Chinese search giant Baidu plans to develop electric vehicles with the assistance of Geely, the country's largest private automaker, according to a recent report by Reuters. It's the biggest Chinese conglomerate to expand into a booming electric vehicle market, joining the retail giant Alibaba and the ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing.
Making electric cars will also reflect an expansion of Baidu's desire to be part of the transport industry. Baidu has spent years focusing on self-driving vehicles and is the leading Chinese business in the automobile industry.
Baidu is expected to form a new joint venture with Geely for the EV effort, reports Reuters, and build vehicle software while Geely focuses on hardware. Specifically, Baidu and Geely are talking of using the scalable electric vehicle architecture that they unveiled late last year. But Baidu will have a controlling interest in the new business and will thus control its course.
The Chinese government has spent years focusing its major businesses on improving renewable technologies in an effort to combat other global forces.
Beijing has hinted that a ban on gas cars has been on the cards since 2017 (before actually placing a regulation in effect late last year) and revealed a lucrative incentive policy for renewable vehicles, leading to an unprecedented boom in electric vehicle start-ups.
The country's major technology firms have invested their time watching the fastest way out of the market. They just set bets at first. Alibaba sponsored XPeng, an electric car company that first made headlines by copying Tesla's designs. Tencent backed Nio, one of the first EV start-ups in China. Yet they've made more concrete moves lately. Alibaba formed an electric vehicle joint venture with SAIC, the largest carmaker in China.
Didi Chuxing is partnering with Chinese auto giant BYD to make hybrid ride-hailing cars. The alliance between Baidu and Geely is the latest indication of this concerted initiative.
Geely has major goals of her own. The corporation also controls Volvo and has a relationship with the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler. Yet it still has a hand in everything from passenger drones, high-speed rail, and the recently planned satellite network.
