Volvo ECARX

History

2021: Creating a Company

At the end of March 2021, the Swedish automaker Volvo Cars created a joint venture with ECARX, a startup in the field of intelligent automotive technologies. The new Volvo ECARX company will develop an automotive operating system.

ECARX was founded by Executive Director Shen Ziyu and Chairman of Geely Li Shufu in 2016 and specializes in technology used in car chips, high definition cards and smart vehicles.

Volvo Cars has created a company to develop an automotive OS

Volvo Cars has been collaborating with Google in the development of the Android Automotive operating system since 2017. In 2020, Volvo Cars and Polestar were the first to introduce infotainment systems based on the Android Automotive operating system with embedded Google applications and services.

As part of a new joint venture headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo Cars and ECARX will continue to develop the Volvo Cars infotainment system platform. The joint venture will make the platform accessible to all Geely Group and subsidiary brands, and will also provide the platform to third parties through ECARX.

The planned joint venture will allow both companies and the wider Geely group of companies to accelerate the development of technologies, increase profitability and create new revenue streams, the companies said in a statement.

The announcement was made due to the fact that ECARX intends to find investors to develop future technologies. At the end of March 2021, the company's value exceeds $2 billion, since in February ECARX attracted more than $200 million from investors, including China Reform, and in October - another $195 million in the framework of the financing round, where Baidu Inc and the American company Susquehanna International Group participated.^[1]

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