SAIC, Alibaba launch internet-connected car aimed at Chinese mass market

Chinese automaker SAIC Motor and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group on Wednesday launched their first internet-connected car with ambitions of making the vehicle even smarter in future.

The web-enabled car, a Roewe RX5 sports utility vehicle under SAIC’s subsidiary brand, is priced from 148,800 yuan (HK$172,600), the Shanghai-based automaker announced in a ceremony in Hangzhou on Wednesday.

The model is the first internet-connected car powered by Alibaba’s homegrown operating system YunOS. The two companies agreed in March last year to invest 1 billion yuan to develop an internet-connected car, marking Alibaba’s first foray into the new battleground of the auto sector.

Alibaba is the owner of South China Morning Post.

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said connectivity will make the car not only a transportation vehicle in the future but a smart device closely linked to people’s daily lives.

“Today, 80 per cent of your smartphone’s functions are not relevant to making phone calls or conversation. I believe that in the future, a car will have 80 per cent of its functions not related to just transportation,” Ma said in Hangzhou at the ceremony.