Tencent, Chongqing Changan to build ICV joint venture, co-develop IoV solution

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On April 12, Tencent and Chongqing Changan officially signed a cooperation agreement to establish an ICV (intelligent-connected vehicle) joint venture. Both parties will focus on developing IoV integration solutions as well as relevant operational businesses and services, Ma Huateng, Tencent's chairman and Zhu Huarong, Chongqing Changan's president, revealed at the signing ceremony.

Besides, both parties are actively preparing for the joint venture and plan to announce it in middle of May this year, according to insiders from Tencent. Although the detail about the cooperation have not been revealed yet, the Internet giant and the automaker will collaborate in the areas of integrated IoV (Internet of Vehicles) solutions, big data cloud, etc, the insiders said to local media.

According to local media, the cooperation may involve two major parts. One is to develop basic ICV solutions, namely, taking advantage of Tencent's existing in-vehicle products to enhance the automaker's vehicle power. For instance, Tencent (including Wechat)'s IoV services, such as social communication, mobility payment and account systems, can be applied into the models of Chongqing Changan. Reportedly, the automaker's new model that carries the IoV products developed by the joint venture will be launched this year.

The other major part is to explore a deep cooperative development in resource integration and advantage complementation. To be specific, Tencent's abilities in content ecology, Internet security, AI, big data and cloud computing will help promote its partner's product competitiveness. In addition, Chongqing Changan has already boasted over 60 core technologies in autonomous driving, intelligent connection and intelligent interaction fields. Thus, the automaker will be able to offer more vehicle-based development access and data entitlement to the Internet giant for it to develop tailored services and applications of vehicle terminal.