Huawei’s Car Dream Is Over: Millions Of Fans Left Crying, No One Wants Used Aito EVs

Guys, the sky has fallen. I picked up my car yesterday afternoon and then I heard the series and Huawei are splitting up. Well, it's not exactly a split. They're calling it light empowerment. I just picked up my car yesterday. When I bought it, I was already saying this car was expensive. My final price was 580,000 yuan, about 81,000 US dollars. Without Huawei's support and without the brand premiums from Huawei, do you guys still think this car is worth 580,000 yuan? One user replied in the comments, even before they split, I didn't think Huawei was worth that price. I never bought any Huawei products. Recently, Huawei Aito car owners have been blindsided. As the image of Huawei's car making success fades and sales decline, on September 15th, 2026, Aito and the official Huawei Harmony Intelligence Mobility Alliance announced that they would explore a so-called new cooperation model. The move transfers control over products planning, marketing, and sales back to Ceres. This change marks a major retreat by Huawei from its role in operating Aito. In the past, Huawei used patriotic sentiment to market Aito as a national champion car and captured the first wave of demand. Now that the partnership model has suddenly changed, the first people to panic are the Huawei fans who paid for that sentiment. People who bought the Aito are really pitiful. Look at me. I'm one of the old bank holders too. Ceres was previously known as Dongfang Xiaokang, a company that started out making low-cost minivans worth only tens of thousands of yuan. But today, Aito owners have spent hundreds of thousands of yuan and their cars have lost value. Alright everyone, congratulations to all the Aito owners. This time, we finally have our own slogan, drive Dongfang toward prosperity. This breakup has brought our own cars back to their original identity, Dongfang Xiaokang. And to all the owners, look at your own registration documents. They say the brand is serious. Don't keep forcing a connection with Huawei this or Huawei that. Does it really have anything to do with you? Don't try to add prestige where it doesn't belong. Let's be honest, the first model they launched was Aito, and the first one to disappear is also Aito. It's like they pushed Aito out completely. But since sharing joy is better than enjoying it alone, this time Aito has brought everyone back to the same level. Whether you drive the 2024 model and that company has already forgotten, or the 2025 and 2026 models, whether it's Aito M5, M6, M7, M8, or M9, you're all worried now, right? You're all afraid of price cuts, right? And to the other 4 Haima brands, don't secretly laugh. You're all shaking too. If you bought Aito for the emotional connection, congratulations, because they're not giving you that chance anymore. After the announcement of the split, many Huawei stores quickly removed Aito promotional materials, and display vehicles were gradually taken away. There are no more Aito cars in Huawei stores. This location used to have the latest Aito M9 displayed here, where the stiletto model is now, but the M9 is gone. It has been replaced by one stiletto and one shangji. Did they react this quickly? Has the store display already been changed? Previously, the reason Aito was able to commend a much higher premium than similar models was largely because Huawei executives repeatedly promoted the brand and encouraged the impression that Huawei's was directly building the cars. With coordinated promotion from Chinese Communist Party official media and online writers supporting the authoritarian system, Huawei Aito was once portrayed as a symbol of national rejuvenation and a breakthrough against Western technology restrictions. From the frenzied slogan, Far Ahead, to the flood of official announcements about pre-order numbers, Aito was marketed as the unquestionable choice for patriotic consumers. However, recently, Huawei Aito has not only seen a sharp drop in sales, but also a steep decline in used car values. Facing a brand crisis, Huawei suddenly stepped back, and this strategy has drawn ridicule from users. During the profitable period, it was called Huawei Aito, but after losses and depreciation emerged, it quickly returned to being Ceres, the company responsible for vehicle production, manufacturing, and supply chain. Some buyers spent 400 to 50,000 yuan, or about 56,000 to 7,000 US dollars, thinking they were buying a Huawei flagship, only to wake up to find that it was simply a product made by an automaker partner. Political commentator Gong Zishen and other bloggers also pointed out that when a brand relies heavily on political identity and emotional