(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei and 18 Chinese car manufacturers are working together to build an automotive ecosystem using fifth-generation networking technologies in order to speed up the commercialization of 5G in the auto industry.

FAW, Great Wall Motors, SAIC, BAIC, Yutong Bus and BYD are among the partners, Shenzhen-based Huawei said online on May 9. The companies involved aim to advance the use of smart networking and autonomous driving to suit industry trends, it added.

5G’s high speed and low latency are indispensable in the autonomous driving field, especially above Level 4, said Zhang Qiang, an automotive industry analyst.
Huawei set up its Internet of Vehicles Business Unit in 2013 despite repeated claims that it was not going to enter the automotive sector. It teamed up with Nokia, industrial equipment maker ABB, Ericsson and several carmakers in 2016 to form an automotive communication technology alliance that was the first to focus on 5G.

The firm released its first related products in April last year: the MH5000 car module, which it claimed to be the world’s first 5G automotive module, and a direct current fast-charging module HiCharge in April last year.

Huawei has extensive experience in 5G infrastructure construction and this cooperation could yield more feasible applications for 5G, Liu Miao, a teacher at the School of Automotive Engineering at Shanghai University of Engineering and Technology, told Yicai Global.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, James Boynton