On June 23, “Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.”, jointly initiated by investment entities under Hello Inc., Ant Group, and CATL, was registered in Shanghai. The company has a registered capital of 1.288 billion yuan ($177.5 million) and will focus on the R&D of Level 4 autonomous driving technology, its safe application, and commercialization.
The name “Zaofu” in the company’s title comes from Zaofu, a historical figure from China’s Western Zhou Dynasty, who was a famous master charioteer in Chinese history with superb driving skills. Naming the company “Zaofu” also largely aligns with its commercial direction.
The new company is jointly held by Shanghai Yunyang Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (Ant Group), Shanghai Junha Network Technology Co., Ltd. (Hello Inc.), and Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Zone Wending Investment Co., Ltd. (CATL). The three parties have made a combined initial investment exceeding 3 billion yuan ($413.5 million).
Signs of this cooperation had appeared earlier. On April 10 this year, the three companies signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Hangzhou, announcing deep collaboration in four main areas: green intelligent mobility, digital technology, green operations, and investment.
According to CATL’s official announcement, the focus of this strategic cooperation is deep collaboration in the field of green intelligent mobility, including intelligent driving, the construction of comprehensive new energy mobility service platforms, and the post-market service system for new energy batteries. Additionally, the three parties will jointly advance the application development and commercialization in key areas through methods including establishing joint ventures.
The establishment of Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. can be seen as a further exploration of this strategic cooperation.
Currently, the main players in the domestic Robotaxi field are divided into three types, with significant differences in technical approaches and operational strategies:
The first type is technology company-led, represented by Baidu and Pony.ai. They rely on first-mover advantages in algorithms to capture testing mileage data, but high hardware costs constrain scaling. The former has already opened fully driverless testing in 30 cities including Beijing and Shanghai, while the latter has begun fee-based Robotaxi operations across the entire Nansha district of Guangzhou. The second type is ride-hailing platform spin-offs, such as DiDi and Caocao Mobility. They leverage existing order dispatching systems to implement mixed dispatching of human-driven and autonomous vehicles, but their technological iteration relies on third-party cooperation.
Shanghai Zaofu Intelligent Technology belongs to the third type – the industrial alliance model. It aims to reduce manufacturing costs through CATL’s standardized chassis, optimize algorithm efficiency with Ant Group, and integrate operational scenarios using Hello Inc.’s user base, forming a self-sustaining ecosystem from technology to market.
Discover more from ChinaEVHome
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
