Chinese carmaker Geely and tech heavyweight Baidu’s joint venture launch its flagship electric vehicle called Ji Yue 01 on Friday night. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The joint venture between Chinese carmaker Geely Holding Group and tech heavyweight Baidu Inc has launched its first artificial intelligence-powered electric vehicle called Ji Yue 01.
Priced from 249,900 yuan ($34,151.8), the sports utility vehicle features level 4 (L4) autonomous driving technology, a voice-activated control system and advanced intelligent cabins. L4 autonomy means the car can drive itself in most conditions without a human driver.
It integrates Ernie Bot, Baidu’s ChatGPT-like large language model, to offer AI interactive experience for intelligent vehicles. The car can go as far as 720 kilometers on a single charge.
Baidu and Geely set up a joint venture called Jidu Auto in March 2021 to focus on developing intelligent electric vehicles. The two companies announced a significant advancement in their strategic partnership in August, marking a new milestone with the introduction of Ji Yue, a premium intelligent technology brand.
Sales of NEVs in the country expanded 27.7 percent year-on-year to 904,000 units in September, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed. In the first nine months of the year, NEV sales increased 37.5 percent from a year ago to 6.28 million units, the CAAM said.