According to Caixin on July 9th, Huawei's third round of models under the Huawei Select Car initiative began pre-orders, and opened tours in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou and Wuhan.

It is understood that Enjoycar S9 is an executive-level luxury car co-produced by Huawei and BAIC Bluepark, benchmarking Audi A8L, BMW 7 Series 750Li and Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars, with a pre-sale price ranging from 0.45 million to 0.55 million yuan.

Recently, Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, interacted with users and introduced the Enjoycar S9 model through a live broadcast at the flagship store in Huawei Bantian G District, Shenzhen.

After the success of the Askcar M9's attack on the high-end market, BAIC and Huawei have high expectations for the Enjoycar S9. According to documents released on the official website of BAIC Bluepark, Enjoycar S9 is expected to sell a total of 0.48 million units during its lifecycle (5 years).

The reporter of Caixin learned from the store sales office that dealers need to obtain authorization from BAIC's brand to display the Enjoycar S9 demonstrator vehicle, as well as have certain requirements for the store exhibition area.

Delivery of existing cars is in August and store display requires BAIC's authorization.

After the Enjoycar S9 launched a city tour, Caixin reporters visited the Huawei direct store in Shenzhen.

The storefront sales representative told Caixin, "The Enjoycar S9 is currently only available for pre-order and will be officially delivered in August. There will be some existing cars on the market that can be delivered directly. "If the configuration you want is not available, based on the past delivery experience of the Askcar M9, the delivery cycle for new orders is about 8 weeks."

The reporter of Caixin noticed that customers who experienced and inquired about the Enjoycar S9 in the store were mostly male consumers between the ages of 35 and 45. Due to the display of new cars, there were noticeably more inquiries and experiences of the Enjoycar S9 than the Askcar series and the Smartcar S7.

The salesman told Caixin, "Although the Askcar M9 and Enjoycar S9 are both positioned as high-end luxury cars, there are some differences in the users who come to inquire and experience. The Askcar M9 is mostly used by family users and bosses, while the Enjoycar S9 is basically bosses who come to inquire. "

Earlier, the Askcar M9 broke through 0.1 million orders in half a year, giving Huawei Hongmeng smart travel great confidence to attack the high-end luxury car market. Yu Chengdong is equally enthusiastic about the promotion of the Enjoycar S9. At the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Auto Show in June, he invited Zhou Hongyi to experience the Enjoycar S9, and recently during this year's Huawei Developer Conference, he invited Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei to test drive the new car.

Currently, the Enjoycar S9 only has the pure electric model. Some people in the auto industry believe that considering the issue of dependence on energy supplementation, the sales volume of pure electric versions of the same model are generally significantly lower than that of the extended-range or plug-in versions. The Enjoycar S9 only has a pure electric version, and the industry has reservations about whether it can replicate the sales performance of the Askcar M9.

The storefront sales thus told Caixin, "The customers who inquire generally consider purchasing the Enjoycar S9 as their second car. Cars of this level host high-end business people in the city and with a 100kWh battery pack, the continuous journey mileage of over 800 km is sufficient for short trips."

Upon closer inspection of the list of first batch display stores for the Enjoycar S9, it can be found that most of them are Huawei direct stores. A dealer told Caixin, "The Enjoycar S9 model itself is relatively large, so not all stores have space to display it. Moreover, only with the approval of the BAIC brand can it be displayed."

The dealer added that the selling price of the direct store and dealer store also needs to be consistent. "I heard that some stores offered a 10,000 yuan discount and were fined."

Can the first Huawei Select Car for BAIC save the "Polar Fox"?

In fact, the Enjoycar S9 is not the first co-produced car model between Huawei and BAIC Bluepark. Previously, Huawei had partnered with BAIC New Energy's brand Polar Fox, and together they delivered the new Alpha S full HI version in July 2022, with the price lowered to 0.1 million yuan in May 2023 and renamed Alpha S Pioneer Edition.

However, sales of new energy vehicles under BAIC have been sluggish.

According to BAIC BluePark's sales announcement, its subsidiary Beijing New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. sold 2,882 vehicles in April, a 39.56% decrease from the same period last year, and its cumulative sales volume of 13,004 vehicles this year is a 34.59% decrease from the same period last year.

Before cooperating with Huawei Enjoy, BAIC BluePark's Polar Fox brand had the Alpha S/T Deep Forest Edition, Polar Fox Koala, Alpha T5, and the Alpha S5, which was just launched in June and has not been included in the sales volume yet.

According to the Beijing New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. Environmental Impact Assessment Report for Pure Electric Passenger Vehicle Project released on BAIC BluePark's official website, BAIC New Energy will cooperate with Huawei in 2022 to jointly develop the C71KB-F01 product on the principle of 'sharing benefits and risks.' BAIC New Energy will act as the main body of enterprise and product admission, and enter Huawei's sales channels through the 'Intelligent Selection Car' mode. The C71KB-F01 product is the Enjoy S9, which is expected to start mass production in June 2024. The cumulative sales volume of Enjoy S9 is expected to reach 0.48 million units within its lifecycle (5 years), with an estimated sales volume of 0.06 million, 0.12 million, 0.12 million, 0.096 million, and 0.084 million from 2024 to 2028 respectively.

In addition to the Enjoy S9, the above report also disclosed some information about the subsequent models-the second car WAGAN is positioned as a C+ luxury pure electric touring car, which maximizes the use of the C71KB-F01 model and retains the same basic dimensions such as length, width, height/wheelbase, and the third product is positioned as a B+ SUV.

This is also the reason why BAIC BluePark has high expectations for the sales of Enjoy S9. According to reports, there will be more cooperation with Huawei on other models in the future.