Qianli Technology Adds Another Edge as It Integrates Geely's Intelligent Cockpit Team | Exclusive from 36Kr

To enable Qianli Technology to become the "second Huawei" as soon as possible, Geely has decided to add new technological chips to it.

36Kr learned from multiple industry insiders that Geely's Intelligent Cockpit Team from the Central Research Institute will be integrated into Qianli Technology in the near future. Jiang Jun, the current person - in - charge of Geely's Intelligent Cockpit Team at the research institute, will still serve as the Chief Scientist of Geely's Central Research Institute.

Qianli Technology was formerly Lifan Technology, which was invested in and controlled by Geely in 2020. In 2024, after Yin Qi became the chairman of Qianli Technology, he led the company's strategic transformation towards the "AI + vehicle" direction. Currently, Qianli Technology's business scope covers areas such as assisted driving, intelligent cockpits, and embodied intelligence.

The Geely Group has high hopes for it. In March this year, Gui Shengyue, an executive director of Geely, stated at the 2024 performance press conference that Geely wants to build the "second Huawei" together with Qianli Technology; in May this year, Gui Shengyue publicly reiterated this idea.

Before this round of integration of the Intelligent Cockpit Team, Geely Group's intelligent business had undergone several rounds of integration.

At the end of April this year, Geely Group issued an announcement to integrate the intelligent cockpit teams of Zeekr and Geely Research Institute. Jiang Jun, the former person - in - charge of Zeekr's intelligent cockpit, was appointed as the vice - dean of Geely Research Institute, leading the integrated intelligent cockpit team. After some time, Du Ping, the former person - in - charge of Geely Research Institute's intelligent cockpit, stepped down as the vice - dean of Geely Research Institute and was appointed as the chief engineer of intelligent planning, responsible for supply - chain - related work.

To date, Zeekr models still use the ZEEKR AI OS cockpit system, while other Geely Group brand models are equipped with the Flyme Auto cockpit system.

This round of integration in April changed the situation where Geely's intelligent cockpit R & D teams were numerous and scattered.

Before the integration, within the Geely system, there were several teams, including the Intelligent Cockpit Team of Geely Central Research Institute, the Intelligent Cockpit Team resulting from the cooperation between ECARX and Xingji Meizu, the Zeekr Intelligent Cockpit Team, and the Lotus Intelligent Cockpit Team. After the integration of Geely and Zeekr's intelligent cockpit teams, as Geely Group CEO Gan Jiayue said in January this year, Geely's intelligent cockpit can "maximize the sharing of software and hardware resources and achieve the unification of the intelligent cockpit technology base and underlying software."

Currently, the development of Geely's intelligent cockpit business is mainly responsible for by the integrated Intelligent Cockpit Team of the Central Research Institute. ECARX and Meizu mainly develop dozens of Geely's overseas projects, which target markets in multiple regions such as Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia.

The integration work in the field of assisted driving is more complex.

Geely Group originally had five different assisted - driving forces: the Assisted Driving Center of the research institute, the Zeekr Assisted Driving Team, the Lotus Assisted Driving Team, the subsidiary ECARX, and Freetech, which originated from Geely.

In March this year, at the Geely AI Intelligent Technology Press Conference, Geely Group released the Qianli Haohan Intelligent Driving Solution. Geely Group CEO Gan Jiayue publicly stated: "Qianli Haohan is Geely's unified intelligent mobility solution, and the high - level intelligent driving of the entire Geely is 'a single game plan'." In a certain sense, this can be regarded as a sign of the initial integration of Geely Group's assisted driving teams.

The integrated "Qianli Haohan" assisted driving system has five versions: H1, H3, H5, H7, and H9. Among them, H5 introduced an end - to - end large - scale model and was pushed to users in March; H7 integrates the VLM large - scale model and will be launched this year; H9 is said to be the industry's first mass - produced L3 solution.

In August this year, Geely's assisted driving teams underwent a more thorough integration.

The Zeekr Assisted Driving Team, Geely Research Institute's Assisted Driving Team, and the assisted driving brand "Maichi Zhixing" under Megvii were all integrated into a new entity, Qianli Intelligent Driving. Qianli Intelligent Driving was established on June 27 this year and is a joint - venture among Chongqing Qianli Technology, Geely, and Maichi. Among them, the local fund Chongqing Jianghe Qixing, Geely, and Megvii each hold a 30% stake.

Wang Jun, the co - president of Qianli Technology, serves as the CEO of Qianli Intelligent Driving. Chen Qi, the former vice - president of Zeekr's intelligent driving, serves as the co - CEO, and Yang Mu, the co - founder of Megvii Technology, serves as the CTO.

However, 36Kr learned that as of October this year, only about a hundred people from the Assisted Driving Team of the research institute have been integrated into Qianli Intelligent Driving. Departments such as assisted driving procurement and algorithms still remain in Geely's Central Research Institute.

Since this year, Geely Group has publicly shown its desire to build the "second Huawei" more than once and plans to build an ecosystem that can compete with Huawei.

In August, Geely integrated an assisted driving team of thousands of people into Qianli Technology, which undoubtedly strengthens Qianli Technology's technological foundation. In September this year, Mercedes - Benz invested approximately 1.3 billion yuan in Qianli Technology, further enhancing Qianli Technology's financial strength.

In October, Qianli Technology submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Now, Geely is integrating the integrated intelligent cockpit team of Zeekr and the research institute into Qianli Technology. All these efforts are pushing Qianli Technology towards becoming the "second Huawei".