Huawei HIMA September Deliveries Fall 29% as Year-on-Year Decline Hits Fourth Month

• HIMA's September deliveries fell 29.15% year-on-year, with year-to-date growth slowing to 5.27%.
• Deliveries declined 10.95% from August, marking the alliance's third consecutive month-on-month decrease.

Huawei-led Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) delivered 37,490 vehicles in September, its fourth consecutive month of year-on-year declines, signaling mounting sales pressure.

September deliveries fell 29.15% from a year earlier and 10.95% from August, according to figures HIMA released on Thursday. The alliance also recorded its third consecutive month-on-month decline.

In the first 9 months of the year, HIMA delivered 367,229 vehicles, up 5.27% from a year earlier. That marked a sharp slowdown from the 11.42% growth recorded in the first 8 months.

HIMA said cumulative deliveries across its lineup had exceeded 1.56 million vehicles.

The September sales decline came during a month of several new product debuts. HIMA last month launched or opened pre-sales for the updated Luxeed R7, Stelato V8, Luxeed RX and updated Aito M8.

The decline also coincided with changes to the partnership between Huawei and Seres (HKEX: 9927) over the Aito brand. Aito was HIMA's first brand and remains among the alliance's biggest sales contributors.

Huawei and Seres announced on September 15 that Aito would explore a new partnership model within HIMA, with Seres taking the lead and Huawei providing support.

The changes cover product definition, product design, brand marketing, retail channels and service operations. Aito will remain within HIMA, with customer benefits and ongoing services unaffected.

HIMA's other brands will retain the model in which Huawei leads the entire process. Luxeed, Stelato, Maextro and Shangjie are outside the scope of the changes.

Chinese media outlet Yicai reported on Thursday that the 2 companies had recently begun a new round of talks and were expected to adjust their partnership model again.

The report said the cooperation model over Aito was unlikely to change. Building on that arrangement, the partnership could deepen further, rather than simply shift to a model in which Seres leads and Huawei provides support.

Aito opened pre-sales for the updated M8 SUV on September 30. Its starting pre-sales price is 389,800 yuan ($57,880), 30,000 yuan above the previous version's starting list price.

The updated M8 continues to offer extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV) variants, with 5-seat and 6-seat configurations.

The BEV version offers a CLTC range of up to 830 kilometers, while the EREV has a combined range of up to 1,435 kilometers.

The M8 is a core model for Aito, but sales have weakened recently. Its cumulative deliveries had exceeded 180,000 vehicles as of August 6, though sales have fallen month-on-month for several consecutive months.