Tech giants are increasingly interested in the car industry and after rumors that Apple could launch its own vehicle, Huawei has just entered the market with the SF5 , a plug-in hybrid crossover with range over 1000 km (NEDC).
But despite being already present on Huawei's website for ordering and will soon start showing up in some of the Asian tech company's stores, the SF5 is far from being created from scratch by the tech giant. Huawei has teamed up with Chinese manufacturer SERES to update the existing SF5, which was originally released in 2019.
However, this does not invalidate the fact that this is the first car marketed by Huawei, which has already made it known that it intends to invest a billion dollars (approximately 832 million euros) in the development of autonomous driving technologies.
For the Celius Huawei Smart Choice SF5, as it is officially called, Huawei guarantees that it helped SERES in the development of the drive system, which consists of a 1.5 liter gasoline engine combined with two electric thrusters, for a combined power of 550 hp (405 hp) kW) and 820 Nm of maximum torque.
Huawei did not go into great detail about how this hybrid system works, but it is known that the gasoline engine works as a generator to power the battery pack, which in turn “animates” the two electric motors.
0 to 100 km/h in 4.7s
All in all, this crossover is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.7s and traveling up to 180 km using only electricity, with total autonomy exceeding 1000 km, according to the permissive NEDC cycle.
At 4700 mm long, 1930 mm wide and 1625 mm high, the SF5 has a wheelbase of 2875 mm and presents itself with a sober look that rests on a body of fluid lines, retractable door handles and a luminous signature (LED) distinct.
However, it is inside the cabin that the “touch” of Huawei is most felt. The technology company says it has paid special attention to the sound system with 11 speakers and the infotainment system, which can be controlled by voice.
The sound insulation also deserved extra care on the part of Huawei, which claims to have created a “silent experience at the level of a library”.
A Power Bank on wheels?
Equipped with adaptive high-speed cruise control for highways, and with a traffic congestion assistant with lane centralization and emergency braking system, the Celius Huawei Smart Choice SF5 also stands out for its charging function (vehicle-to-vehicle ) that it presents, as it is capable of powering other cars or equipment, such as camping equipment.
Richard Yu, executive director of HuaweiThis exciting announcement sets a precedent for both the consumer electronics industry and the electric car industry. In the future, not only do we want to provide benchmark solutions to help our partners build smarter cars, we want to help them sell these vehicles through our network of stores across China.
As mentioned above, Huawei is already accepting orders for the SF5, whose prices start — approximately — at 31,654 euros for the four-wheel drive version and 27,790 euros for the two-wheel drive variant.