Huawei ADS: Why Avatr Keeps Winning in China

China’s EV and smart-driving market delivered three telling signals this week: Avatr continues to outperform other Huawei-backed brands in real-world intelligent driving competitions, Momenta’s blockbuster Hong Kong listing has reignited debate over who really leads the city NOA market, and Chinese automakers are rapidly redefining what an electric “sports sedan” should be. Taken together, these stories show that the next phase of the Chinese EV race is no longer just about batteries, horsepower, or lidar counts—it is about system integration, software execution, and brand-level product definition.

Avatr’s Winning Formula With Huawei ADS

A striking pattern has emerged in D1EV’s intelligent driving competition coverage. Since the event adopted a preliminary-plus-final format, Avatr models equipped with Huawei Qiankun ADS repeatedly topped the Huawei camp in multiple cities, beating other Huawei ecosystem vehicles from Aito, Luxeed, Stelato, Deepal, and Voyah.

Across five preliminary rounds in Taizhou, Wenzhou, Wuhu, Hefei, and Tianjin, Avatr 06, 07, 11, and 12 collectively took first place within the Huawei-backed group in all but one case. The lone exception came in Jinhua on March 21, 2026, when the Luxeed S7 posted a record 117.89 points.

Why does Avatr keep winning with the same Huawei ADS stack?

The short answer is vehicle integration.

Huawei ADS is not a standalone software layer. Its real-world performance depends heavily on how well it is matched with:

• chassis tuning
• steering response
• brake calibration
• suspension control
• sensor placement
• domain controller integration
• vehicle electronic and electrical architecture

Avatr’s advantage comes from its unusually deep three-way partnership with Huawei, Changan, and CATL. Unlike brands that effectively adapt Huawei’s smart-driving system onto an existing platform, Avatr is often described as a more “native” implementation, with the vehicle architecture designed from an earlier stage around Huawei’s intelligent driving requirements.

Competition performance snapshot

The three metrics that matter most

According to D1EV’s race analysis, Avatr’s edge consistently showed up in three areas:

• Safety redundancy: In several NOA safety categories, Avatr models reportedly avoided deductions entirely across multiple events.
• Low driver intervention: Avatr vehicles regularly recorded the fewest takeovers among Huawei-backed entries.
• Efficiency optimization: They also tended to lose fewer points on NOA efficiency, suggesting smoother route execution and better decision-making.

This is an important reminder for the wider Chinese EV market: two cars can share the same autonomous driving supplier and still perform very differently. Execution quality at the vehicle level remains a major differentiator.

The Jinhua Exception: Luxeed S7 Shows the Field Is Tightening

The Jinhua result matters precisely because it broke Avatr’s streak. Luxeed S7’s 117.89-point result was described as a historic high, with zero takeovers and only a small efficiency deduction.

That suggests two things:

1. Huawei’s ecosystem is not a one-car story.
2. Newer vehicle generations can close the gap if hardware, chassis response, and software tuning align.

D1EV’s analysis argues that the Avatr 11 entered in Jinhua was an older 2023 model-year vehicle, even though it had been updated to ADS Max V4.1.0. In other words, the issue may not have been Huawei’s software logic but the response speed and precision of the underlying vehicle platform.

That distinction is crucial in China’s advanced driver-assistance race. As software capabilities converge, execution hardware becomes increasingly visible.

Momenta’s IPO Is Big News—But the Market Is Far From Settled

The second major story is Momenta’s Hong Kong listing on July 8, where the company debuted with support from major global institutions including GIC, Fidelity, BlackRock, and Mercedes-Benz. D1EV reported that Momenta’s market value surpassed HK$70 billion on its first day, underscoring how seriously capital markets now take Chinese autonomous driving suppliers.

Momenta has been described as everything from a “Physical AI first stock” to a Tesla-like company that does not build cars. But the more important question is whether the intelligent driving market is already consolidating around Momenta and Huawei.

D1EV’s answer: not yet.

China city NOA market: first-half 2026 data

D1EV estimates that installations of L2 advanced driver-assistance systems focused specifically on urban NOA in China’s domestic passenger vehicle market reached about 1.814 million units in the first half of 2026.

Monthly installation volume rose from 253,000 units in January to 422,000 units in June, showing rapid market expansion.

Market share by major players

That means the three largest players still account for less than half the market.

D1EV also challenged the claim that Huawei and Momenta together already exceed 90% share in the third-party city NOA supplier market.