appeal, its business model becomes difficult to sustain once Huawei removes its endorsement. Public data shows that from January to August 2026, Aito recorded total retail sales of only 201,900 vehicles, down 14% year over year. According to production and sales data released by Ceres, Aito sales in July alone plunged 50% compared with the same period last year, while production also fell 50%. Compared with its peak period, when monthly sales exceeded 40,000 vehicles, monthly sales are now stuck at around 20,000 vehicles. At Huawei's experience stores, the number of daily customer visits has fallen by 60 to 70% from peak levels. Many display areas are now quiet, and the conversion rate from new car deposits to confirmed orders has dropped from around 40% in the early period to less than 15%. Looking at the model lineup, the main vehicles have also lost momentum. In the first eight months of 2026, cumulative sales of the flagship Aito M9 and M8 fell about 50%. The previously important volume models, the M7 and M5 have also entered the later stages of their product cycles and now contribute very little. The sharp sales decline has directly worsened the parent company's financial situation. Ceres' core subsidiary, Aito Automobile, is expected to report a loss of between 1 to 1.3 billion yuan, or about 150 million to 180 million U.S. dollars. Its second quarter loss alone reached about 260 to 300 million U.S. dollars. The collapse in sales quickly spread to the used car market, and owners found that the value of their vehicles was falling off a cliff. Hi host, how much can you offer for a 2025 Aito M9 with 10,000 kilometers on it, with the original paint? First of all, if you had asked me yesterday how much I would pay for your Aito M9, I would have offered you about 380,000 yuan, or about 53,000 dollars. But if you ask me today how much your Ceres M9 is worth, I'll tell you, no matter how much you offer it to me for, I wouldn't dare take it. One user mocked in the comments, HarmonyOS users and Huawei fans, please don't sell me your Aito cars. The longer you keep them, the better. Who knows, maybe one day, after sitting long enough, they'll become antiques and suddenly become worth 10 times more. You need to live and fight for Huawei. More troubling is that it's no longer just new cars that are difficult to sell. Used car dealers have also started avoiding Aito. A dealer bought a 2025 Aito M9 for 320,000 yuan, but now it can't even sell for 158. Take home this 2025 Aito M9 for 158,000 yuan. It was first registered in November 2025 and has a two-tone exterior. Users in the comments also mocked it, saying I wouldn't even consider this car unless it's under 50,000 yuan. Previously, Huawei heavily promoted the Aito M9 as ranking first in resale value. However, data shows that traditional luxury gasoline vehicles typically spend an average of 25 to 35 days in used car inventory, while Aito models, held by used car dealers, now have an average turnover time of more than 70 days, far exceeding the industry warning level of 30. According to residual value reports from the China Automobile Dealers Association and third-party institutions, early major Aito models now retain only about 35 to 42% of their original value after three years, far below the average for the EV market. Comparable competitors such as Li Auto have value retention rates of about 55 to 60%. This has left Aito among the lowest resale value EVs in its price range. These cold figures happened to collide with the image Huawei had built for itself. Some users in the live stream also asked Mr. Yu about the current resale value of the Aito M9. The resale value of the Aito M9 can truly be called number one. It is the highest resale value pure electric vehicle in China. Boss, are you buying cars? An Aito? Yes, it's far ahead. Which M model? The M9? No, no, don't bring the M9 here. I lost money on two of these cars. They can't be sold and no one wants to buy them. There's always a price. You can't sell them. No one in Wenzhou dares to take these cars. Forget it. I'll just drive it home myself. One user summed it up sarcastically. It really is number one in resale value because there's basically no secondhand market. A 2024 Aito M9 that was bought for 260,000 yuan sat on the market for 300 days and still couldn't be sold even for 239,000 yuan. Facing the risk of capital being tied up, used car dealers have started avoiding Aito vehicles. There are online claims that in used car markets such as Fuzhou, many dealers directly posted signs saying they would not accept any 2024 Aito models. Some dealers said vehicles with heavy smart electronics features depreciate as quickly as smartphones. Consumers were buying Huawei, not Ceres. Without