Baidu has selected the co-founder of bike-sharing start-up Mobike to be the CEO of its electric car venture withChinese automaker Geely(OTCPK:GELYF)-CNBC.
Xia Yiping, co-founder of Mobike, will be the CEO of the new entity, according to anonymous source.
Xia previously worked at Fiat Chrysler and Ford before he co-founded Mobike, which was eventually acquired by Meituan in 2018.
Last month, Baidu and Geelyjoined forces to create intelligent EV company.
Baidu’s push into electric vehicles is an attempt to diversify its business beyond just advertising.
Recently, Baidu reported anothersolid quarter in Q4, with Core revenue reaching RMB 23.1B ($3.5B), which is up 6% Y/Y and up 8% Q/Q, with latter much higher than flattish or low single-digit growth from Q3.
Non-advertising revenue was up 52%, reaching 18% of Baidu core revenue, driven by the convergence of AI solutions, cloud services and consumer Internet.
On the earnings call, Robin Li revealed that Baidu’s electric car firm hopes to launch its first vehicle within three years.
"Right now, the venture is progressing very well. We have a CEO on board, and we have decided on the brand of the new vehicle,"said Li in Q4 earnings call.