The new electric vehicle jointly designed by the two firms will be mainly used for ride-hailing services.
Government documents show that BYD received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China last month to sell an electric vehicle developed with DiDi called 'D1.' A person familiar with the joint venture between DiDi and BYD revealed to Reuters that the D1 is a vehicle developed by the two companies specifically for online ride-hailing services. Currently, the two companies are trying to deliver these vehicles to DiDi's fleet partner company within this year.
DiDi is currently developing a series of automotive-related technologies and has established several joint ventures with established automakers such as Volkswagen, BAIC and BYD to cooperate in smart car development and fleet management.
DiDi allied with automakers to develop cars specifically for online car-hailing back in 2018. According to the agreement, DiDi will provide car companies with customer knowledge and operational skills in exchange for car companies' expertise in car design.
At present, DiDi is also expanding its business in China. The company's CEO plans to complete 100 million orders per day by 2022 and make global monthly active users reach 800 million.