Huawei's full process endorsement, keeping these cars in stock has become a burden. When used car dealers completely shut down the resale channel, older owners lose even the chance to sell at a loss. When dealers begin offering extremely low prices or refusing to take the cars, potential buyers become worried that they'll be stuck with the vehicle. What makes older owners feel even worse is that Aito itself continues to launch updated models at a rapid pace, causing the value of previous versions to fall further. My BMW 5 Series lost 300,000 yuan after 9 years. My Aito M9 lost 300,000 yuan after only a year and a half. Aito is cutting us down. Recently, I've seen many older Aito owners protesting. Even the latest M7 owners are now defending their rights. Why? Because Aito is updating too quickly. It gets replaced every year. The 2024 model was originally promised upgrades for older versions, but that never happened. The 2025 model requires extra payment for the full upgrade. Even worse, some owners pick up their cars today and find that tomorrow their cars have already become old models. The cost of the collapse of the high price premium is being carried by the people who were once the most enthusiastic Huawei fans. They spent hundreds of thousands of yuan supporting what they saw as a national technology champion, only to find their assets losing value. No one ever imagined that the three Huawei Aito cars I spent a fortune buying would all lose their value overnight and turn into Dongfeng Xiaokang. I won't even have the face to drive them out in the future. Previous financial reports from Seres show that its marketing and sales expense ratio once reached 12-15%, far above the industry average of 5-8%. A large amount of money was spent on Huawei channel commissions, product launches, and public relations campaigns. The extremely high marketing costs consumed profits, leaving the company with little financial buffer when sales declined. The high premiums once supported by the Huawei Halo could no longer be maintained. Even with frequent price cuts and discounts, sales remained difficult to boost, and the brand's premium image completely collapsed. Besides pressure from external competitors, the chaotic expansion and internal competition within Huawei's Harmony Intelligence Mobility Alliance further cut off Aito's path forward. To maximize the premium value of its car-making partnerships, Huawei did not concentrate resources on Aito. Instead, it launched Luxeed with Sherry, Maestro with JAC, and Stellato with BAIC. The multiple-brand strategy directly turned into a fierce internal battle. After the launch of the Luxeed S7 and R7, their price ranges overlapped heavily with the Aito M5 and M7. They also competed heavily for the image of having Huawei's most advanced smart driving technology. Meanwhile, Maestro, positioned in the million-yuan luxury segment, took away much of the prestige and exclusivity that previously belonged to the Aito M9. But the similarly positioned million-yuan Maestro S800 also failed to escape the fate of overstretched prosperity. It could still sell 4,300 units in December, but by July it couldn't even sell a fraction of that. It sold only 367 units. This isn't just being cut in half. It's being cut down to the toes. On overseas social platforms and automotive forums, many analyses of the internal competition within HIMA have pointed out that Huawei's various brands have already entered a disorderly battle against each other. As sales channels compete for commissions and performance targets, there have even been frequent cases where store staff criticized Aito and persuaded customers to switch their orders to Luxeed. More critically, Huawei has widely licensed its Qiankun intelligent driving system to multiple automakers, including Avatar and Depal, directly reducing Aito's uniqueness and competitive edge. While Huawei uses a strategy of betting on multiple partners, Aito is left carrying the burden of manufacturing platforms and risks as a partner automaker. It can only become a casualty in this cycle of product overlap and internal competition. The problem is not just the technology halo has faded. Over the past few years, many media outlets have reported major safety incidents involving Aito, from the automatic emergency braking failures that caused vehicles to crash into obstacles to hidden door handles failing to unlock after accidents. Some of these tragedies have faced frequent content removals and reduced visibility on Chinese social platforms. On third-party automotive complaint platforms such as Chezhuang and Black Cat Complaints, complaints about the Aito M7 and M5 have remained high. Issues involving sudden disengagement and misidentification