The Chinese ride-hailing behemoth Didi Global (92Sy.MU), which opened a new tab, announced that the joint venture between its self-driving unit and EV manufacturer GAC Aion has obtained a business license. This marks the first joint venture in China for the mass manufacturing of completely self-driving electric robotaxis.
According to a statement released by the firm on Sunday, Andi, the joint venture between DiDi Autonomous Driving and GAC Aion, will introduce a crossover electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) as its debut model and build the first batch in 2025.
“The joint venture has positioned us as a pioneer in the autonomous driving industry, enabling us to lead the creation of an early L4 commercial route and the world’s initial closed-loop business model for L4 development that encompasses technology, smart manufacturing and operations,” said Zhang Xiong, deputy general manager of GAC Aion.
The company did not specify which authority issued the license.
The Andi joint venture was set up last year. Didi’s self-driving technology arm Didi Autonomous Driving also got funding of about $149 million from two investors including GAC Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary GAC Capital Co.
Tesla will unveil its robotaxi in August, CEO Elon Musk said last week after Reuters reported the EV maker dropped plans to make an inexpensive car and instead would develop self-driving robotaxis on the same small-vehicle platform.
(This story has been corrected to clarify that the JV plans to produce, not sell, the first batch of robotaxis next year, in paragraph 1. It also corrects to say that Didi Autonomous Driving, not the JV received funding in paragraph 5)
