Shanghai (ZXZC)- SAIC Motor launched on March 18 the all-new technology brand “R-TECH” to serve the vehicles under the R brand, the group's high-end all-electric passenger vehicle marque.

ES33; photo credit: R brand

In the meantime, the ES33, the third model of R brand and the first one powered by R-TECH, made its world's debut. The new model is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of 2022.

The automaker said it invested over 20 billion yuan ($3.07 billion) in a 5-year R&D project to develop the R-TECH, which offers the pluggable, replaceable and upgradeable hardware, the definable software available for purchase and sale, as well as the rechargeable, replaceable and upgradeable batteries.

Under the R-TECH, the company has created a full-stack in-house developed intelligent driving solution “PP-CEM” that embraces a multidimensional sensing system with numerous scenarios and ultra-long detection range. A digital environment mirror image is formed to accurately predict behaviors and movements of pedestrians and vehicles based on a chip platform with high-speed broadband and strong computing power in conjunction with full-stack self-developed super environment module algorithm and data closed loop.

SAIC Motor formed strategic partnership with the U.S. Lidar producer Luminar, which will power the autonomous capabilities and advanced safety features in SAIC's new R brand vehicles for series production with its industry-leading lidar as well as components of its Sentinel software system. According to Luminar, the R brand program is expected to begin series production with Luminar in 2022.

What's more, R brand's production models will be armed with NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin ™ SoC that delivers 500 to 1,000+ TOPS, said SAIC Motor.