AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/30 Report--

According to APP, the industrial and commercial change took place in Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. on June 28. Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of Zhejiang Geely holding Group, withdrew. Baidu affiliated company Bairuixiang Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd. in Dazi County increased its shareholding to 100%, and the latter's contribution increased from 1.1 billion to 2 billion. In terms of personnel, Xia Yiping stepped down as general manager of Jidu Automobile, and his legal representative was changed from Xia Yiping to Liang Zhixiang.

In response to the industrial and commercial changes that occurred in Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd., Jidu Automobile responded: "this is a normal adjustment made by the company based on the needs of business development. Jidu is still jointly owned by Baidu and Geely, and the shares held by both parties remain unchanged, and Jidu CEO is Xia Yiping." According to a person familiar with the matter, "this adjustment is a change in the main company of Geely, and in the follow-up, a new main company of Geely will be connected to replace the former Geely's Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd. as a new shareholder." at present, the matter is still in the adjustment stage. "

According to the automotive industry's concern, Jidu Automobile was founded on March 02, 2021, a smart car company jointly established by Baidu and Geely Holdings. Based on Geely's latest global leading pure electric architecture, the vast SEA Intelligent Evolutionary experience Architecture, the two sides will work closely together in the fields related to smart car manufacturing to build smart cars, according to previous plans. Although Jidu Automobile is a company jointly established by Baidu and Geely, Baidu will dominate the definition of the product, and after the withdrawal of Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Zhejiang Geely holding Group, it may also mean that Baidu will have more dominance.

As one of the earliest Internet companies involved in self-driving business in China, Baidu's entry into the auto industry is not surprising. In fact, Baidu began to lay out the field of self-driving before Jidu Automobile was established, and Baidu, which laid out the car track in 2013, has also carried out a series of cooperation with automakers, including BAIC Group, Great Wall Automobile, Jianghuai Automobile, Changan Automobile, Chery Automobile and other car companies. According to previous plans, Baidu will provide these companies with full stack self-research, covering L2 to L4 autopilot. At that time, Baidu proposed that models equipped with Baidu car networking and intelligent driving assistance would begin mass production in 2017 and achieve the landing application of high-level self-driving technology by 2021, but this goal was not achieved in the end. It is understood that Changan Automobile cooperates with Baidu only in the field of intelligent car information security; the cooperation between BAIC Group and Baidu is limited to the cooperation of Robotaxi; Jianghuai Automobile, which is built by Jihu Alpha T, while Changcheng Automobile and Chery Automobile, which cooperate closely with Baidu, have no new progress in the field of intelligent driving business.

In view of this, Baidu also began to build cars in person. On January 11, 2021, Baidu announced that it would enter the automobile industry as a vehicle manufacturer, and in March, Baidu formed a joint venture with Geely Holdings Group and named it Jidu Automobile. In November of the same year, Baidu, Jidu and Qualcomm Technology announced the details of the first model of Jidu Automobile. As the first model of Jidu, the car will use an intelligent digital cockpit system supported by Baidu and Qualcomm, and the new car will have high-level self-driving capability. On June 8 this year, Jidu released its first concept car, ROBO-01, and disclosed its nurturance model and core technical capabilities such as automotive robot neural network JET (JIDU Evolving Technology), self-driving scheme, SOA-based cabin-driving fusion, millisecond offline intelligent voice and so on. Jidu said that the design of its second mass production model will be released at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show.

As for Ji du's first car product, Baidu Chairman Li Yanhong has previously revealed that Ji du's first car product will be mass produced in 2023, priced at about 200000 yuan, and the target market is family cars. Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu Automobile, said in an interview with the media: "the first mass-produced model of Jidu locates a medium-sized SUV, directly aligns Tesla and Model Y, and surpasses the Tesla generation in intelligence." Production of the first volume car will begin at Geely's Hangzhou Bay factory, and the country's first self-branded store is expected to open at the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year and go on sale in 2023.

Although the current domestic including Ali, Xiaomi, 360, oppo and so on have joined the ranks of cars in different forms, but Baidu as an early start self-driving car project of the technology giant, and Ali, Xiaomi and other technology enterprises are different is that Baidu in self-driving and car networking and other areas have accumulated certain reserves. At the earnings meeting in the first quarter of this year, Baidu Chairman Li Yanhong said: "the key selling point of Jidu Motors is not 'trams', but 'intelligence'. Jidu products will also be equipped with Baidu's latest technology, which is also one of the most critical selling points." According to related news last month, Robin Li clearly wrote down the pre-order target that Jidu Automobile will achieve this year in OKR, which means that Baidu will make new progress this year. Of course, Baidu car-building is still full of uncertainties. After all, the first product will not be mass-produced until 2023.

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