(Yicai Global) March 28 -- Jidu Auto, a joint venture of Chinese tech giant Baidu and carmaker Geely Holding Group, has formed a special team usually not set up until the eve of mass production to make sure its development and output plans are not derailed by the global chip shortage.

The supply guarantee team will make sure Jidu’s goal of mass producing its first model in 2023 is not set back by the shortfall of auto chips, Chief Executive Xia Yiping said yesterday on the last day of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum held in Beijing.

This kind of team is usually put together in the run-up to mass production, but Jidu will do it as early as the test phase, as the JV’s entire development cycle will be prolonged if it does not have samples to support product verification, Xia told Yicai Global.

The pace of Jidu’s research and development has not been impacted, but the tight supply of chips has pushed up costs, Xia said, meaning that sometimes a prototype’s cost is nearly dozens of times more than that of mass production. 

He said the tension in the global supply chain, which may ease in the second half of this year, will not impact output of Jidu’s first model. The Beijing-based company has also begun developing two others that may debut as early as the Guangzhou Auto Show in November.

Jidu will pursue a self-built sales channel model and open its first flagship store in Shanghai this year, Xia said.

Established in March last year, the company is working to build intelligent vehicles with level four autonomous driving capability. It completed a USD400 million Series-A fundraiser in January. Baidu and Geely own 55 percent and  45 percent of the JV, respectively.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione