Aito, a Chinese electric vehicle brand backed by Huawei, received more than 10,000 pre-orders for the M7 in just two hours, after it was unveiled on Monday.
The new model is the brand’s second production vehicle featuring Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system for cars.
While reservations do not always translate into actual sales, the M7 has captured people’s attention, signaling that Huawei is turning into a serious rival to existing carmakers since entering the burgeoning EV space about one year ago.
More than 10,000 people pre-ordered the Aito M7 sports utility vehicle in the first two hours after the car brand began accepting $149 deposits on Monday afternoon, a company spokesman told TechNode on Tuesday.
With a four-cylinder, 1.5-liter engine developed by Huawei and a 40.6 kWh battery pack supplied by CATL, the M7 will be able to go as far as 1,220 km (758 miles) on a full tank and 100% battery charge. It consumes 6.85 liters of fuel per 100 km, well below the 7.8 liters of Li Auto’s L9 SUV and the 10.8 liters of the BMW X7.
The six-seater luxury SUV will have a starting price of RMB 319,800 ($47,737) and will be delivered to customers in August.
More than 600 Huawei stores around China will provide test drives starting July 23, and that number will be increased to over 1,000 stores by year-end, according to Yu.
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