Baidu&rsquo;s electric vehicle (EV) arm Jidu <a href="https://www.news18.com/auto/">Auto</a> has launched a &ldquo;robot" concept car, the first vehicle to be revealed by a Chinese internet company. The concept car, which is free of door handles and can be fully controlled via voice recognition, was launched through an online press conference held on Baidu&rsquo;s metaverse-themed app Xirang. Jidu, an EV venture controlled by Baidu and co-funded by Chinese automaker Geely, plans to mass produce the model, which would be 90% similar to the concept car, in 2023. The &lsquo;robot&rsquo; EVs will possess autonomous Level 4 capabilities that need no human intervention as well as utilize Qualcomm&rsquo;s 8295 chips, which will enable users to access voice assistance offline when internet connection is poor.
Baidu&rsquo;s EV-making plan comes as tech companies around the world race to develop smart cars after Tesla&rsquo;s success in commercializing electric vehicles. Besides equipping the vehicle with autonomous driving software technology powered by Baidu, Jidu will also build two lidars and 12 cameras alongside the car. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, which use pulsed laser light rather than radio waves.
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&ldquo;The Jidu robocar aims to meet users&rsquo; needs for intelligent travel &hellip; and intelligent cabin in the new era," said Joe Xia Yiping, Jidu chief executive, adding &ldquo;the ultimate goal is to realize a fully driverless transportation experience."
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Jidu cars will target users who like cutting-edge technologies, Luo Gang, head of operations at Jidu, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. The EVs will be manufactured in Hangzhou Bay in China&rsquo;s eastern city of Ningbo, where Geely has several plants.
Jidu has hired ex-Cadillac designer Frank Wu as its head of design, and Wang Weibao, a former member of Apple Inc&rsquo;s EV initiative Project Titan, as its head of intelligent driving.
Jidu&rsquo;s first model will be priced above 200,000 yuan ($29,914.59), Baidu chief executive Robin Li said on a conference call last month.
Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp and Didi Global are among other Chinese tech giants who are pursuing auto-making ambitions.
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Jidu, Electric Vehicle Firm of Baidu, Unveils First 'Robot' Car

Ferrari shared a teaser image of what appears to be the new 296 GTB supercar on social media, promising a surprise on April 19. Apart from previewing part of the next model&rsquo;s rear profile and the lines on the back fender, the teaser image offers little about the new convertible. A closer examination reveals the silhouette to be that of the next Ferrari&rsquo;s rear buttress, which resembles the 296 GTB coupe. According to reports, the new 296 convertible will have a hard-top roof that folds down. Expect the rear decklid to be tweaked in comparison to the coupe, with the rest of the cosmetics likely to remain unchanged from the 296 GTB coupe. The interior, like that of the Coupe, is intended to be identical to that of other Ferraris. The name for the 296 convertible is yet to be confirmed, with the company previously using the suffixes Spider, GTS, and Aperta to denote its current and previous range of convertibles.
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Due to the lack of a permanent roof, anticipate Ferrari to alter the 296 convertible&rsquo;s chassis to increase body stiffness, as well as a revised tune for the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 to account for the added weight of the folding roof and any structural strengthening measures. The 296 will, like the GTB, be a hybrid, with an electric motor mated with a petrol engine that produces 818 horsepower and 740 Nm.
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According to the Facebook post that showed the teaser, Ferrari will unveil the 296 GTS on April 19, which is a long time before another Ferrari model, the Purosangue, makes its premiere this year. The 296 GTS and the Purosangue are diametrically opposed, but both are integral aspects of the company&rsquo;s future goals - electrification and a crossover. However, we are looking forward to seeing both of the Italian brand&rsquo;s new cars.
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Ferrari to Unveil New Offering on April 19, Could it be the 296 GTB Convertible?

