Photo/Shetuwang

July 26 (NBD) -- Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing ("Didi") on Thursday announced cooperation in smart mobility with Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp ("Toyota").

Under the partnership, Toyota will invest 600 million U.S. dollars in Didi and a planned joint venture between the two companies and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. for vehicle-related services.

National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that Toyota has long been making moves in the mobility domain. The Japanese carmaker became an investor of on-demand ride-hailing company Uber as early as 2016 and pumped 1 billion U.S. dollars in Grab, Southeast Asia's largest ride-hailing company, in 2018.

According to Didi and Toyota, the tie-up is aimed to combine the former's expertise in AI-based large-scale mobility operations and the latter's connected vehicle technology.

The collaboration also marks an extension of Didi's "The D-Alliance". Bringing together over 30 top Chinese and international carmakers, including FAW, Dongfeng, BAIC, Geely, BYD, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the alliance focuses on building an open cooperation platform and an overall plan for automobile design, asset operation and after-sales service around shared travel.

In a statement released on Wednesday by Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, NBD found that Didi had a market value of 55 billion U.S. dollars due to its deployment in fields like smart transportation. The Wall Street Journal reported that the current round of fundraising from Toyota would give Didi a paper valuation of around 62 billion U.S. dollars.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn