Baidu taps co-founder of Mobike as CEO of EV venture

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Baidu confirmed that Xia Yiping, co-founder and former CTO of Mobike, will become the CEO of its electric car joint venture with Geely. “We welcome Mr. Xia Yiping to join Baidu’s vehicle company, and look forward to his contribution to the company and the auto industry,” the internet giant said on Monday.

Photo credit: Baidu

Last month, Baidu announced its plan to establish a company to produce intelligent electric vehicles, and that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Baidu will provide intelligent driving capabilities to power the passenger vehicles for the new venture, and Geely will contribute its expertise in automobile design and manufacturing.

The 40-year-old executive left Mobike after the bike-sharing company was acquired by Meituan in 2018. Before joining Mobike, Mr. Xia had worked in auto industry for several years. He once served as the head of intelligent and connected vehicle business, Asia Pacific at Fiat Chrysler and was responsible for the localization of Ford’s SYNC products when he worked at Ford. In the first half of 2014, he launched the open-source vehicle project OpenCarLab.

On the company's latest earnings call last week, Robin Li, its CEO, revealed that the brand name and CEO of the new venture had been decided and that the first model will be launched within three years.