Huawei's most affordable vehicle is here.

Author | Dongguan Daxiansheng

Produced by | Diandonggonghui

The SUV market below RMB 200,000 welcomes its most disruptive entrant.

On August 25, the pre-sale of the Shangjie H5, a joint venture between Huawei and SAIC, commenced, immediately igniting the market with its budget-friendly starting price of RMB 169,800 and Huawei's cutting-edge intelligent driving technology.

Within an hour of the pre-sale launch, orders surpassed 25,000 units, and within 18 hours, they hit 50,000. Shangjie H5 has swiftly become the fastest model in the Hongmeng Zhixing family to achieve "hit" status.

Dubbed the "Fifth Realm" of Hongmeng Zhixing, this product brings Huawei's intelligent driving technology to the sub-RMB 200,000 price bracket for the first time, completing a crucial shift from the high-end to the mass market.

At the Hongmeng Zhixing Autumn New Product Launch Event, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Terminal BG, quipped, "Today, we made General Jia (Jia Jianxu, President of SAIC Motor) bleed."

He revealed that Huawei's intelligent driving system is extremely costly, making a price below RMB 200,000 nearly impossible in the past. However, Shangjie H5 has achieved this feat—with a pre-sale price starting at RMB 169,800, it comes standard with Huawei's ADS 4.0 intelligent driving system, Hongmeng cockpit, 192-line LiDAR, and 4D millimeter-wave radar across all trim levels.

This allows consumers to access intelligent driving capabilities sourced from the same platform as the AITO M9 for less than RMB 200,000. The launch of Shangjie H5 marks the official entry of Huawei's Smart Selection vehicle business into the mainstream market.

01

Aggressively Targeting the Mainstream Market

Yu Chengdong has publicly stated multiple times, "It's not that we don't want to set a lower price, but there will be cost pressure if we do so within RMB 200,000, because Huawei has not yet controlled costs to such a low level."

Shangjie H5's ability to breach the RMB 200,000 threshold is largely attributed to SAIC's cost control and pricing strategy. Built on SAIC's Nebula pure electric platform and sharing its supply chain system, the vehicle, based on the SAIC Roewe ES39 model, achieves cost optimization.

The new car is meticulously positioned with superior configurations.

Shangjie H5 is a mid-size SUV with dimensions of 4780/1910/1664mm and a wheelbase of 2840mm. Both rear legroom and headroom exceed 1 meter. The seat back supports multi-level adjustment from 27° to 32°, and the trunk capacity reaches 601L, equipped with an 80L hidden storage compartment and a front trunk space of 124L.

In terms of power, the extended-range version is equipped with a 1.5L extended-range power system, offering a maximum CLTC pure electric range of 230km and a comprehensive range exceeding 1300km. The pure electric version offers two battery capacity options—64.6kWh and 80kWh—with CLTC pure electric ranges of 535km and 655km, respectively.

Shangjie H5's true core competitiveness lies in its intelligent configurations, as the car comes standard with the Hongmeng intelligent cockpit and HUAWEI ADS 4 assisted driving system across all trim levels.

The Hongmeng cockpit system supports intelligent functions such as multi-screen linkage, voice interaction, AI assistants, and smart home interconnection, maintaining Huawei's consistent advantage in intelligent interaction.

Regarding assisted driving, it's worth noting that although the promotion emphasizes the inclusion of the HUAWEI ADS 4.0 assisted driving system, there are notable differences in intelligent driving configurations between the Pro and Max versions.

The Pro version is equipped with 10 cameras, 3 4D millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars, enabling only high-speed and urban expressway NCA, urban LCC, and traffic light recognition, using a pure vision solution and not supporting urban NCA.

The Max version adds a 192-line LiDAR and a 4D millimeter-wave radar, enabling urban NCA functionality, supporting nationwide driving without maps, and possessing pilot-assisted capabilities from parking space to parking space.

This strategic configuration differentiation meets the needs of different price segments while preserving the value of high-end intelligent driving technology.

02

Capturing Market Shares from Multiple Fronts

Shangjie H5's entry directly targets the mainstream SUV market's most vulnerable aspect—intelligent experience.

Behind the Shangjie brand is the dual endorsement of SAIC and Huawei. SAIC brings a mature manufacturing system and quality foundation, while Huawei provides top-tier intelligent technology empowerment.

