From Billion-Dollar Losses to $8.2 Billion Profits: How AITO Turned Seres' Fortunes Around

摘要：AsianFin -- After suffering cumulative losses of nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in four consecutive years, Chinese EV maker

Seres official website

AsianFin -- After suffering cumulative losses of nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in four consecutive years, Chinese EV maker Seres has staged a dramatic turnaround, with its AITO-branded premium EVs driving the company into profitability for the first time since 2020.

Seres achieved a revenue of 145.176 billion yuan in 2024, marking a staggering 305.04% year-on-year surge and surpassing the 100-billion-yuan threshold for the first time in the company's history, according to its financial reports.

Most notably, Seres recorded a net profit of 5.946 billion yuan in 2024, reversing its 24.5 billion yuan loss from 2023. This milestone makes Seres the fourth globally profitable new energy vehicle (NEV) company, following Tesla, BYD, and Li Auto.

From 2020 to 2023, Seres accumulated losses of approximately 9.835 billion yuan. The company's leap from massive losses to profitability was primarily driven by a surge in sales. In 2024, Seres sold 426,900 NEVs, a remarkable 182.84% year-on-year increase. This growth rate significantly outpaced the global NEV market, which saw an average increase of around 35%. The primary driver of this success was the strong performance of the AITO vehicle series.

Its net profit attributable to shareholders reached 5.946 billion yuan, marking its first profitability since 2020..

The success of Seres was largely propelled by the explosive growth of the AITO series and the company's effective high-end market strategy. The AITO lineup currently consists of three models: AITO M5, M7, and M9. In 2024, the AITO series accounted for approximately 93% of Seres' total sales, with 386,300 units sold.

The AITO M9, priced above 500,000 yuan, was in its first full year of sales in 2024 and recorded over 150,000 deliveries. Meanwhile, about 190,000 units of new M7, priced between 250,000 and 350,000 yuan, were delivered. Combined with another high-end model, total deliveries exceeded 350,000 units.

Thanks to an increasing share of high-end models (which made up 82% of total sales), Seres' average selling price per NEV rose to 320,000 yuan. This helped drive a 368% increase in NEV-related revenue, which stood at 135.5 billion yuan for 2024. Additionally, the gross profit margin for Seres' NEV business improved from 9.92% in 2023 to 26.21% in 2024.

Looking ahead, Seres plans to expand its product lineup in 2025 by introducing the AITO M8, a smart flagship SUV designed for families. The model has already opened for pre-orders and is set to launch in April, with over 80,000 orders recorded to date.

The success of the AITO series is closely tied to its deep collaboration with Huawei.

In 2024, Seres invested 11.5 billion yuan to acquire a 10% stake in Huawei's automotive division (now rebranded as "Yinwang Intelligent") and completed the first two installments of payments, totaling 8.05 billion yuan, by March 2025. This strategic investment not only strengthens Seres' capital ties with Huawei but also grants it priority access to Huawei's cutting-edge intelligent driving technologies.

Yinwang integrates Huawei's core smart driving solutions, including autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit systems, and vehicle control technologies. AITO models equipped with Huawei's ADS 3.0 autonomous driving system have accumulated over 1.1 billion kilometers of smart driving data, with an active collision avoidance success rate of 99.6%. Meanwhile, the HarmonyOS-powered smart cockpit boasts an average of 32 daily user interactions, compared to the industry average of 15.

Through this equity partnership, Seres secures early access to Huawei's latest automotive innovations while actively participating in Yinwang's strategic decisions. To complement this, Seres also acquired Longsheng New Energy Factory for 8.164 billion yuan to enhance its production capacity, forming a symbiotic "Huawei technology + Seres manufacturing" model.

Alongside its financial disclosures, Seres announced on March 30 that its board of directors and supervisory board had approved a plan to issue H-shares and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This move is expected to be a crucial step in Seres' global expansion strategy and will further solidify its collaboration with Huawei through capital integration.

By securing additional financing through its Hong Kong listing, Seres aims to accelerate its technological advancements and international market expansion. Huawei's technological support and brand influence will further enhance Seres' competitiveness in the premium EV sector.

While Seres' turnaround in 2024 marked a major achievement, its net profit margin stood at only 4.1%, significantly lower than the industry average of 8%-10% (BYD: 5.8%, Li Auto: 8.2%). This discrepancy was primarily due to high sales and research & development (R&D) expenditures.

Seres' financial data shows that its sales expenses surged by 264% in 2024, making it the largest contributor to profit erosion. As AITO targets the premium segment, the company significantly increased spending on brand promotion, retail experience centers (over 400 nationwide), and customer service.

On the R&D front, Seres employed 6,201 researchers by the end of 2024, accounting for 32.92% of its total workforce—a 25.15% year-on-year increase. The company invested 7.053 billion yuan in R&D in 2024, marking a 58.9% increase from the previous year and accounting for 4.86% of its revenue. For comparison, Tesla's R&D expenditure ratio stood at 5.2% in 2024, while BYD's was 4.5%.

Seres' major R&D investments included the Cube Technology Platform, which supports extended-range, pure electric, and hybrid powertrains, reducing new model development cycles to 12 months (compared to the industry average of 18 months).

Additionally, its next-generation range extender achieved a thermal efficiency of 44.8%, generating over 3.6 kWh per liter of fuel. Over 470,000 units have been sold, and partnerships have been established with 12 industry players.

(Note: 1 USD equals 7.18 yuan)