Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行) is to begin rolling out an electric vehicle developed with BYD Co (比亞迪) to its drivers, aiming to reduce costs in the world’s largest ride-hailing network.
The D1, the first model to have been built with ride-hailing in mind, is to ship to the start-up’s leasing partners across several Chinese cities, Didi Chuxing said.
Made by BYD, in which Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is the largest shareholder, the vehicle has power-sliding doors and a driver assistance system.
Photo: Reuters
Didi Chuxing in 2018 flagged its intention to team up with automakers to produce customized electric vehicles for its ride-hailing service.
The firm that defeated Uber Technologies Inc in China is hoping the D1 presents a more efficient option than traditional gasoline-powered vehicles.
It already hosts about 1 million electric vehicles, which can take advantage of a growing nationwide charging network, and provides as many as 60 million rides per day.
The company, valued at US$62 billion according to CB Insights, is still recovering from a 2018 regulatory crackdown on its vehicle-pooling service and the COVID-19 pandemic that has curtailed most transportation.
Rival Internet platforms such as Meituan Dianping (美團點評) are now challenging Didi Chuxing’s leadership in ride-hailing. To compete, the company is expanding into adjacent businesses, from bike sharing to grocery delivery, to attract and keep users.
Monthly active users across Didi Chuxing’s platforms in China have surpassed 400 million, it said this month.
Longer term, it is betting on autonomous driving — a hived-off unit that received US$500 million in funding from Softbank Group Corp’s Vision Fund. Its shares trade privately at a discount of as much as 40 percent to its peak valuation, Bloomberg reported this year.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
Semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to double this year, as manufacturers in the industry are keen to expand production to meet strong global demand for artificial intelligence applications, according to SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. Speaking at a news conference before the opening of Semicon Taiwan trade show tomorrow, SEMI director of industry research and statistics Clark Tseng (曾瑞榆) said semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to grow by an annual 100 percent this year, beating an earlier estimate of 70 percent growth. He said that Taiwan received a boost from a