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China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. s Hengchi electric vehicles at the Shanghai Auto Show in April | BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg May 10, 2021
China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech’s ambitions in the world of carmaking, with giants from Huawei Technologies Co. to Baidu Inc. plowing almost $19 billion into electric and self-driving vehicle ventures widely seen as the future of transport.
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(Bloomberg) China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech’s ambitions in the world of carmaking, with giants from Huawei Technologies Co. to Baidu Inc. plowing almost $19 billion into electric and self-driving vehicle ventures widely seen as the future of transport.
While Apple Inc. has long had plans for its own car and Alphabet Inc. has Waymo, its autonomous driving unit, the size and speed of the move by China’s tech titans puts them at the vanguard of that broader push. The lure is an industry that’s becoming increasingly high tech as it pivots away from the combustion engine, with sensors and operating systems making cars more like computers, and the prospect of autonomy re-envisioning how people use will them.
Baidu launches fully driverless ride-hailing in Beijing
4 May 2021 2:35 pm / 7 comments
Baidu has opened its Apollo Go fully driverless robotaxi service to the public in Beijing, where users will be able to hail a robotaxi without a safety driver at the vehicle’s controls. Shougang Park in Beijing is the first location to see the roll-out of the robotaxi service, and is also one of the venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, where visitors will be using the driverless service.
Baidu is the first Chinese company to roll out a fully driverless taxi service for commercial operation, says the company. The Apollo Go mobile app enables users to locate and hail a nearby robotaxi through a system of unmanned, self-service processes.
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LONDON Lotus Cars will only produce electric cars by the “late 2020s,” CEO Matt Windle said.
The UK sports-car maker, owned by China’s Geely, is the latest automaker to commit to an all-electric future as the industry shifts from combustion engines amid tightening emissions regulations in major markets such as Europe and the U.S.
Lotus’s all-electric strategy was finalized in 2018 after positive customer feedback, Windle said. “We took the decision to go straight to EVs after the Elmira, which was already in development,” he said.
Lotus will unveil the combustion-engine Elmira on July 6 ahead of its sales launch next year.
Lotus Says Emira Will Be Its Last Gasoline Powered Model
Lotus Cars has announced that the Emira sports car will be its next and final internal combustion model as it prepares itself to become an exclusively electric brand. The historically British manufacturer says its Chinese owners, the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, are preparing a cash injection of $2.8 billion to swap to EVs and expand its footprint.
While the present market makes those items feel as though they could conflict with each other, Lotus thinks that the climate will be different a few years from now and plans on going EV only by 2028. In the meantime, the Emira is scheduled to launch in July.