It has been six years since Huawei proposed the statement of "not making cars, focusing on ICT technology, and helping car companies make good cars". During this period, the HarmonyOS intelligent driving system has gradually grown, and its five major brands, including Wenjie, Zhijie, Xiangjie, Zunjie, and Shangjie, have jointly formed the "Five Realms" matrix. The market performance continues to rise, becoming an undeniable force in the field of intelligent cars. By November 2025, the total delivery volume of the "Five Realms" has ranked among the top ten domestic car companies and the first among new car making forces. This achievement not only confirms the feasibility of Huawei's technology empowerment model, but also raises more discussions on the industry positioning of HarmonyOS.

With the launch of the "Environment Series" brand by Yinwang Intelligence, Huawei's layout for intelligent automotive business has become increasingly clear, and the recent annual live streaming event "Extraordinary Step | Together with HarmonyOS Intelligent Travel" held in Shanghai has become a key node. In this event, Huawei and the "Five Realms" brand officially announced the comprehensive deepening of strategic cooperation, marking the official transition of HarmonyOS from a loose cooperation system to a standardized technology alliance, and also attempting to reshape industry rules through ecological collaboration.

Huawei's Dual Track Parallel Intelligent Automotive Strategy

Huawei's layout in the field of intelligent vehicles has always revolved around its commitment to "not building complete vehicles", but its involvement goes far beyond traditional supplier roles. In recent years, Huawei has advanced its automotive strategy through two parallel but clearly positioned paths: one led by terminal BG and centered around the "Jie" series; The other one is handled by the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU (Vehicle BU), with the "Jing" series as the carrier. These two paths are not in competition with each other, but are based on the different demands and capability structures of cooperative car companies, forming a complementary and collaborative ecological matrix. Prior to this strategic cooperation upgrade, the operational model of HarmonyOS was more inclined towards loose linear cooperation. Although Huawei Terminal BG plays a leading role in product positioning, design, and manufacturing, its cooperation with vehicle groups such as SAIC, Chery, and BAIC is carried out in a one-on-one manner, and there are differences in the degree of dependence of each brand on marketing channels and the construction standards of backend service systems. In this mode, the "Five Realms" brand not only shares Huawei's technology endorsement and the "Jie" logo, but also has weak horizontal connections, which not only leads to the problem of repeated investment internally, but also confuses consumers about the brand attributes of HarmonyOS, and even raises questions from users about "which sub brand is HarmonyOS". With the expansion of market size and the intensification of industry competition, this loose joint model is no longer suitable for development needs, and unifying standards and integrating resources have become inevitable choices.

This cooperation upgrade revolves around the concept of "unified standards and resource co construction", and the implementation of a series of measures not only solves the pain points of past development, but also clearly defines the industrial positioning of HarmonyOS. At the technical level, Hongmeng Zhixing promotes the normalization and platformization of core technologies and components such as cockpit, intelligent driving, and cloud services. Through unified quality control and ecological interfaces, it effectively reduces internal redundant research and development investment and improves the operational efficiency of the entire system. This means that products from different "world" brands will share the same core technology experience, avoiding the problem of inconsistent user experience caused by technological fragmentation. In terms of service system construction, a cross brand shared after-sales service center network will achieve standardized services throughout the pre-sales, delivery, and after-sales processes. At present, the cooperation model of the "Jie" series highly relies on Huawei's consumer electronics experience and channel advantages in the BG terminal. From Wanjie to Shangjie, every car model is deeply involved by Huawei in product definition, industrial design, intelligent experience, and even sales. When consumers enter Huawei stores, they not only see smartphones and tablets, but also intelligent cars equipped with HarmonyOS cockpit and ADS advanced intelligent driving system. This model ensures a high degree of consistency in user experience and enables Huawei to quickly convert brand momentum in the consumer electronics field into actual sales in the automotive market. In 2025, the cumulative delivery volume of the "Five Realms" continues to rise, confirming the effectiveness of this model in the market. More importantly, Huawei has controlled user touchpoints and data loops through terminal BG, laying the foundation for its subsequent software services and ecosystem expansion.

