China’s Huawei beats Apple in EV race with Seres SF5

While the world waits interminably for Apple’s first electric car, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has launched a “performance monster” BEV – the Seres SF5 – at the Shanghai auto show.

To be sold through Huawei phone stores in China, the Seres SF5 is a compact five-seat crossover.

While Apple spent years planning its own EV and is now searching out joint venture partners and suppliers, Huawei shortcut the process and plucked a car from one of the many ambitious start-ups trying to get a foothold in the booming Chinese EV market.

In this case it’s the Chongqing Sokon Industrial Group, which first showed the SF5 at the Guangzhou motor show in 2019.

Seres was established in 2016 as SF Motors and included Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard as a consultant for a time. It did have US manufcaturing plans for a time, but for now China is the only location up and running.

In its press material Huawei wasn’t explicitly clear about the tech specs of its SF5, but quoted pricing for two- and four- wheel drive versions that converts to about $43,365 and $49,400 respectively.

What Huawei did reveal is the SF5 is offered with a pure electric range of about 180km and has a range-extender range of about 1000km.

This tallies with previous spec for the SF5, which was launched with single and dual e-motors and with a range extender drivetrain including a 1.5-litre petrol engine.

Huawei claims the SF5 can produce up to 410kW and accelerate from 0-100km/h in as little as 4.68 seconds.

The vehicle performance is also aided by a lightweight aluminium chassis, a four ball joint double  wishbone front suspension and a trapezoidal multi-link rear suspension, the press info reveals.

“This makes the new SF5 a performance monster, delivering a faster acceleration while also providing a more stable tilt control and superior shock absorption,” it adds.

The SF5 is also fitted with Huawei’s HiCar system which like Apple CarPlay enables users to switch between their mobile phone applications to the vehicle’s central control panel, enabling access to navigation and music.

It also provides interactive voice control and can connect the car to other smart devices, so users can remotely turn on air conditioning, smart screen and other connected devices at home.

The SF5 also has a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) rescue recharge mode, which can provide emergency power to isolated vehicles in the wilderness. It also provides vehicle-to-load (V2L) camping power supply mode, powering induction cookers, stereos, and other equipment, so users can have a BBQ when they stop.

Very Aussie!