Tesla’s China rival Xpeng buys ride hailing giant Didi’s smart EV business

Chinese electric vehicle upstart Xpeng is acquiring the smart EV assets of Didi, China’s ride hailing giant, marking another significant alliance that the Tesla challenge has struck in recent months.

In an announcement on Monday, Didi said the duo is forming a strategic partnership to “promote the global application of smart electric vehicles and technologies.” The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Notably, the Didi assets will become a new sub-brand called “Mona” under Xpeng, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. The partnership also extends to areas including marketing, financial insurance services, charging and international expansion.

The news followed on the heels of Volkswagen’s $700 million investment in Xpeng which would see the production of two new models under the Volkswagen brand utilizing XPeng’s key ADAS technologies.

More to come — this is a developing story…



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1YSImqa
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 investors discuss why AI is more than just a buzzword in biotech

As ChatGPT has so aptly demonstrated, AI is now truly entering the mainstream consciousness. That’s why we weren’t very surprised when a slew of investors told us they rarely see a biotech startup that doesn’t incorporate AI in some form or other these days. “Most of the companies we have seen have an AI component to support the discovery or development processes,” Francisco Dopazo, a general partner at Humboldt Fund told TechCrunch recently. But despite becoming quite the buzzword, AI’s apparent ubiquity in biotech isn’t actually driving deal flow or higher valuations. So to get a better idea of how AI is affecting biotech in 2022, we asked six investors to tell us what they look for in a biotech startup today. For Franck Lescure, a partner at Elaia Partners, in biotech, having an AI component isn’t an automatic deal closer. “We do not favor biotech startups with extant AI over those without: Bio-revolution is not only digital. Digital is one tool; the other major tool is the livin
Read more

Voiceflow, a Canada-based SaaS platform that lets companies launch their own voice and chat bots, raises $20M Series A led by Felicis Ventures (Igor Bosilkovski/Forbes)

Image
Igor Bosilkovski / Forbes : Voiceflow, a Canada-based SaaS platform that lets companies launch their own voice and chat bots, raises $20M Series A led by Felicis Ventures   —  Canadian collaborative conversational AI tool Voiceflow announced today that it has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Felicis Ventures. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3rFQ9St via IFTTT
Read more

Ex-staffers say Twitter's mass firing of security staff and growing reliance on automation will help China and other authoritarian regimes in silencing critics (Adam Rawnsley/Rolling Stone)

Image
Adam Rawnsley / Rolling Stone : Ex-staffers say Twitter's mass firing of security staff and growing reliance on automation will help China and other authoritarian regimes in silencing critics   —  Elon's mass firing of security staff and increased reliance on automation is going to make it easier for tyrants to shout … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/xQsF2ef via IFTTT
Read more