By its calculations:

• Momenta’s share of China’s independent city NOA supplier market was about 35.7% in H1 2026, excluding Huawei.
• Including Huawei, Momenta’s share was about 23.4%, versus roughly 34.6% for Huawei.
• Even after adjusting definitions around players like Qianli, Huawei and Momenta together would be closer to 70% than 90% in the independent supplier segment.

The supplier rankings show a crowded field

The bigger point is that China’s autonomous driving supplier market is broadening, not narrowing.

Fast-growing challengers include:

• WeRide, with exceptionally high growth off a small base
• Horizon, benefiting from new-generation architecture shifts
• DeepRoute.ai, which reportedly moved ahead of Qianli in June and exceeded 10% monthly share

This is not the profile of a winner-takes-most market—at least not yet.

A Technology Reset Is Reordering the Smart-Driving Pack

D1EV’s reporting on its smart-driving leaderboard suggests the market has entered another major transition since late 2025, driven by:

• end-to-end models on the vehicle side
• cloud-based world models
• more integrated perception, planning, and control stacks

In that context, Momenta’s earlier advantage with its R6 production model may have been real but temporary. The company reportedly climbed to the top of the leaderboard in late 2025, only to slip in 2026 as newer approaches from WeRide, Horizon, Huawei, and XPeng gained momentum.

That matters for investors and automakers alike. In Chinese EVs, strong commercialization and strong technology leadership do not always move in lockstep. A supplier can scale quickly, win major OEM contracts, and still face a fast technical catch-up cycle.

China’s Electric Sports Sedan Is Being Reinvented

The third story may seem separate, but it is closely related. As Chinese automakers build ever more software-defined EVs, they are also rethinking what a high-performance electric sedan should be.

Following debate around Ferrari’s first electric supercar, D1EV’s market commentary argues that the Chinese market is moving beyond raw acceleration as the primary definition of “sportiness.” With EV torque now cheap and abundant, 0-100 km/h times no longer tell the whole story.

Examples cited include models such as:

• Xiaomi SU7
• Zeekr 007 GT
• IM L6
• Geely Galaxy TT
• Qijing GT7

Performance is no longer enough

Some published acceleration figures show how commonplace speed has become:

In other words, straight-line pace is increasingly the entry ticket, not the brand identity.

The new battleground: chassis and comfort

Chinese EV makers are now converging around a familiar performance hardware formula:

• front double wishbone suspension
• rear five-link or multi-link suspension
• CDC adaptive dampers
• air suspension in higher trims
• 800V electrical architecture on many new platforms
• advanced driver assistance as a mainstream feature

This marks a major shift. In the combustion era, performance cars often asked buyers to sacrifice comfort. In the Chinese EV era, brands are trying to deliver both:

• sporty steering wheels and integrated seats
• heated, ventilated, and massaging seats
• large infotainment displays
• premium audio
• even refrigerator-style storage in some cases

That reflects how Chinese consumers actually use these cars: commuting during the week, family use on weekends, and only occasional high-performance driving.

Why This Matters Globally

These three stories point to the same global conclusion: China’s EV industry is moving into a more mature software-defined phase.

For global automakers and suppliers, several lessons stand out:

• System integration beats component bragging rights. Avatr’s Huawei ADS results suggest that lidar counts and software versions are less important than how the whole vehicle executes.
• The autonomous driving market is still open. Momenta’s IPO is a milestone, but H1 2026 data indicates the China city NOA market remains fragmented and highly competitive.
• Performance EVs are being redefined. Chinese brands are blending speed, comfort, smart driving, and storytelling into a new product category that may prove highly exportable.

This is especially relevant for Europe and Southeast Asia, where Chinese EV brands are increasingly competing not just on price but on software capability and product completeness.

What Comes Next

The next major inflection point may come from Huawei ADS 5.0 and similar next-generation systems. According to D1EV, ADS 5.0 brings upgrades in safety architecture, road generalization, interaction prediction, chassis coordination, and “roaming” intelligent driving functions.

That means the competitive question is changing.

It is no longer just:

• Who has the best chip?
• Who has the most lidar?
• Who has the fastest 0-100 time?

Instead, the new questions are:

• Which automaker can best integrate software and hardware?
• Which supplier can keep pace with rapid model-architecture shifts?
• Which brand can define a clear identity in an increasingly crowded EV market?

Right now, Avatr looks like the benchmark for Huawei ecosystem execution, Momenta remains one of the most important independent ADAS players despite intensifying pressure, and China’s electric sports sedans are evolving into all-rounders rather than single-purpose machines.

That combination—deep integration, rapid iteration, and sharper brand positioning—is what will define the next winners in Chinese EVs.