By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Feb 21 -- There are reported signs of tech giant Huawei engaged in with Chinese automaker JAC Motors (江淮汽车) in cooperation of new energy vehicle (NEV) making in Feixi of Hefei, eastern China's Anhui Province, according to local Chinese language press.

China State Construction (CSCEC中建集团) announced on February 16 that its Sixth Engineering Bureau won the bid for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) project of the NEV industrial park, with an amount of about RMB1.544 billion ($220 million). CSCEC's website revealed that JAC and Huawei will jointly develop a new generation of high-end smart electric vehicles in this park.

In January this year, Hefei city officials and Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei, had in-depth discussions on jointly promoting the cooperation project between Huawei and JAC in Feixi, reported the local newspaper.

However, the two companies have yet to admit the cooperation openly, even though local media outlets reported related progress.

Huawei said that it does not intend to engage in direct car making as early as 2020. But the company has developed smart control system for EVs with tremendous investment and resources. Last July, a Huawei auto BU executive said that Huawei's annual investment in the auto business hit $1 billion. The number of its auto R&D team members exceeded 5,000, according to media reports.

In addition, a JAC's securities department staff insisted that JAC is not partnering with Huawei in manufacturing cars and Huawei is its technology supplier, said the JW Insights report.