Japan’s Honda Motor mentioned on Tuesday it’s introducing a brand new electrical automobile model in China, and can use elements from native corporations together with CATL, Huawei, and iFlyTek because it appears to adapt to important modifications within the extremely aggressive Chinese language automotive market. The upcoming new fashions beneath the Ye collection can be outfitted with Huawei’s xScene liquid crystal show (LCD) panels and the 2 corporations are exploring extra potential collaborations, in keeping with Igarashi Masayuki, head of Honda’s China operations, monetary media outlet Caixin reported. The Japanese carmaker mentioned it has additionally partnered with synthetic intelligence agency iFlyTek in an effort to carry superior conversational AI capabilities into its cabins, whereas being open to extra joint efforts with Chinese language corporations in different fields similar to autonomous driving. In an analogous transfer, Toyota has reportedly reached a take care of Huawei to develop assisted driving features constructed upon the latter’s computing platform for its Chinese language fashions. The primary two fashions beneath Honda’s Ye collection can be launched later this 12 months, adopted by one other 4 by 2027, and can goal a extra premium section than the present e:N lineup, as a part of the agency’s plan to promote solely EVs in China by 2035. The corporate’s gross sales declined 10.1% to roughly 1.2 million models final 12 months and it’s planning to chop automobile output by 20% in China, Nikkei reported final month. [Honda announcement, Caixin, in Chinese]
