Baidu to set up EV manufacturing venture
Chinese tech giant Baidu is preparing to set up its new electric vehicle manufacturing venture, the company said on Monday.
According to TechCrunch, the company will make its electric vehicles with the help of Chinese carmaker Geely.
Baidu, which currently provides software services and is a dominant player in China’s internet search market will provide smart driving technologies while Geely will be in charge of car design and manufacturing.
The new venture will operate as a Baidu subsidiary where Geely will serve as a strategic partner and Baidu units like Apollo and Baidu Maps will contribute capabilities.
It also marks just the latest entry by a Chinese internet giant into the EV space, following in the steps of Alibaba which announced its intention to do the same back in November 2020.
The companys drive into the sector is part of its effort to diversify a business relying on search advertising revenue as competitors ByteDance and Douyin are gradually growing.
Baidu has been working aggressively on autonomous driving since 2017. Its Apollo ecosystem for vehicles, accumulated over a hundred manufacturing and supplier partners.
It has also been busy testing autonomous driving and recently rolled out a robotaxi fleet.
“At Baidu, we have long believed in the future of intelligent driving and have over the past decade invested heavily in AI to build a portfolio of world-class self-driving services,” said Robin Li, co-founder and chief executive officer of Baidu.
“We believe that by combining Baidu’s expertise in smart transportation, connected vehicles and autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise as a leading automobile and EV manufacturer, the new partnership will pave the way for future passenger vehicles.”