ByteDance Denies Making a TikTok Car, Saidou Still Launches Without the TikTok Brand

JAKARTA - ByteDance has denied reports that it will launch a car with Seres Group, a Chinese automotive manufacturer behind the AITO brand. TikTok's parent company confirmed that it has no plans to make a car or release a new automotive brand.

Quoted from CarNewsChina Saturday, June 6, this objection came after the restructuring of Chongqing Landian Technology, a subsidiary of Seres, gave birth to a new entity called Saidou Technology. The name Saidou then sparked speculation because it was considered close to Seres and Doubao, ByteDance's AI service.

In its statement, ByteDance conveyed four things. The company has no plans to launch a car or an automotive brand. Saidou is neither a ByteDance car brand nor a Dola/Doubao AI. ByteDance states that it has no stake in Saidou. Meanwhile, Dola/Doubao and Volcano Engine only focus on AI technology and smart cockpits for the automotive industry.

Rumors are getting stronger after Saidou was said to be preparing to launch a new car brand on June 9. Saidou and Seres said the entity would explore vehicles that are "defined by AI". This sentence raises the suspicion that there will be involvement of ByteDance technology in the car.

But after the rebuttal, Saidou's new car is expected to only use the AI capabilities and smart cockpit of the Volcano Engine and Dola/Doubao. ByteDance has always kept its distance from the car manufacturing business and autonomous driving products. The company prefers to play in interactive cabin technology.

Seres is no small name in the Chinese electric car industry. The company was previously affiliated with Dongfeng Motor and began to emerge in 2021 through the SF5, the first model in Huawei's Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA).

The cooperation with Huawei makes Seres one of the important players in the automotive expansion of the technology giant. In the same year, Seres and Huawei launched the AITO brand.

However, the fate of Landian, a cheap brand owned by Seres, is not as smooth as AITO. Landian plays in the entry-level SUV segment with the E3 EV, E5 PHEV, and E5 Plus PHEV models. Prices start at 99,800 yuan or 14,800 US dollars, while the highest E5 Plus reaches 168,800 yuan or 25,000 US dollars.

Although relatively affordable, Landian is relatively unknown and difficult to penetrate markets outside rural China. Data quoted by CarNewsChina from China EV Datatracker shows that Landian only sent 472 units in the domestic market in April 2026, with a market share of 0.1 percent.

Landian's transformation into Saidou occurred when Seres sought to reduce losses and improve its financial statements. A capital injection of 6.67 billion yuan or 952.9 million US dollars from a number of investors, including Wending Investment owned by CATL, made this move more noticeable.

The details of Saidou's new brand are expected to be announced on June 9. After ByteDance's rebuttal, the term "TikTok Car" for Saidou is now more suitable to be called a rumor that is too crowded.