Baidu's Jidu Auto to invest $7.7bn in smart cars

The company plans to hire up to 3,000 people over two to three years, including 400 to 500 software engineers

Xia Yiping, chief executive of Jidu Auto, says the company's first EV would look like a robot and would target young customers. Reuters  

Jidu Auto, an electric vehicle venture between China's tech giant Baidu and Chinese automaker Geely, aims to plough 50 billion Chinese yuan ($7.7bn) into producing smart cars over the next five years, its chief executive told Reuters.

Xia Yiping said on Friday that the funding would come from Baidu and other investors and Jidu would aim to launch its first electric vehicle in three years, as is standard for the industry, but would make efforts to speed this up.

Its first EV would look like a “robot” and would target young customers, Mr Xia said, adding that Jidu would analyse big market data before deciding on a final model.

"It will make you feel like it's a robot that can communicate with you with emotions," said Mr Xia, who co-founded and served as chief technology officer at Chinese bike-sharing firm Mobike until it was acquired by Meituan in 2018.

Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares jumped as much as 1.3 per cent after Jidu's investment plan.

The launch of the new auto company in January comes as tech companies around the world are racing to develop smart cars after Tesla's success in commercialising EVs.

Jidu plans to release a new model every one or one-and-a-half years after its first launch, Mr Xia said, without giving a sales target. It plans to hire 2,500 to 3,000 people over two to three years, including 400 to 500 software engineers.

Shanghai- and Beijing-based Jidu also plans to roll out its branding in the third quarter of this year, Mr Xia said.

He said Jidu, which will use Geely's open-source EV platform, hopes to make cars in Hangzhou Bay in China's eastern city of Ningbo, where Geely has several plants.

It plans to sell its car directly to customers to begin with, without using dealerships.

Chinese search engine company Baidu in January announced it would set up the company with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to leverage its intelligent driving expertise and Geely's car manufacturing capabilities.

Baidu currently owns 55 per cent of Jidu and Geely has a 45 per cent stake.

Jidu is considering using chips designed by Baidu, which has over the years developed smart car technologies including autonomous driving, high-definition maps and cloud. Baidu first established its autonomous driving unit Apollo in 2017.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi and telecom giant Huawei are among other Chinese tech giants harbouring auto ambitions.