This cooperative model endows Shangjie H5 with the dual advantages of high intelligence and high quality. On one hand, it benefits from SAIC's 70 years of chassis tuning experience; on the other, it is built on the HUAWEI XMC digital chassis engine, performing exceptionally well in shock absorption, handling, and stability.

As the "Fifth Realm" in the Hongmeng Zhixing family, Shangjie clearly focuses on the mass market priced between RMB 150,000 and RMB 250,000. This price range is the core territory of the domestic mainstream passenger vehicle market. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, in 2024, the retail sales of passenger vehicles priced between RMB 150,000 and RMB 200,000 accounted for approximately 20% of total passenger vehicle sales.

The pure electric version of Shangjie H5 is priced between RMB 175,800 and RMB 209,800, positioning it to compete with mid-size pure electric SUVs like the Letao L60, Xpeng G6, and Lixiang L6.

The extended-range version directly competes with models such as the Zero Run C11, Deep Blue S07, Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, and even the BYD Song L DM-i and Tang DM-i. These markets were previously dominated by BYD, but Shangjie H5's entry may alter the competitive landscape.

Furthermore, Shangjie H5 may also compete for customers in the traditional fuel vehicle market. Offering the intelligent experience and low-cost travel of a new energy vehicle at a price of around RMB 150,000, it poses a significant challenge to fuel SUVs in the same price range.

Compared to models in the same price bracket, Shangjie H5's biggest advantage lies in its inclusion of Huawei's ADS intelligent driving system (Max version) and Hongmeng cockpit, making it one of the few models priced under RMB 200,000 equipped with LiDAR and urban NOA functions.

Of course, Shangjie H5 is not perfect. Compared to competitors in the same price range, it compromises in some aspects.

For instance, the 1.5L naturally aspirated range extender in the extended-range version has a power of only 72kW, 40kW less than the 1.5T range extender (112kW) of the AITO M5, potentially facing the issue of "insufficient power at high speeds." The interior material is soft leather + suede-like fabric, not as luxurious as the Nappa leather of the AITO M5, and the trunk capacity is also smaller than many competitors.

Despite competitors' advantages in power and space, Shangjie H5's unique selling points—Huawei's intelligent driving system and Hongmeng cockpit experience—remain highly attractive to potential consumers. The pre-sale performance already indicates its market potential.

We estimate that its monthly sales are expected to exceed 15,000 or even 20,000 units. If this is the case, it will not only become a new growth pole for Huawei's Smart Selection vehicle business but also reshape the competitive landscape of the SUV market at the RMB 200,000 level.

03

Five Realms Converge, Covering the Entire Market

With the addition of the Shangjie brand, the five major brands under Hongmeng Zhixing have completed coverage of the entire price range from RMB 150,000 to RMB 2 million. AITO (family), Zhijie (sports), Xiangjie (luxury), Zunjie (ultra-luxury), and Shangjie (entry-level) form a comprehensive market echelon.

Under this layout, Shangjie bears the responsibility of "volume sales." In July, Hongmeng Zhixing's total sales reached 47,752 units, with the AITO series accounting for over 85%. To achieve the annual sales target of 1 million vehicles, entry-level series like Shangjie are crucial.

Yu Chengdong announced that cumulative deliveries of Hongmeng Zhixing have surpassed 900,000 units, ranking first in the average transaction price of Chinese automobile brands for 14 consecutive months, with deliveries expected to exceed 1 million units in October this year.

Now, the successful pre-sale of Shangjie H5 signifies the realization of Huawei's intelligent automobile solutions covering the entire spectrum from high-end to mass markets, forming a complete product matrix.

For Huawei, Shangjie signifies the foundation for the large-scale application of its intelligent driving technology. Larger-scale user data will, in turn, nurture the iterative optimization of Huawei's intelligent driving algorithms, forming a closed data loop.

For SAIC, this represents a significant breakthrough in its new energy transition. SAIC has yet to make substantial progress in its new energy transition and urgently needs to quickly open the market through the Shangjie brand created in collaboration with Huawei.

Behind the overwhelming pre-sale success, capacity delivery will be Shangjie's first test. Yu Chengdong reminded SAIC in April this year to "prepare enough capacity." The surge in pre-orders for Shangjie H5 is just the beginning. As the official launch date approaches on September 23, the actual selling price may further decrease compared to the pre-sale price.

With the completion of the five-realm layout, Hongmeng Zhixing has initially formed a comprehensive intelligent automobile ecosystem, and Huawei is gradually emerging as another "giant" in the new energy vehicle market through brand cooperation with traditional automakers.

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