(Yicai) Jan. 27 -- New trademark filings by SAIC Motor may signal that China’s largest automaker is close to forming a deeper collaboration with Huawei Technologies in response to falling sales and earnings amid growing competition.

Earlier this month, SAIC submitted trademark applications containing the name Shangjie, according to data published yesterday on the website of the China National Intellectual Property Administration’s trademark office. It uses the same Chinese character ‘jie’ as in Wenjie, the new energy vehicle brand co-developed by Huawei and Seres Group.

Shenzhen-based Huawei does not produce its own vehicles, but works with carmakers in three ways: as vertical parts supplier, as intelligent systems provider through the Huawei Inside partnership model, and as full-set solutions provider via the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, which has been the most successful approach to date. Seres is in the HIMA grouping.

SAIC’s only previous cooperation with Huawei was over the supply of smart components for the Shanghai-based carmaker’s Roewe Feifan R7 electric vehicle model.

Allowing suppliers to provide an overall solution for SAIC would be like “selling its soul,” according to former Chairman Chen Hong. But Chen retired last July, and reports of talks on a possible tie-up between SAIC and Huawei started appearing in November.

SAIC's reconsideration may stem from Huawei's board partnerships with other automakers, which have led to significant sales growth, which contrasts with SAIC's own sharp decline in performance last year.

SAIC’s sales plunged nearly 21 percent to just over 4.01 million vehicles in 2024 from the year before, far under its annual target of 5.45 million. The company’s three joint ventures with foreign automakers -- SAIC-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, and SAIC-GM-Wuling -- all reported lower sales, with SAIC-GM’s more than halving.

In comparison, Seres sold 37,319 cars in December, bringing its yearly total to over 420,000, a nearly 183 percent increase from the previous year.

According to SAIC’s earnings forecast released on Jan. 24, it expects to report a net profit of CNY1.5 billion to CNY1.9 billion (USD206.5 million to USD261.6 million) for last year, a slump of between 87 percent and 90 percent. This is mainly due to lower sales, intense price competition, and a fourth-quarter asset impairment provision of CNY23.21 billion for SAIC-GM.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione