- Stav Shvartz
- March 10, 2021
- 4:27 pm
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China AV - Feb. Newsletter
New names position themselves as leaders in the AV sector, pushing the limits with RoboTaxi and logistics services on public roads. Among those are Dongfeng and BYD that collaborate with local Virtual Driving System (VDS) providers to deploy AV ride hailing service and autonomous trucks respectively. Xiaomi announced it will develop its own smart vehicle, while Haomo.ai (spinout from Great-Wall) attracts investment from the delivery giant Meituan as well as top local VCs. As the AV sector and the demand develops, new players get their appetite to autonomous vehicles and it’s exciting to follow their development.
Feb.3rd: Huawei, BYD and CIDI jointly announced that the three partners realized short barge autonomous driving transportation in Huawei’s manufacturing park. The solution is based on Huawei’s MDC intelligent driving computing platform and CIDI’s intelligent driving system software. BYD contributed T8, a pure electric truck, as the carrier.
Feb.5th: Beijing road test report for autonomous vehicles (2020) was officially released. Beijing has opened 699.58 km of test roads in Haidian District, Shunyi District, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Fangshan District. Baidu Apollo has tested 55 vehicles in Beijing, accounting for 75% of Beijing’s total autonomous driving test vehicles. Baidu’s test mileage has reached 1,125,300 km, accounting for 96% of Beijing’s total mileage in 2020.
Feb.6th: According to incomplete statistics, in January 2021, there were 26 investments and financing in the field of new energy and autonomous driving, six of those at total of over USD 9 billion went to new energy field and six were invested in new car OEMs, with a total financing of USD 7 billion. In addition, there were 14 investments in the field of autonomous driving, accounting for over USD 3 billion.
Feb.8th : Pony.ai announced that it has obtained USD 100 million of round C + financing from Brunei investment agency and CPE. This announcement officially completed a total round C financing of USD 367 million. In just four years since its establishment, Pony.ai has completed seven rounds of financing, which has been widely favored by investors, with a total equity of USD 1.1 billion.
Feb.9th: Horizon Robotics announced the completion of C3 round of financing with USD 350 million, adding to C1 round of financing of USD 150 million and C2 round of financing of USD 400 million at the end of December 2020 and the beginning of January 2021 respectively. So far, the total amount of Horizon round C financing has reached US $900 million, exceeding the original financing target of USD 700 million. At present, Horizon has cooperated with a number of domestic vehicle enterprises and Tier 1 suppliers, as it became the only enterprise in China achieving mass production of automotive intelligent chips, with more than 160,000 chips shipped to date.
Feb.10th: Plus.ai announced the completion of a new financing round with USD 200 million. This round of financing will help Plus.ai accelerate the global commercial deployment of autonomous driving heavy truck. In 2021, Plus.ai target to establish mass production of its new generation autonomous driving stack for heavy trucks.
Feb.10th: WeRide has officially obtained the license of online car hailing, becoming the first autonomous driving enterprise with the qualification of online car hailing in China. The license is issued by Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of transportation and is valid from February 8, 2021 to February 8, 2026.
Feb.18th: Baidu‘s CEO Robin Li said that the new brand in collaboration with Geely‘s electric vehicle and its CEO have been confirmed. At present, Baidu and Geely hope to manufacture an electric vehicle within three years that is integrated with the latest AV and connected car technology to benefit the market and break the conservative view from traditional automobile manufacturers.
Feb.19th: Xiaomi is determined to build cars and regards it as a strategic decision, but the specific form and path have not yet been finalized yet. A person familiar with the matter said that Xiaomi’s car business may be led by Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Group himself.
Feb.24th: Dongfeng Robotaxi plans to open the experience to the public at 2021Q1. At that time, by making an appointment on the mobile App online, the public can have a free trial ride on public road in the core area of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. So far, 42 robotaxi have been put into operation. Dongfeng Robotaxi is equipped with autonomous driving package embedded into Dongfeng Fengshen E70 electric vehicle. The suite consists of three LiDARs, eight cameras, a millimeter wave radar, a high-precision positioning GPS and a high-performance computing platform.
Feb.25th: ECARX announced A+ round of financing which was led by China’s state-owned capital venture capital fund, with a financing amount exceeding USD 200 million. After money valuation of ECARX exceeded US $2 billion. This is another round of financing within only four months after the completion of round A financing of RMB 1.3 billion (USD 200 million) announced at October 2020. ECARX said that this round of financing will boost its international strategic layout and accelerate its march to become a leading automotive intelligent technology company.
Feb.26th: Haomo.ai (formerly the intelligent driving Department of Great Wall Motor) completed pre-A round of financing. This round of financing is led by Shougang fund, followed by Meituan and Hillhouse venture, with an amount of several hundred million yuan. In addition, for the first time, Haomo.ai announced “windmill strategy” and specific progress. It is understood that the “windmill strategy” means that Haomo.ai will carry out the autonomous driving layout from three directions of various use cases: passenger cars, low-speed logistic vehicles and intelligent hardware.
Sources: Gasgoo; EqualOcean; DFMC; ECARX
