Midea Group’s Hiconics Bets On Appliance-ESS Integration

Several global home appliance manufacturers are integrating solar-plus-storage solutions with their products as appliance prices remain under pressure. Midea Group is one such well-known company. participated in the SNEC 2026 exhibition. At SNEC 2026, in an exclusive interview TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela spoke with Gerry Liu, General Manager of Hiconics Overseas Platform, Midea Energy regarding the company’s strategy on integrating home appliances with ESS. Liu also discussed the company’s strengths, global supply chain diversification, latest products, and future roadmaps.  

TaiyangNews: Midea Group is a well-known home appliance brand valued at $50 billion. The company is also developing PV-plus-storage systems with smart energy management. Tell us a little bit about Midea’s strategy to get into the field and how Hiconics fits into the picture.  

Gerry Liu: Let me first introduce Hiconics. Founded in 2003, the company was acquired by Midea Group in 2020. After listing on the Hong Kong EStock exchange in 2024, Midea established a new division, Midea New Energy, by the end of 2025. It has 2 separate companies, Hiconics and Clou. While Midea is focusing on residential energy storage systems (ESS), Clou targets commercial ESS. As you just said, Midea, a well-known brand in home appliances, is actually a smart home appliances company. But energy is also very important for a smart home. So, in 2023, Midea began offering ESS products to connect with the smart home through energy solutions. While the home appliances market is huge, the margins are not encouraging. Thus, for Midea Group, new energy will be the new business segment, or rather, a second avenue for growth. This is the basic strategy of Midea and Hiconics.  

TaiyangNews: Earlier, residential solar systems were installed by electricians and roof engineers. The system was also CapEx-heavy compared to the current leasing models or rent systems. In this context, what is Hiconics’ strategy? 

Gerry Liu: Midea Group has 38 research & development (R&D) and multiple testing centers across the world. We know our customers well. We always wanted to provide a one-stop smart home solution to our customers. I think the major difference compared to other competitors is in trying to make new energy systems, almost like home appliances.  

TaiyangNews: In the current market, the balcony plug-in solar product is becoming popular. How do you approach and convince your customers to think about buying home appliances that are integrated with a solar-plus-storage system?  

Gerry Liu: Yes, the balcony ESS is a growing segment; however, currently, we don’t have this kind of product. Against this backdrop, we are trying to connect our ESS with our heat pumps, as both products share key markets in several countries. As a first step, we are working closely with our heat pump division. People buying air conditioners (AC) also look for an integrated energy solution, available at our booth, where an all-in-one ESS connects to a heat pump and AC. We are also working toward using a single app to control and monitor all home appliances and the ESS.  

TaiyangNews: I feel that manufacturers of heat pumps often miss the opportunity to sell the product and the ESS together, though the former is an important part of the home energy system. Here, a consumer’s energy consumption increases with a heat pump installation, while the integration with an ESS offers a solution to reduce it. Do you feel the strategy to sell these 2 solutions as a bundle is working? 

Gerry Liu: It worked very well in some countries, like Hungary, Italy, and Spain, where we have our distributors. In these countries, we also have a few well-known heat pump brands under the Midea Group. We are happy to share that we have our first customer from Ukraine for a heat pump, aligning with our country-specific strategy.  

TaiyangNews: Europe is more focused on energy security. In comparison, the combination of ACs with solar is becoming increasingly importance in Asia. Here, AC installers, who can install and provide after-sales service, are high in demand. Why do you see strong connection between ACs and energy storage at this stage while other household appliances such as washing machines or refrigerators are not part of the initial integration strategy?  

Gerry Liu: We focus on the integration of heat pumps and ACs, as other home appliances are not so connected with new energy systems. However, we want to monitor and control all home appliances in real-time through the M-Smart app. Thus, consumers can control ESS and all their home appliances, including heat pumps, washing machines, and dishwashers, via a single app.  

TaiyangNews: I think the use of a single app makes the integration easier, as consumers increasingly buy your brands. Beyond the maximization of self-consumption, a few mature countries are charging/discharging batteries in line with regional dynamic tariffs and are also aggregating surplus energies to sell to a virtual power plant (VPP) service provider. Are you also thinking one step further in this way, or do you want to stay inside the house only?   

Gerry Liu: We have a solution for dynamic tariffs in Europe. Our engineers also do a lot of analysis for Australia’s VPP program participation. More than 300 engineers at Hiconics are working on the hardware and software parts.  

TaiyangNews: Every company wants to be a total solution provider due to the solar market’s competitive nature. Battery companies add ESS to their portfolio, while PV module companies do horizontal and vertical integration. Nowadays, more home appliance companies are aiming for this space. How do you see yourself in this context, and where are your advantages, as a big home appliance company? 

Gerry Liu: Midea Group has 38 R&D centers across the world with more than 22,000 engineers. It also has more than 300 engineers for storage products. Our R&D centers can map the patterns of daily residential consumer usage by using historical data. In that case, Hiconics also has more than 20 years of experience. These are our 2 main advantages.  

From the perspective of a one-stop system solution provider, we are a big company in the residential home appliance segment compared to others. We also have overseas production bases, which provide leeway for sudden changes in production bases to align with changing regional tariff policies, like the US. For example, a lot of US export goods are produced at our Egypt facility.  

TaiyangNews: You are locally producing heat pumps under the global diversification and localization strategy. For solar products, are you also producing them by yourself or sourcing from others?  

Gerry Liu: Hiconics produces all key components of new energy systems, including PCB, battery pack, inverters, BMS, and EMS, while only sourcing the enclosure from vendors. The company has 2 main production bases in Beijing and Anqing, China. The latter has more than 10,000 m² of production area.  

TaiyangNews: Hiconics has long-term market experience and production localization that brings advantages to after-sales service. How do your products differentiate from the competitors.  

Gerry Liu: This year, we have launched our 3rd generation product, though ESS production began just 3 years ago. Our batteries feature a DC-to-DC converter. We also have an inverter portfolio with a capacity range of 3 kW to 30 kW, covering 1-phase and 3-phase. On the software side, we have 2 apps, HiEco and iEasy+, to connect our ESS with heat pumps and EV chargers.  

TaiyangNews: Given the current solar business and the residential market distribution, how do you think it will change at the end of the decade?  

Gerry Liu: I think the products will be simpler and easier for consumers to install. Currently, they can’t install our ESS products by themselves. In the future, it will be easier with plug-in products. The automatic battery charging and discharging will also be more intelligent with the integration of AI algorithms.  

TaiyangNews: How do you see yourself as a global solar-plus-storage and smart home appliances provider by 2030? 

Gerry Liu: Our target is to be among the top 3 players in each product category by 2030.  

TaiyangNews: That's ambitious. Thank you for the interview.