Chinese tech giant Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) will form a company dedicated to electric vehicles (EV) and secured a partner to manufacture these cars. This according to an article published Thursday by Reuters citing “two sources familiar with the matter.”
According to these sources, the manufacturer is the largest Chinese automaker Geely. Some of the company’s current facilities will be modified to produce EVs at the Baidu facility. The technology company will contribute to the software that forms the “brain” of the cars, while Geely will contribute to the engineering. It is not known what the financial and operational terms of the Baidu / Geely agreement may be.
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As for the dedicated company, Baidu will hold a majority stake in it and will control 100% of its voting power.
Baidu has yet to comment on the Reuters article. This happens several weeks after the news agency reported that Baidu was considering a venture in the EV field. At the time, it was reported that the company had held preliminary negotiations not only with Geely, but also with Guangzhou Automobile Group and Hongqi, in potential manufacturing partnerships.
Although Baidu is best known for being a search engine operator, as a kind of equivalent in the United States Alphabet, ventured into cutting-edge automotive technology.
Last year, for example, Baidu launched its Apollo Go robotaxi service in several Chinese cities. While this represents an advance in advanced steering technology, it is not a fully autonomous solution – a human driver is present in case your assistance is needed to operate the vehicle.