China electric cars: Baidu and Geely hire Mobike’s co-founder as chief executive of EV venture

Xia Yiping, co-founder and former chief technology officer of Mobike, has been tapped to head a new venture between Baidu and Geely
Baidu is setting up a company with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to leverage its intelligent driving capabilities and Geely’s car manufacturing expertise

Electric & new energy vehicles

Che Panin BeijingandZhang Shidongin Shanghai

Published: 5:30pm, 19 Feb 2021

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China’s search engine giant Baidu and carmaker Geely have designated Mobike co-founder and former chief technology officer Xia Yiping as chief executive officer of their new electric vehicle venture, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Baidu announced last month it would establish a new venture with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to produce electric vehicles by leveraging its capabilities in autonomous driving technologies and Geely’s expertise in car design and manufacturing.

Robin Li, Baidu CEO and founder, said on Thursday the venture partners have found a chief executive, without giving the name. He also said they have decided on the brand under which a new electric vehicle model will be launched in around three years.

Baidu’s smart car initiative has come as the company pushes to monetise the autonomous driving technologies that it has been developing since 2013 within its autonomous driving division Baidu Apollo. Li also said Apollo would remain open to supply its technologies to other car manufacturers.

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The source requested anonymity as the information was not public yet. Reuters first reported Xia’s appointment citing two anonymous sources.

Baidu declined to provide comment. Xia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The partnership also marked Baidu’s joining of an already crowded EV sector in the world’s largest car market, where more than 200 licensed electric car makers are engaged in fierce competition. Many of them are backed by China’s major Chinese technology titans. Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of this newspaper, has invested in Xpeng. Tencent backs NIO and Li Auto is supported by Meituan and ByteDance.

Xia served as Mobike’s chief technology officer since January 2015 when the Chinese bike-sharing company was founded in Beijing. Before joining Mobike, he worked at US carmaker Ford Motor and Chinese telecoms giant ZTE, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Once a highly competitive sector, Chinese bike-sharing industry has well-nigh become a past concern after playing fast and loose with millions of dollars of investment due to many years of aggressive expansion. Mobike was acquired by food delivery giant Meituan in April 2018. Last December, Mobike retired its mobile app and its bright orange bicycles can now only be accessed via Meituan’s app.

Designed to be equipped with autonomous driving and better in-car entertainment services, Li said he is confident that the Baidu-Geely electric car will be different from other EV brands on the market.

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Baidu’s diversification into the smart EV sector does not come as a surprise to industry observers.

Baidu-Geely EV is likely to focus on offering level 3 autonomous driving functions and tap into Baidu’s mobile ecosystem, said David Zhang, an independent auto analyst.

Level 3 represents conditional automation, where cars are capable of driving themselves under certain conditions, such as car-following and lane-switching on highways at speeds of less than 60kph.

He said that Baidu needs to roll out the new model quickly – in a year or so – to make an impact on the competition in the Chinese EV market.

“It will definitely be a difficult task, but it will be worth waiting,” Zhang said.

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