By XU Lingchao

The 19th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition opened on April 19 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, with more than 1,000 exhibitors showing off their latest developments. More than 250 million cars were sold in China last year, the first fall in sales for many years, and inside the venue, exhibitors are scrambling to regain lost ground.

Nio

Nio brought its service center, Nio House, along with Power North, a plan to build a battery swapping and charging network in eight northern China provinces within three years. By then, the company claims there will be a charging station every 100 kilometers in northern China.

CEO LI Bin believes “EVs in northern China will be able to go to wherever they want to go, just like the petrol-driven cars.”

Nio also gave a glimpse of the interior of its ET7 which the company describes somewhat hopefully as a “second living room.”

Huawei

Smartphone maker Huawei has repeatedly claimed it will never manufacture a car, but that’s not to stop the beleaguered fallen giant from trying to sell some. The Arcfox Alpha S HI has a range of over 700 kilometers and accelerates to 100 kilometers per hour in only 3.5 seconds. The company describes the Alpha S HI autopilot as the most advanced in the Chinese market.

Huawei has also worked with Seres on the SF5 gas-electric hybrid sedan. This is the first time Huawei has tried to sell cars through its own distribution channels. Priced from 216,800 yuan (US$33,000), the SF5 will be available for orders from April 21 with delivery in May.

Richard Yu, executive director of Huawei, said rounds of US sanctions have badly injured Huawei's smartphone sales globally, selling EVs may help cover some of the loss from the smartphone market.

Huawei now has over 60,000 stores and booths around the world, 5,000 experience centers and 12 flagship stores around the world. Though most of them are not large enough to display a car, the company said it is already upgrading some big stores in shopping malls for the EVs.

Seres is not a big name in the industry, but it has a well-established hybrid power system. One of SF5's selling points is its 1,100-kilometer endurance with gas-electric hybrid power. 

Evergrande

Evergrande New Energy Auto brought nine models to the exhibition. Evergrande EVs will be equipped with “over-the-air” technology which allows the car to upgrade its software anywhere.

XU Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande Group, said the company hopes to produce a million cars a year by 2025, and five million by 2035. The first batch will be delivered next year.