Huawei said to provide BYD with Kirin chipset

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Huawei has reportedly formed cooperation with Chinese automaker BYD to offer the latter the Kirin 710A chipset developed by its wholly-owned subsidiary HiSilicon, according to the local tech media 36Kr.

Huawei's Kirin chip solution is now only available for Huawei- and Honor-branded smartphones, and the 710A will be its first product aimed at automotive market. The company is exploring the application of the chipset in digital automotive cockpit, according to people with direct knowledge of the plan.

(Photo source: Huawei)

The collaboration with BYD also involves such products as HiCar (Huawei's people-car-home connectivity solution), 5G module and digital car key, according to person close to the senior management of Huawei Consumer Business Group. It is HiSilicon that teams up with the Shenzhen-based automaker, not Huawei’s smart car solution business unit.

“BYD has already obtained Kirin's chip technical documents and has begun the development process,” a source familiar with the plan told 36Kr, added that relevant cooperation agreements had to be signed before the documents were sent. “Kirin chips have been tapping the automobile market for several months. It is mainly targeting BYD, wishing to open the market by way of car models.”

Nevertheless, both BYD and Huawei declined to comment after they were reached by the local media.

(BYD Han, photo source: BYD)

BYD previously announced that its all-new full-sized sedan, BYD Han, adopts Huawei's 5G module MH5000. Both the Kirin chip and the 5G module are technical fruits of Huawei Consumer BG. Moreover, both parties have also teamed up on the NFC-enabled car key and the HiCar smartphone screen projection solution.