Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company, confirms it’s in talks with Volkswagen and other automakers for a potential partnership, in response to a Reuters report stating that the Didi Chuxing and Volkswagen mull to co-manage a fleet of 100k vehicles and to jointly develop self-driving car models for ride-hailing. The deal may be part of the D-Alliance, a partnership between Didi Chuxing and 31 companies in the auto industry, to establish a platform for ride-hailing, rental services, and maintenance businesses, easing automakers’ anxiety of being relegated to mere hardware manufacturers, as the alliance means they could become car operators.
Didi Chuxing seeks to become a one-stop platform for transportation services and revolutionize how people own cars by providing shared EVs. The Beijing-based company is reportedly mulling a multibillion-dollar IPO at a valuation of as much as $80 billion this year.
Source: Pandaily