Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chery Automobile and the Anhui branch of China Telecom, one of China’s three major telecommunication operators, concluded a strategic agreement on July 23 to expand collaboration in 5G field based on their partnership forged in 2016, according to the Wuhu-headquartered automaker.

(Photo source: Chery Automobile's WeChat account)

Aside from 5G, both parties plan to jointly explore such areas as intelligent factory, IoV (Internet of Vehicles), autonomous driving & smart transportation and future mobility.

Chery also signed a cooperation agreement with China Telecom to work on a series of projects that put 5G technologies into practice, including a 5G-based self-driving pilot zone and a joint lab focusing on intelligent vehicles.

Chery said it is ambitious to build itself into a “national team” on smart manufacturing relying on the assistance from China Telecom. To reach this purpose, they will carry out in-depth cooperation in IoT (Internet of Vehicles), autonomous vehicle, cloud platform, vehicle-home connectivity, energy storage & management.

China Telecom has got one of first batch of 5G licenses issued by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on June 6, which is expected to provide greater help for the Anhui-based carmaker to develop autonomous vehicles.

Chery is making strides in R&D of self-driving technologies. Its first-generation intelligent vehicle platform was completed in 2014 and has evolved into the third-generation in 2017.

On June 20, Chery agreed partnerships with a number of enterprises for its “CHERYLION” ecosystem, an intelligence business brand launched at the Auto China 2018.

The automaker classified its new partners into four categories—the Pioneer includes ADAYO, iFlytek, Desay SV Automotive and Neusoft, etc.; the Protector incorporates the Institute of Computing Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology; the Companion covers a series of service and content platforms such as Meituan, Kuwo Music, Tingban, Ximalaya, iqiyi, iyiou and MOJI.

At the signing ceremony, Chery launched the logo of the “CHERYLION”, signifying the intelligence brand's integration of five major businesses, namely, autonomous driving (Drive@Lion), Internet of Vehicles (i-Connect @Lion), manufacturing (i-Make@Lion), data operation (i-Digital@Lion) as well as mobility service (i-Mobility@Lion).