Geely teams up with web giant Baidu to make EVs
Volvo parent company beds Chinese equivalent of Google to create autonomous pure-electric vehiclesGeely has announced that it will forge a new partnership with Baidu to develop a family of pure-electric cars.
Geely, which already owns Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and LEVC, among others, says the new battery-powered range will be developed and sold under a new brand.
All will be based on the Chinese car-maker's all-new Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) and will come fitted with advanced autonomous driving aids.
The infotainment system will be developed by Baidu.
Geely will also lend its design and manufacturing expertise and engineer a new pure-electric powertrain that will be used for the new vehicles.
As well as lending out the SEA platform for the new joint venture, Geely's bespoke electric car architecture will also underpin a range of battery-powered passenger vehicles and SUVs under the Geely brand, Volvo, Polestar and potentially even Lotus.
The first car-maker to use it will be Geely-owned premium brand Lynk & Co, which will launch its Zero coupe-SUV later this year in China.
Helping Baidu develop its own autonomous driving aids, the new SEA platform has been designed, developed and engineered to incorporate the hardware needed for driverless tech.
The world's fourth most-popular website, meanwhile, is no newbie when comes to driverless technology.
Subsidiaries owned by Baidu have been reportedly working on the tech for the past eight years, employing high-definition mapping created by Baidu.
Baidu and Geely are also familiar bedfellows and have worked on a separate project to develop artificial intelligence for cars since 2019.
Commenting on the new deal, Baidu boss Robin Li said: "Geely has the unique experience and resources to design, produce and market energy-efficient, reliable and safe automobiles in large scale.
"We believe that by combining Baidu’s expertise in smart transportation, connected vehicles and autonomous driving with Geely's expertise as a leading automobile and EV manufacturer, the new partnership will pave the way for future passenger vehicles."
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