(Yicai) May 31 -- Hozon Auto, the Chinese carmaker owner of electric vehicle brand Neta, has reportedly selected Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud computing provider for its overseas expansion.

Hozon Auto allied with the cloud computing arm of US e-commerce giant Amazon at the Amazon Web Services China Summit held yesterday, The Paper reported today, citing the carmaker. It will rely on the Seattle-based firm's worldwide infrastructure and cloud services to quickly build a global intelligent network system, it added.

Hozon Auto began to expand overseas in 2022, selling 13,000 units abroad in the first four months of this year to rank first among Chinese NEV startups, said Dai Dali, chief technology officer of Neta Auto. It owns three factories in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia and is launching localized production, Dai added.

Hozon Auto aims to sell 1 million units in 2026, with overseas markets likely contributing between 30 percent and 40 percent, Zhou Jiang, vice president of Neta Auto, noted. The goal is to achieve equal sales in China and abroad, Zhou added.

As Chinese companies compete overseas, the rivalry in overseas markets will become as fierce as in the domestic market within three to five years, Zhou pointed out.

Dai and Zhou also pointed out some challenges Chinese carmakers face when going overseas.

Fourth-generation network cards are needed for smart vehicle networks, but different countries have different requirements, including network response speed, internet quality, and stability, which is a technical challenge for carmakers, Dai noted.

There are also cultural differences in marketing, Zhou said. For example, the mature 4S, or Sale, Spare parts, Service and Survey, store model in China is refused in some markets, and digital marketing methods such as the application user system have not been popularized, Zhou added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev