Japan’s Honda Motor said on Tuesday it is introducing a new electric vehicle brand in China, and will use components from local companies including CATL, Huawei, and iFlyTek as it looks to adapt to significant changes in the highly competitive Chinese car market. The Japanese carmaker said it has also partnered with artificial intelligence firm iFlyTek in order to bring advanced conversational AI capabilities into its cabins, while being open to more joint efforts with Chinese companies in other fields such as autonomous driving. In a similar move, Toyota has reportedly reached a deal with Huawei to develop assisted driving functions built upon the latter’s computing platform for its Chinese models. The company’s sales declined 10.1% to roughly 1.2 million units last year and it is planning to cut vehicle output by 20% in China, Nikkei reported last month. [Honda announcement, Caixin, in Chinese]Related