12 15 according to Reuters, Baidu is considering setting up an electric vehicle joint venture company. Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Baidu had approached Geely Automobile, Guangzhou Automobile Group and Hongqi Brand under China FAW Group to discuss the possibility of establishing a joint venture company, but no decision was made.
In this regard, Baidu said that it does not comment on market rumors. GAC told the media that it has a strategic partnership with Baidu and any further cooperation remains to be discussed. The other two car companies Geely and FAW did not give a clear answer.
It is worth noting that Baidu's share price rose sharply after being exposed to the news of joint venture to build a car. 65438+February 16, after the previous day's surge of 13.83%, Baidu's intraday price rose by 8% again, and its share price once exceeded the $200 mark, reaching the highest value since April of 20 19, and its market value returned to above $60 billion.
Why is the capital market so excited about Baidu's joint venture to build cars? Investors' confidence may come from Baidu's extensive layout in the automotive field for many years, and the hope that Baidu's Apollo plan, which has been deeply cultivated for many years, is expected to land and start commercial operations.
In 20 17, Baidu established Apollo, an autonomous driving business. On June 2020 10, Baidu's self-driving taxi service was fully opened in Beijing, and smart taxi service was also launched in Guangzhou, Changsha and other cities.
According to Baidu Apollo official website information, Apollo open source platform currently provides "Robotaxi (driverless taxi), Minibus (micro-circulation bus), valet? Parking (autonomous parking), intelligent signal-controlled intelligent transportation, vehicle-road coordinated intelligent transportation, small car-mounted OS car networking, car networking intelligent Che Yun, 5G cloud driving service and many other solutions related to automatic driving and intelligent transportation.
According to official data, the Apollo autopilot architecture has developed the autopilot ecosystem of more than 1000 partners. Among them, Apollo intelligent cabin has cooperated with 600 models of more than 70 car companies, and more than 6,543,800 small car OS has been mass-produced before installation. Apollo House also started mass production, and cooperated with AVP brands such as Guangzhou Automobile, Weimar and Great Wall.
As the "gossip objects" of Baidu, Geely, FAW and GAC are inextricably linked with Baidu.
Geely and Baidu have long-term cooperation. 20 19 In July, Baidu and Geely * * * announced that they had reached a strategic cooperation: Starting from Geely Job PRO, Geely Automobile will start to fully carry the small-scale in-vehicle interactive system GKUI 19.
In terms of Guangzhou Automobile, on February 8 this year, 65438 Baidu signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group, hoping to explore related technologies and industries such as intelligent driving, intelligent car association and digital marketing through complementary resources and technologies.
The cooperation between FAW and Baidu is closer. 20 17 signed a cooperation agreement with Baidu to obtain technical support for autonomous driving and mobile travel provided by Baidu; On July 20 18, Baidu announced at the AI Developers Conference that the L4-class self-driving bus "Apollon" jointly developed by Baidu and Jinlong Bus was mass-produced. In June of the same year, FAW Group and Baidu * * * released L4 self-driving vehicles. 2065438+September 2009, FAW Hongqi cooperated with Baidu * * * Hongqi EV? Robotaxi landed in Changsha; In April this year, Baidu once again announced that it would continue to carry out in-depth strategic cooperation with FAW.
However, the above cases are the cooperation between Baidu and car companies. The focus of Baidu's car-making rumors is "establishing an electric vehicle joint venture company".
Compared with the manufacturing advantages of car companies, Baidu undoubtedly has a long board in technology. The insiders believe that it is not impossible for Baidu to build a car, but in order to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, it is very likely to take the form of technology shares and will not be too involved in hardware production.
This also means that if Baidu decides to build a car, its role in the automobile industry will change, from a software third party to an automobile manufacturer, and many cooperative automobile companies will become competitive.
However, the final conclusion needs to be based on the joint venture car-making plan given by Baidu officials. At present, Baidu's car is still foggy.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.