At the same time, the "Jing" series is aimed at large state-owned car companies such as GAC and Dongfeng, adopting a more prominent cooperation approach that emphasizes the subjectivity of the main engine manufacturers. Under this path, Huawei Automotive BU provides full stack technology solutions, including Qiankun Intelligent Driving System, HarmonyOS Intelligent Cockpit, and cloud service support, and dispatches hundreds of teams for joint development. However, brand ownership, sales channels, and manufacturing systems are still dominated by partner car companies. This type of cooperation avoids a severe impact on the existing system of traditional car companies, allowing them to complete intelligent transformation while retaining their own brand genes. For example, although GAC's "Qijing" and Dongfeng's "Yijing" have not been sold in Huawei stores, they share the same technology base with the "Jie" series in terms of core technology, reflecting Huawei's standardization ability in technology output.

Ecological synergy from product alliance to service community

If early HarmonyOS focused more on the success of a single vehicle model, then the deepening of the current "Five Realms" alliance marks Huawei's push for the entire cooperation system to move from product level collaboration to ecological level integration. The core of the multiple measures announced at this Shanghai event is to break down brand boundaries and build a unified user value network. The most notable directions are the unification of service systems and the co construction of energy replenishment networks. In terms of after-sales service, although various "world" brands have shared Huawei technology in the past, there are still differences in after-sales outlets and service standards. With the establishment of the alliance mechanism, Huawei is promoting cross brand shared service centers, where users can enjoy the same standard of repair, maintenance, and technical support at any authorized outlet, regardless of whether they purchase from Wanjie or Zunjie. This change greatly improves user convenience and reduces the cost of building a separate service system for cooperative car companies.

Furthermore, Huawei has extended the "user center" concept in the consumer electronics field to the automotive industry, creating a service space similar to the "HarmonyOS Hotel" - providing free high-quality catering, children's play areas, business office facilities, and even 24-hour "starry night service". This service experience that goes beyond the traditional 4S store model is becoming an important label that sets Hongmeng Zhixing apart from other new forces. The co construction of energy replenishment networks is a crucial step in addressing users' long-term pain points. Previously, although the "Five Realms" models generally supported fast charging, the lack of a dedicated charging network has always been a focus of user complaints. The alliance has clearly stated that it will jointly invest in the construction of the "HarmonyOS Smart Charging Station", which means that in the future, car owners can obtain reliable and efficient charging experiences in a unified brand and standard charging facility. This not only improves the convenience of use, but also enhances brand loyalty, taking substantial steps towards the transformation of Hongmeng Zhixing from "selling cars" to "providing full lifecycle travel services". In addition, measures such as technological standardization, joint innovation centers, and marketing integration have further strengthened the collaborative efficiency within the alliance. By unifying the interface specifications between HarmonyOS cockpit and intelligent driving system, each partner can reduce repetitive verification and adaptation work, accelerate product iteration; The Joint Innovation Center provides a collaborative research platform for the next generation of intelligent automotive technologies, such as vehicle road cloud integration and AI large model in car applications; The alliance level marketing mechanism helps to integrate resources, form resonance in volume at major nodes, and avoid dilution of communication caused by individual efforts. At the same time, in this live broadcast, Yu Chengdong systematically revealed for the first time the product blueprint of HarmonyOS next year: at least 12 new or upgraded models will be queued up for the market, with unprecedented density, covering all mainstream and high-end segmented markets from coupes, SUVs to MPVs. This vast product network has clear division of labor and coordinated operations among various "boundaries".

This comprehensive synergy from products to services, from technology to ecology is essentially building an intelligent automotive "operating system ecosystem" centered around Huawei. In this ecosystem, car companies are no longer isolated competitors, but participants in jointly maintaining user experience standards; Users are no longer just car buyers, but a part of HarmonyOS' digital life. Although Huawei does not have the qualification to manufacture complete vehicles, it has achieved deep embedding in key links of the industry chain by defining experience standards, controlling core interactive interfaces, and integrating service resources. The formation of the "Five Realms" alliance of HarmonyOS not only reflects Huawei's clear positioning in the automotive industry - it is neither a traditional Tier 1 supplier nor a vehicle manufacturer, but an ecological architect and experience definer - but also reveals that the essence of future intelligent car competition will shift from single product performance to system capabilities for full chain user experience. The success of this model will ultimately depend on whether it can continue to fulfill its promise of "consistent and high-quality" user experience, and maintain technological leadership and service innovation in the fierce market competition.