Didi, CHJ Automotive to build smart electric cars

Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company, will produce smart electric cars via a joint venture with CHJ Automotive, a local automobile startup.

The move came as CHJ announced on Thursday it had raised 3 billion yuan ($ 470 million) in its series B round of fundraising.

The two sides will set up a joint venture, which aims to produce smart electric cars in 2020, local financial news outlet Caixin quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.

Didi will have 51 percent share of the joint venture, with CHJ accounting for the rest, Caixin added.

CHJ was founded in 2015 by Chinese entrepreneur Li Xiang. CHJ said in a statement that the new investment is led by venture capital company Matrix Partners China.

Didi declined to comment on the story. CHJ was not immediately available for comment.

Didi's founder and CEO Cheng Wei said in November that the company is the world's biggest new energy fleet operator and runs more than 260,000 new energy cars that are partially or fully electric on its ride-hailing platform. That accounts for about 10 percent of the total 2 million new energy cars globally.

Cheng expects Didi to have 1 million electric vehicles on its platform by 2020.