(Yicai Global) Nov. 25 -- Huawei Technologies is not making smart autos, but will provide the technologies needed to build intelligent connected vehicles, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker said at an internal forum today.

Huawei will provide the information and communication technology that carmakers rely on to produce smart vehicles, the Shenzhen-based firm said. The firm will combine its smart car and consumer businesses and merge their investment review boards. Yu Chengdong, head of the consumer business group, will serve as director of the conjoined IRB, it added.

“Anyone who suggests the firm is making vehicles and interferes with the company’s decisions will be removed from his position,” Huawei said, responding to recent rumors that it was to start making cars.

The decision comes into force immediately and will be valid for three years, it added, implying that Huawei will not enter the auto manufacturing sector for at least three years.

Huawei earlier this month sold Honor, the budget handset smartphone brand that helped make it the world’s second-biggest handset supplier last year. This left a huge gap in the firm’s consumer business that can be plugged by combining its smart car business with its consumer business, an analyst said.

Editor: Kim Taylor