(Yicai Global) Feb. 15 -- Chinese new energy vehicle maker Seres and Huawei Technologies have rebutted an online rumor that the tech giant had withdrawn its research and development team from Seres and that the two companies are parting ways.

The long-term partnership with Huawei is unchanged, Chongqing-based Seres said yesterday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s e-information platform. Huawei put out a similar statement. The tie-up will deepen further, and the partners will launch new products in the future, Seres noted.

Seres’ shares [SHA: 601127] plunged as much as 5 percent yesterday, but bounced back to end down 1 percent. The stock also fell 1 percent today to close at CNY39.03 (USD5.70).

Seres is considered to be the carmaker most deeply involved with Huawei. The pair have adopted Huawei’s Zhixuan model, in which cars are built in partnership with original equipment manufacturers. It sees the tech giant involved in product definition and vehicle design, channel sales, brand marketing, and cooperation with automakers in product styling and interior and exterior design.

Huawei has been expanding its car business under the Zhixuan model. Feixi, a county in China’s Anhui province, said on its official WeChat account that it will jointly develop a new generation of high-end smart electric vehicle platform technology with the Shenzhen-based firm.

Seres’ net loss is likely to have widened about CNY3.5 billion to CNY4 billion (USD511.5 million to USD584.6 million) last year from CNY1.8 billion the year before. But revenue is expected to have soared around 100 percent to 109 percent to between CNY33.5 billion and CNY35 billion (USD4.9 billion and USD5.1 billion).

Editor: Martin Kadiev