Electric cars are being unveiled every other day now but the major challenge remains their change. That too may be a thing of the past. Lightyear, a company developing solar electric cars, has revealed their first production-ready vehicle, the Lightyear 0. The vehicle uses both solar and electric energy to run the powertrain which, the company claims, has boosted the range of the vehicle beyond 1000 kilometres.
&ldquo;After six years of R&amp;D, design, engineering, prototyping, and testing, this premier solar car is slated to go into production this fall,&rdquo; read the official statement. &ldquo;In 2016, we only had an idea; three years later, we had a prototype. Now, after six years of testing, iterating, re(designing), and countless obstacles, Lightyear 0 is proof that the impossible is actually possible,&rdquo; said Lightyear CEO Lex Hoefsloot.
The production-ready, solar-electric vehicle features double curved solar arrays that span across the area of five metres squared on the roof that help the car absorb energy from the sun.
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Lightyear says the car can run up to 7 months without needing to plug into a charger, given that the climate in the area is sunny and the commute is up to roughly 35 kilometres. While in areas with less sunlight, for instance, the Netherlands, the company says it would run for 2 months.
Apart from the solar panels, the car also uses power from the four in-wheel motors that offer a range of 625 kilometres on a single charge. If driven at highway speeds ( around 110 kilometres per hour), the car can still manage to drive for 560 kilometres, if fully charged. Another factor contributing to the the marvellous performance is the &ldquo;record-breaking&rdquo; drag coefficient of 0.19 which makes the Lightyear 0, one of the most aerodynamic family cars ever built.
According to the company, the Lightyear 0 will be manufactured at a cost of &euro;250,000, or roughly Rs 2 crore, following which, the company will start the production for the next model of Lightyear that will have a much accessible price of &euro;30,000, or roughly Rs 27 lakh.
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This Solar-Electric Car Has Over 1000 Km Range, Needs Charge Once in 7 Months

German automaker BMW has announced a tie-up with Michigan-based energy storage company Our Next Energy (ONE) for its new long-range battery in the iX electric SUV. The new battery unit called Gemini will reportedly allow BMW to take iX's driving range to up to 600 miles (965 km) on a single charge. The current range of the electric SUV comes with a claimed range of 425 km in India. The prototype BMW iX SUV featuring this new battery setup is expected to be out by the end of this year.
ONE claims that the new battery is also a more eco-friendly alternative to the traditional battery setup used in EVs. The Dual Chemistry technology used in Gemini technology reduces the use of lithium by 20 percent while drastically cutting down the use of materials like graphite, nickel and cobalt.
Commenting on the partnership, Juergen Hildinger, BMW Group New Technologies, Head of High Voltage Storage, said that the German automaker is also set to incorporate ONE&rsquo;s IP into BMW&rsquo;s SUV line.
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Showcased first at the Paris Motor Show in 2018, the first production-ready unit of the SUV was unveiled in November 2020. In India, BMW introduced iX electric SUV with a price tag of Rs 1.16 crore.
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The electric SUV is available in two variants- iX xDrive 40 and iX xDrive 50. Both variants come with dual electric motors with one on each axle, offering all-wheel drive for the SUV. The xDrive 40 variant of iX SUV comes with an output of 326 bhp and 630 Nm of peak torque and a claimed range of up to 414 km. The xDrive 50 variant on the other hand comes with a configuration that produces a max output of 523hp and 765Nm of peak torque. In terms of battery capacity, xDrive packs a bigger 105.2 kWh unit whereas the xDrive 40 comes with a 71kWh battery unit.
The SUV is placed in a premium segment where it faces competitors like Mercedes-Benz EQC and Audi e-Tron SUVs.
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BMW Partners with US Start-Up for Improved iX SUV Batteries, Promises Double Range

The Suzuki Jimny does not come with five doors, although the Japanese carmaker does have intentions of launching one in the market sometime in the future. Well, you can hold on to your patience and make do with the three-door variant for now but a group of students in Japan apparently were too impatient for a 5-door model. So, they went ahead and built one as part of a school project for the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon.
Students from the Nihon Automobile College brought the build to life by converting a Jimny vehicle owned by their teacher, a lecturer in the customization department, to a 5-door model. According to a report by Carbuzz, the teacher presented his vehicle to the group of students along with a brief to convert it into a 5-door model. The rest was pretty much left on the students. It took a lot of effort as merely adding the doors wouldn&rsquo;t do. In order to fit the extra pair of doors, the roof and the body had to be extended behind the B-pillar. The rear quarter panels were also tweaked.
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Jidu, Electric Vehicle Firm of Baidu, Unveils First 'Robot' Car

Ferrari to Unveil New Offering on April 19, Could it be the 296 GTB Convertible?

This Solar-Electric Car Has Over 1000 Km Range, Needs Charge Once in 7 Months

BMW Partners with US Start-Up for Improved iX SUV Batteries, Promises Double Range

This Suzuki Jimny Converted Into a Monster Truck by Students in Japan Looks Lethal