Chinese carmaker Geely launched the first model of its new Lynk & Co brand in Berlin.
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Beijing – company from Nvidia As the electric vehicle industry booms, Huawei is chasing the in-vehicle technology market, and Ecarx has emerged as a new competitor.
Since 2017, Robin Li, founder and chairman of Chinese auto group Geely, has been building Aikax The company provides software and chip systems for digital car cockpits and driver assistance.
The company reported Wednesday that fourth-quarter revenue rose 22% year over year to $263 million. Geely’s Lynk & Co brand accounts for 70% of its revenue.
In the same quarter, Nvidia reported a 4% annual decline in automotive revenue to $281 million, despite CEO Jensen Huang calling the business the company’s “next billion-dollar business.”
Nvidia counts Geely’s high-end electric vehicle brand Zeekr as a customer of its Drive Orin chips, which use artificial intelligence to drive driver assistance functions known as “system-on-a-chip.” Li Auto, BYD’s Denza brand and Xiaomi are other automotive customers of Nvidia.
Ecarx co-founder and CEO Shen Ziyu said in an interview with CNBC this week that Nvidia has an advantage in autonomous driving systems based on artificial intelligence.
“We can’t compete with them in this area,” he said. But he pointed out that there is still about 70% or 80% of the car market that does not need such advanced technology and can buy simpler, safety-focused driver assistance technology.
“Security will be a very important entry point for us,” he said in Mandarin (translated by CNBC).
Ecarx sells its own “system-on-chip” Antora 1000, which Lynk and Co. uses.
Shen claimed that his company’s current products compete directly with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips and that new products will be available in Announced on March 20, it will be on the same level as Nvidia’s Orin X.
So while acknowledging Nvidia’s current dominance in AI-based technology, Shen is still looking for ways to capture more of the automotive market share in the future.
Geopolitical advantage?
Ecarx plans to benefit by selling products to local Chinese companies that need to buy from domestic companies for geopolitical reasons, Shen said, adding that the company works with almost all major automakers in China except BYD.
He expects overseas markets to also become a growing business for the company and give it an advantage over Chinese rivals such as Huawei.
Over the past few months, Huawei has disclosed a number of agreements It sells its operating systems and other automotive technology to Chinese automakers but has not announced any major overseas deals in the industry. The company also sells electric vehicles through its co-developed brand Aito.
“I think it is very difficult for Huawei to go global because it is a sanctioned company,” Shen said. “I think it will be very difficult for Western companies to work with them.”
When asked about the impact of U.S. restrictions on Chinese technology, Shen said the company has isolated its Chinese business from overseas business and follows local U.S. compliance requirements for artificial intelligence chip-related businesses and the protection of intellectual property rights.
Ecarx’s website lists offices in the United States, Europe and China.
Shen aims to grow Ecarx’s overseas sales from about 10% of revenue now to at least 25% next year, and to at least 40% within the next four to five years.
“To be honest, if we can’t serve the five largest automakers in the world, it will be difficult for us to become a big company,” he said, “because none of China’s (automakers) are among the top five in the world.”
Including fuel-powered vehicles, BYD was China’s largest car company last year, followed by Volkswagen’s local joint venture with FAW, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Geely ranks third.
According to association data, among new energy vehicles (including hybrid vehicles and pure electric vehicles), BYD ranks first, followed by Tesla, GAC Aion brand, and then Geely.
