Huawei’s automotive partner Seres enters Europe with rebranded Aito M5

Huawei’s manufacturing partner is celebrating the delivery of its first electric vehicles to a European market. Nothing unusual about the news like this - yet another Chinese automaker bringing its EVs to Europe. It would have been unusual if it wasn’t Seres and if it wasn’t selling rebranded Aito electric cars.

Huawei and Seres have been making cars together for quite a while. Earlier this year Huawei had to deny rumors of the two partners splitting after some vehicles leaving Seres factory were spotted with Huawei logos. The two companies created a joint Aito brand with two models already on sale - Aito M5 and Aito M7. In this joint venture, Huawei supplies technology, and Seres designs and manufactures the vehicles and both companies agreed to deepen their involvement.

Seres just announced that the first units of the SF5 Coupe SUV were delivered to Norway. First of all, SF5 is just a rebranded Aito M5, and the company doesn't even sell it through its own network of dealerships but signed a distribution contract with Nordauto - a company that specializes in selling electric vehicles in Norway, Estonia, and Russia, although that last bit is unofficial.

On Seres’s own website the vehicle is called Seres 5, Nordauto refers to it as Seres SF5 which only adds to even more confusion. It appears only the BEV version of the SF5 is available in Norway - it comes with two electric motors powering all four wheels with 430 kW (577 hp) which is enough to catapult this rather good-looking SUV from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.5 seconds. WLTP range is quoted as 311 miles thanks to the 80 kWh battery pack, and the retail price is rather attractive $58,000. Shame it isn't the new 90 kWh semi-solid battery that Seres advertises in China.

We test-drove the Aito M5 in its EREV form and found the vehicle impressive. While in China the AIto M5 runs on HarmonyOS supplied by Huawei, Seres dropped the software in favor of Google’s Android Auto for the EU markets. Although only 5 vehicles have been delivered so far, at this price and with the support of the Nordauto service network, the sub-$59,000 electric SUV with 311 miles of range and supercar performance, sounds like a steal.

We’ll be watching this one closely, Seres has a smaller crossover called SF3 and is available in the Netherlands and in Norway. It starts from $45,600 and it offers more sedate performance than its bigger sibling - top speed of 96 miles and 0 to 100 km/h in 8.9 seconds won’t break any records but its price should have plenty of people interested.

Via