Huawei enters China's electric car race in competition with Tesla

Huawei enters China's electric car race in competition with Tesla

BEIJING — Less than a week after Chinese electric car start-up Nio announced its latest competitor to Tesla, Huawei released details on a vehicle with specs it claims beat the Model Y.

Chinese tech giant Huawei is best known for its telecommunications products and smartphones, and says it will not make cars on its own. But it has been working with automakers on car technology such as autonomous driving.

The first car with Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system will be the Aito M5, a car that runs on both electricity and fuel, Richard Yu, executive director and CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, said Thursday at the company's winter product launch event.

Huawei enters China's electric car race in competition with Tesla

Deliveries are set to begin around Feb. 20 after the Lunar New Year, said Yu, who is also CEO of Huawei's intelligent automotive business solution unit.

Post-subsidy prices for the Aito M5 start at 250,000 yuan ($39,063). That's lower than Tesla's Model Y, which starts at starts at 280,752 yuan after subsidies.

On Saturday, Nio revealed deliveries of its ET5 electric sedan would in September with a starting price of 328,000 yuan ($51,250) pre-subsidy. Nio's ET7 sedan, set for delivery in March, starts at 448,000 yuan.