One of the biggest ride-hailing giant of China Didi Chuxing and the well known electric vehicle manufacturer BYD is planning to launch a test batch of a vehicle designed for ride-hailing services.
Last month BYD received approval from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to sell an electric sedan named D1. According to sources, D1 is completely built for ride-hailing services developed by these two companies.
The sources also told that the companies were trying to deliver these vehicles to the fleet partner companies by the end of this year. The model might come with a sliding door on the right side to prevent hitting cyclists or pedestrians. As per the reports, the vehicle will have larger legroom for rear-seat passengers.
BYD is China’s one of the biggest and most established EV players, which has sold as much as 451,000 cars last year.
However, Warrant Buffet backed BYD, which is basically based in Shenzhen refused to comment on this matter.
On the other hand, SoftBank backed Didi, which is also China’s largest ride-hailing service provider is currently developing a range of auto-related technologies.
In recent times, Didi has launched various joint ventures with companies like BYD, Volkswagen, and BAIC to develop fleet management and intelligent vehicles.
Didi also formed an alliance with various automakers to develop purpose-built vehicles for ride-hailing services back in 2018. The D1 is one of the first known models since the announcement.
This move eventually shows how various tech firms are disrupting traditional automakers during the major shift towards electric vehicles and pay per use models.
Didi is also looking to expand its operations in China, as its CEO has recently set up a goal of completing as much as 100 million orders daily, and reaching as much as 800 million monthly active users globally by the end of 2022.
