead”—is eagerly anticipated in the industry.