Chinese Internet Giant Baidu Wants To Produce Electric Cars

Electric vehicle illustration (unsplash)

JAKARTA - Internet giant from China, Baidu inc, reportedly wants to build electric cars. In fact, they have discussed with a number of car manufacturers to produce electric vehicles in the country.

Citing Reuters on Wednesday, December 16, a source with knowledge of the matter said Baidu was opening initial talks with automakers such as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd (GAC) and China FAW Group Corp Ltd's Hongqi on the possibility of forming joint ventures.

GAC stated that it would discuss the cooperation further, while Geely admitted that he did not understand this. Likewise with FAW and Baidu, who was reluctant to comment on this electric car.

Baidu's ambition is expected to put him on a par with Tencent Holding, Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc, which are also developing car technology, or investing in smart car startups.

For information, Baidu actually established the Apollo autonomous drive unit in 2017. Where this unit supplies technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and works with automakers such as Geely, Volkswagen AG, Toyota Motor Corp and Ford Motor Co.

Baidu also operates the Go Robotaxi autonomous taxi service in Beijing, Changsha and Cangzhou, the company also plans to expand this service to 30 cities in the next three years. Last week, Baidu obtained approval to test five autonomous cars in Beijing.

It is known that there is this plan after Didi Chuxing last month launched a van made specifically for ride-hailing services with car manufacturer BYD Co Ltd. Meanwhile, technology giant Sony Corp. in January also launched an electric concept car with a self-driving function.