Baidu unveiled the sixth generation of its self-driving electric car, built for ride-hailing, on July 21, 2022 — at a price nearly 50% off a model announced last year.
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BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Baidu announced on Thursday that it has slashed the price of its robotaxi vehicles by nearly half in a bid to lower costs for a burgeoning business.
The new vehicle, the Apollo RT6, is an electric car that costs 250,000 yuan (about $37,313) to produce — without relying on a third-party manufacturer, Baidu said. That price is 48% below the 480,000 yuan manufacturing cost announced last year for the Apollo Moon, which was manufactured in partnership with state-owned BAIC Group’s electric car brand Arcfox.
The Apollo RT6 is scheduled to hit China’s roads in the second half of next year as part of Baidu’s self-driving Robotaxi business.
The company’s robotaxi business, dubbed Apollo Go, received approval from the city of Beijing in November to start collecting fares for trips within a suburban area. However, a human employee still has to sit in the car.
In April, local authorities relaxed restrictions on whether the employee must sit in the driver’s seat, paving the way to eliminating the cost of a taxi driver entirely. It remains unclear when the Chinese government will allow robo-taxis to charge fares for trips without human personnel in the vehicles.
We are moving towards a future where it costs half as much to ride a robotaxi as it does today.
Baidu said the company aims to produce 100,000 Apollo RT6 vehicles over an indefinite period.
“This massive cost reduction will allow us to deploy tens of thousands [autonomous driving vehicles] across China,” said Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, in a statement. “We are moving towards a future where it will cost half as much to ride a robotaxi as it does today.”
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Apollo Go operates in 10 cities in China and plans to reach 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030, the company said.
In addition to Baidu, startups such as Pony.ai and WeRide are testing robotaxi companies in China.
To expand in China, companies must test robotic taxis and acquire licenses in every city they wish to operate in, Elinor Leung, chief executive of Asia Telecom and Internet Research at CLSA, told CNBC earlier this week.
Until cities recognize each other’s test results, robotaxi companies will have to raise more money to test more cars in different cities, she said.