China Auto Trending Hashtag| Tesla & India battery plant/ Didi & NIO

1. Didi: no merger plan with NIO on autopilot

Recently, Didi Chuxing upgraded its autonomous driving business department to an independent company, and CTO Zhang Bo became the CEO of the new company. 

The newly established self-driving company will focus on self-driving R&D, product application and related business development in the future. It will integrate platform resources and original technology advantages of Didi and continue to increase investment in core technology R&D to further expand cooperation with the upstream and downstream industrial chain.

It is reported that NIO's Silicon Valley branch is currently shrinking, and is considering merging the autonomous driving business with Didi's new company. Li Bin, founder of NIO, has already conducted several rounds of negotiations with Didi on this program. On the same day, Didi responded that there is no relevant merger plan and will continue to cooperate in depth with the automotive industry.

2. India to build battery plant, Tesla and CATL show interests

In order to reduce its dependence on overseas crude oil, save foreign exchange and control pollution in major cities, India plans to invest 500 billion rupees to build a plant to produce lithium-ion batteries, making India a global manufacturing center for electric vehicles and car parts. To safeguard India's energy needs, India's Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has approved plans to set up a 50 GWh battery plant, which will be tendered in February next year.

Although Tesla has not yet entered the Indian automotive market, Livemint, the Indian media, recently reported that Tesla intends to set up a battery factory in India. The report quoted two Indian government officials as saying that in addition to Tesla, Chinese companies BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL) are among the companies that have shown an initial interest in building factories in India.