As we all know, in recent years, cross-border car manufacturing has become a trend, some mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi Huawei are working hard to operate, and in the past year, the development of the new energy vehicle market is relatively smooth, the policy is also very favorable for new energy, so under this big wave, more and more industry giants have also begun to enter the automotive field, all want to share a piece of the pie, such as Baidu, although it is an Internet giant, but in other aspects of the business is not sloppy.
In January last year, Baidu and Geely Holdings announced that they will set up a joint venture car company, that is, the smart car brand - Jidu Automobile, in March 2021, Jidu Automobile Company was formally established, with a total registered capital of 2 billion yuan, Baidu said that Baidu will enter the automobile market as a vehicle manufacturer, and Jidu Automobile will first face the passenger car market and develop a more extreme intelligent electric vehicle, and Jidu Automobile's business scope is very wide, similar to other car companies. Basically, all businesses related to new energy vehicles, such as technology development, exchange, consulting and services, as well as the manufacture of auto parts and accessories, have not been left behind.
According to relevant information, Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. is jointly held by Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd. and Dazi County Bairuixiang Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd., while Shanghai Puhua Company is controlled by Geely and Dazi County Bairuixiang Company is controlled by Baidu, of which the former holds 45% of the shares and the latter holds 55% of the shares.
Then in June 2021, at the media communication meeting held by Jidu Automobile, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu Automobile, said that a concept mass production car will be unveiled at this year's Beijing Auto Show, at that time, the appearance and interior of the car were basically determined, and it is expected that the booking will be accepted in 2022, and the pricing of the new car will be more than 200,000 yuan, because the cost of the intelligent part will be higher, according to the previous news, the new car is product positioned by Jidu, and the research and development and production are contributed by Geely. And the new car will also be equipped with Baidu Apollo autonomous driving technology and Geely SEA Haohan intelligent architecture, and the channel will be built by Jidu itself.
Xia Yiping also revealed that in the next five years, Jidu Automobile will invest 50 billion yuan in smart cars.
In terms of car building, the action of Jidu is also very rapid, not long ago, the logo of Jidu Automobile and some details of the first car were also exposed a lot, according to this part of the details, it can be seen that the new car is aimed at young consumers, and also has L4 level automatic driving capabilities.
On January 26 this year, smart car brand Jidu Automobile announced the completion of nearly $400 million in Series A financing, which was jointly increased by Baidu and Geely. After the financing is completed, Jidu will continue to accelerate the process of research and development and mass production, the first automotive robot concept car will be released at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year, and the mass production model will be launched in 2023.
However, for the car, financing is only the beginning, this is still a necessary step in the long process, financing is completed does not mean that it has been victorious, the current automobile market has been very crowded, traditional cars are transforming, and the new forces of car manufacturing are also making efforts, for the new forces of car manufacturing, the road is still long, but at present, it seems that Jidu automobile has made a breakthrough in the urban area and the field of automatic driving, and hopes to achieve its wish and gain a foothold in the market as soon as possible.