Baidu and Geely (owner of Volvo) team up to start a new electric vehicle company

[Furiku]

Summary

Chinese tech company and google-rival Baidu and carmaker Geely have teamed up and are going to be making electric vehicles as joint-venture.

Baidu is responsible for the software & tech side of things which they are somewhat known for and Geely brings to the table their car manufacturing capabilities.

Geely in the western world is most well known as the owner of Volvo which they acquired some years ago.

 

The new company will operate as Baidu subsidiary, and at least initially seems to be aimed towards the rapidly expanding chinese markets for electric vehicles.. Maybe Musk has something to be afraid of too from this in the future.

 

Quotes

Quote

China has become the world’s largest market for EVs (electric vehicles), and we are seeing EV consumers demanding next generation vehicles to be more intelligent,” Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, said in a statement.

 

My thoughts

It's extremely interesting to see what big company like Baidu which is basically Chinese equilevant of Google can make of this. They have the necessary expertise and funding required to rival google and tesla in this game of electric & autonomous vehicles.

Hopefully Geely will also incorporate in their designs at least SOME of the safety features they nowadays happen to own as result of acquiring Volvo. You know.. One of the worlds leading companies in car safety features developed... The company that came up with small things such as SEAT BELTS and built their cars like tanks to be one of the safest possible for its passengers.

 

 

Sources

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/chinese-search-giant-baidu-to-create-an-electric-vehicle-company.html

[Prodigy_Smit]

Time to buy some stocks.

[Taf the Ghost]

This oddly feels exactly like a Google move: show up late, toss up a new subsidiary, cancel the project in about 3 years because it actually takes a long time to bring a product like a car to market and the market has already shifted on you.

[Furiku]

48 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

This oddly feels exactly like a Google move: show up late, toss up a new subsidiary, cancel the project in about 3 years because it actually takes a long time to bring a product like a car to market and the market has already shifted on you.

It is actually very interesting because Baidu already has developed autonomous vehicle stuff for longer time and has ready products which it is looking to integrate to this EV business too. Apollo computing unit -> https://apollo.auto/ 

 

I think they're not late at all, but they're ready to enter the big leagues by combining their pre-existing developments together with manufacturing giant. I don't see this as google move at all.

[dizmo]

Ehhh. I don't have huge expectations from this. They have a bad track record of safety. Not something you really want in an EV. Nio is a more promising company at this point in time. Especially with their 2022 roll out of 1,000km range solid state batteries.

[wamred]

This is exciting! I always welcome competition in the tech field. 

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, Tedny said:

Does someone still develop anything in gas powered systems? (outside of ships) 

Most of the developments actually are in gas-powered cars. EVs are still just a small part of the market because they're really bad at a lot of things that aren't likely go change anytime soon. What is different is that the IC-powered market is pretty settled, while the Electric-powered market isn't. As a result, there's a mad dash to take up that market, minus the fact that it takes at least a decade to make a competent car company. This is something Tesla still probably has another decade to sort out, and they're really just a battery company that makes some cars.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 hours ago, Furiku said:

It is actually very interesting because Baidu already has developed autonomous vehicle stuff for longer time and has ready products which it is looking to integrate to this EV business too. Apollo computing unit -> https://apollo.auto/ 

 

I think they're not late at all, but they're ready to enter the big leagues by combining their pre-existing developments together with manufacturing giant. I don't see this as google move at all.

Part of me thinks any autonomous driving system in China would park itself in a garage and refuse to leave, having concluded that was the only viably safe option. lol

 

But they're late, unless it's basically just a Geely brand. Even in the "cut every corner" version of Chinese tech, a car design takes 3-4 years from scratch. Even a retro-fit approach is still 2 years of work. Then there's the entire issues of manufacturing, supply, distribution, customer support, sales and everything that's been refined over the last 100 years in the automotive industry. 

 

What tends to be lost on most non-car observers is all Tesla actually did for years was kill the Prius. EVs have their place in big cities, especially with China being willing to roll out nuclear reactors, so they'll be a significant chunk of the market in the places they're viable. But getting into the actual production part of the EV industry needed to happen 5 years ago to have any chance of competing. 

 

[samcool55]

Well with polestar that shouldn't be too difficult.

5 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

This oddly feels exactly like a Google move: show up late, toss up a new subsidiary, cancel the project in about 3 years because it actually takes a long time to bring a product like a car to market and the market has already shifted on you.

While you are close, they are actually faster than Google because they still aren't building cars. Currently android auto is the closest thing to a Google car we have right now.