Shangha (ZXZC)- Chinese automakers FAW Car and Leapmotor forged a strategic partnership earlier this week to jointly develop intelligent electric vehicle (EV) models.

The newly-signed agreement also involves the joint cooperation on R&D, manufacture, production and application of smart EV-related core parts, and the in-depth research on the development of key basic technologies and the innovation of production modes.

As China's automotive industry is entering a critical phase of the transformation to electrification and intelligence, automakers are proactively exploring the innovative cooperation patterns in developing and manufacturing intelligent vehicles, and making breakthroughs in key auto parts technologies, Leapmotor said via its WeChat account. Under the newly-formed cooperation, both parties will make joint efforts to engineer and develop high-quality smart EVs by leveraging their resources of complete vehicle platforms and technologies. 

Leapmotor, the Hangzhou-based startup, touts its independent R&D capabilities in EV-related core parts (such as battery and ECU), intelligent-connected system and smart driving system. By virtue of Dahua Technology's technical merits of AI chip, it has controlled the core hardware platform and algorithm pertinent to autonomous driving, fully covering pivotal levels of sensing, decision-making and execution.

The startup is speeding up the roll-out of new products. On April 15, the S01 460, the longer-range version of the company's first production model S01, hit the market and became available for delivery at the same time. The T03, the new EV model boasting a range of 403km, will go on sale on May 11 to take on such models as the ORA R1 and the Chery eQ1 (photo source: Leapmotor's WeChat account).