Baidu And Geely Partnership, And The Incredible Thing They’re Doing

Chinese tech organization Baidu and automobile maker Geely have invested $400 million into their electric vehicle project Jidu, under a year after they banded together and launched it.

The two organizations announced on Wednesday January 26, that they are placing almost $400 million into Jidu in a Series A financing round. The capital infusion comes under a year after Jidu was launched in March 2021 with $300 million in first capital from undisclosed financial backers.

According to Jidu, the money will finance research work and large scale manufacturing. In China, there is a pattern of technology organizations hopping into the electric vehicle space with Huawei and Xiaomi also entering the business.

Jidu is an electric vehicle organization set up by Chinese web giants Baidu and automaker Geely. Jidu plans to start large scale manufacturing and deliveries of its first vehicle in 2023.

Baidu has larger part responsibility for, with a 55% shares of the organization, while Geely has a 45% stake. The two organizations declined to share how much each added to the most recent financing round.

Global dealmaking in electric vehicles has flooded over the most recent two years as organizations race to develop cars that analysts expect will soon replace combustion-engine ones. The Chinese government has been especially strong of the homegrown business’ development, helping spike the ascent of many new companies.

Electric vehicle deals in China significantly increased in worth to $6.61 billion in 2021 from $2.17 billion in 2020, as per Dealogic. Electric vehicle bargains in the U.S. dramatically increased to $924 million last year from $353 million in value in 2020, as per the data.

Baidu announced in January 2021 it planned to launch Jidu with Geely as a strategic partner and later named Xia Yiping, co-founder of bike sharing start-up Mobike, as CEO of the electric car company.

In 2010, China-based Geely procured Swedish auto brand Volvo, which recently had a place with Ford Motor.

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Geely operates various electric vehicle brands – all alone or through joint endeavors with Volvo – from Zeekr to the very good quality Polestar.

Over the most recent a little while, Baidu has announced that Jidu plans to uncover a concept car with level 4 autonomous driving capabilities at the auto show in Beijing, set for April. Jidu’s first car is set to begin mass production and deliveries in 2023, according to Baidu.

Baidu’s venture into electric vehicles is part of CEO Robin Li’s push to broaden the organization’s business away from advertising into new growth areas including autonomous driving and artificial intelligence.

In China, there is a greater trend of innovation organizations bouncing into the electric vehicle space. Last year, Xiaomi announced plans to invest $10 billion over the next 10 years into its own electric car business and expects to mass produce its own vehicles in the first half of 2024.

Telecommunications giant Huawei meanwhile has been partnering with automakers on areas including in-car software and autonomous driving.