Following the news that China-based Geely Auto Group has partnered with technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd;

Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading research and consulting company, offers his view:

“The partnership between Geely and Tencent will offer significant value to the China’s next-gen mobility market. Both the companies aim to co-develop intelligent cockpits, autonomous technology, work on low car development and digitalization of automotive products.

“Geely Auto Group can use Tencent’s automotive capabilities to expedite is autonomous and EV projects and enhance its existing offering with new in-vehicle technologies from Tencent. Geely has already been exploring the next-gen mobility space with new product development, partnerships and collaboration. The new partnership will offer Geely a competitive edge in the market.

“Geely Auto, which also owns Volvo, Lotus and Lynk, and holds 9.7% stake in Daimler, has been investing significantly in connected, electric and autonomous technologies. Earlier this month, the company announced plan to launch a EV company with tech giant Baidu. The company also formed a JV with Foxconn to offer contract manufacturing to automakers.

“Tencent has also been strengthening its offering in the automotive technology, and has worked with automakers such as BAIC and Changan besides backing Geely’s ECARX Technology. The company’s automotive arm Tencent Automotive Intelligence (TAI) has expertise in artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies and offers solution including algorithms for autonomous vehicles, networking services and location-based services.”