Technology

Chinese tech titan Baidu and carmaking giant Geely to pour $10b into making next-generation smart cars


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Chinese technology titan Baidu and carmaking giant Geely are to pour 50 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) into making next-generation cars .

Jidu Auto, the electric vehicle (EV) venture formed by Baidu and Geely in January, will invest the money over the next five years and aims to deliver its first smart car by 2024, Baidu confirmed in response to a Post inquiry.

Reuters first reported the plan earlier on Friday. Jidu’s CEO Xia Yiping told the news agency the company will aim to bring out a new model every year or 18 months after the first one.

Baidu, which runs one of the world’s largest open autonomous-driving platforms, and Geely have been pushing to strengthen their presence in China’s fiercely competitive electric car market. The American giant Tesla leads a field of home-grown start-ups like Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto in the world’s biggest car market.

In January, the two said they would team up to make smart electric vehicles, making use of Baidu’s intelligent driving capabilities and Geely’s car manufacturing expertise.

A month later they appointed Xia Yiping, co-founder and former chief technology officer of the bicycle-share company Mobike, to head the new EV venture which they later named JiDu Auto.

Baidu’s smart car initiative has come as it pushes to monetise the autonomous driving technologies it has been developing since 2013 within its Baidu Apollo division.

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“The yet-to-be-launched model will integrate Baidu’s most advanced autonomous driving technologies and AI capabilities,” Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu told the media in March. He is confident that it will become one of the best-selling intelligent cars.

Baidu, China’s leading search engine, is among a raft of technology behemoths such as Huawei Technologies , Xiaomi, Alibaba Group Holding (owner of the South China Morning Post) and Tencent Holdings to hop onto the smart car bandwagon.

Electrification and digitalisation are viewed as key to the future of cars. Conventional carmakers, electric vehicle start-ups and technology giants alike are ploughing money and human resources into the development of next-generation cars that will feature autonomous driving and sophisticated in-car entertainment systems.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei unveiled its HI intelligent automotive solution last Sunday and said it will plan to invest US$1 billion annually in research and development in the intelligent cars segment. Xiaomi announced its entry into the EV market earlier this month.

“Competition will be extremely fierce in China with tech giants joining the game, and different companies are approaching the EV sector in different ways,” said Paul Gong, a UBS analyst. “Baidu’s strength for example is its intelligent driving capabilities while Huawei is good at both software and hardware. No one knows who will be the winner.

“But for sure, the auto industry will move forward much faster in China than the US and Europe, with a huge amount of investment pushing for more innovation.”

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.



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