Chinese Search Giant Baidu To Make Electric Cars (theverge.com) 14
Chinese search giant Baidu plans to make electric vehicles with help from Geely, the country's largest private automaker, according to a new report from Reuters. From a report: It's the latest Chinese conglomerate to venture into the flourishing electric vehicle market, following shopping giant Alibaba and ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing. Making electric vehicles would also represent a broadening of Baidu's ambition to branch into transportation. Baidu has already spent years working on self-driving technology and is the leading Chinese company in the autonomous vehicle space. Baidu will likely form a new joint venture with Geely for the EV effort, Reuters reports, and will develop software for the vehicle while Geely focuses on the hardware.
Nah (Score:2)
Unlikely, the Chinese already have plenty of their own EV technology. They are particularly far ahead of anyone else when it comes to very large batteries (for busses and trucks) and getting battery cost down. They have state of the art drivetrains too, top notch efficiency.
They wouldn't even want Tesla's battery tech anyway. Tesla uses cylindrical cells which have some advantages but which have basically lost out to pouch cells, which are cheaper and more energy dense. While there is a lot of dick-measurin
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Tesla uses Li-Ion cells. Pouch cells are Li-Poly. Given a specific volume, the greater energy density of Li-Ion compensates for the wasted space compared to prismatic Li-Poly.
Li-Poly is just more convenient to use because you can make it in any shape you want, so oddball areas are easily filled with rectangular cells. Also, you can make Li-Poly very flat and thin whereas Li-Ion is cylindrical. You can "squish" it to a certain extent, but it's pretty much cylindrical.
Where energy is concerned, Li-Ion, despit
Re: Nah (Score:1)
They wouldn't even want Tesla's battery tech anyway.
See, that was where you took your shilling too far and got carried away. Subtlety and restraint, man.
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Not only was he shilling, he even misspelled Panasonic.
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Sorry to break it to you so bluntly, but Tesla are not the be-all and end-all of electric vehicles.
Look at it this way, they have failed to deliver an affordable model. They briefly sold a $35k Model 3, off list and probably at a loss or close to it since it was just a software limited SR+. Plans to cost reduce it went out the window and it was never available outside the US.
Meanwhile their competitors are offering cars in the 200-300 mile range bracket for a fraction of the price, and they are selling well
Re: And probably using stolen technology no doubt. (Score:2)
Bigoted, much?
You talk like the Chinese aren't capable of original thought, or Americans are exceptional in technology, which they're not.
I thought the mission of Tesla was to make EVs prolific and reduce the pollution in the world... Or something. Well, I'm pretty sure it used to be. I guess they've sold out now.
Chinese search a what? (Score:2)
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Re: About that car (Score:2)
Beijing, for one.
Re: About that car (Score:2)
It's a different case for "green" number plates used for NEVs, than for the plates used for Ice cars.