of road obstacles account for about 32% of complaints. Inaccurate range claims account for about 28%, suspension noises and mechanical problems about 20%, and after-sales disputes about 15%. The smart driving system, heavily promoted by Huawei, has repeatedly experienced dangerous failures in complex real-world driving conditions, including sudden shutdowns and recognition errors. On overseas social platforms, complete videos of several real customer complaints and disputes have circulated. In one case, a family of a deceased Aito M7 owner uploaded their accusations to overseas platforms, where the videos received millions of views. This family member was unable to seek a resolution in China. The family said through tears that the vehicle's intelligent driving system suddenly failed while traveling at high speeds and crashed into a road maintenance vehicle ahead. They said the automatic braking system did not perform as advertised, and after the collision, all doors became locked while the battery caught fire almost instantly, causing family members inside the vehicle to die in the fire. However, the automaker's response to the protest was not first to offer condolences or reflect on the issue. Instead, the company immediately sent people to the scene to remove the vehicle logos and later stated online that the vehicle involved was not equipped with Huawei's advanced intelligent driving system. It tried to distance itself from responsibility. There have also been multiple consumer complaints from places like Zhejiang province. One M9 owner wrote that the vehicle unexpectedly scraped a roadside barrier while in intelligent driving mode. When seeking compensation afterward, the owner was caught between Huawei and Seres, with each side shifting responsibility to the other. Huawei customer service said it was only a software supplier and was not responsible for mechanical issues or vehicle control. Seres after sales service argued that there were no hardware problems and that it was a purely algorithmic issue. After months of effort, the dispute remains unresolved. Even before the partnership changed, some owners had already experienced being passed back and forth between Huawei and Seres. Now with the cooperation model changing again, owners are even more worried. If something goes wrong in the future, who will they actually turn to? Guys, recently we saw Huawei and Seres split up. My biggest immediate feeling is, wow, suddenly the world feels much quieter. There are no longer people arguing in the comments about which company's car is the best in the world. Some owners who posted videos of their vehicles still have their profile pictures there. But this whole move is just unbelievable. It's like buying a Beijing Mercedes-Benz and then Mercedes-Benz leaves. Or buying a BMW Brilliance and then BMW leaves. It's like having a child and raising the placenta instead while your girlfriend runs away with all the money, but your name is still tattooed on the child's body. This is just too ridiculous. So what I really want to ask is, where will owners go to defend their rights in the future? Will they go to Seres or Huawei? If former AIDO owners have problems later, will repairs and maintenance become difficult? And for future AIDO buyers, how will they deal with repairs and after sales service? It is already very difficult for current owners to resolve the disputes. If my car has a broken axle in the future, who am I supposed to go to? Can Seres still build the best SUV under 1 million yuan? I'm wondering whether the AIDO vehicles sold earlier are about to enter a period of frequent repairs. And maybe Huawei is rushing to prepare its exit. The collapse of Huawei AITO is not simply a business failure. It reflects another example of how official Chinese propaganda and commercial interests have worked together to promote a narrative. This pattern of using patriotic sentiment to support high prices and then separating from responsibilities when problems emerged has appeared before in mainland China. From Danke Apartments to Evergrande, from P2P lending collapses to the repeated failures of various national champion product stories, consumers have repeatedly been drawn into the same narrative, paying premium prices based on national pride, only to discover after the bubble bursts that they were nothing but chumps. For AIDO owners, spending hundreds of thousands of yuan bought a real-world lesson. Emotional attachment cannot replace practical value. The cost of that lesson could have been calculated earlier. But in an environment where information is heavily filtered and critical discussions are censored, many people have had to discover the hard way, the reality behind this national brand.