Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) announced that it is investing billions of yuan on Xiaopeng Motors, known as China’s Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
The shopping giant is one of two companies — along with Foxconn — that has helped Xiaopeng secure 2.2 billion yuan ($348 million) in investment funds to help bring forth the new generation of electric vehicles. The automotive maker’s designs are similar to Tesla in terms of how advanced they are and how sleek they look.
Xiaopeng founder Henry Xia — who started the company in 2014 — has admitted that Tesla’s designs were highly influential to his company’s creations. He added that the Chinese company’s patents are being created as open source in order to improve upon the foundation they have created.
The company has designed a battery pack technology that is very similar to Tesla’s, but it is unclear whether or not the company uses any specific patent from the U.S. company.
The design of some of Xiaopeng’s vehicles are very similar to Tesla as the Xpeng, the company’s first car, is almost indistinguishable from the Tesla Model S’ interior.
” XPENG Motors combines the advantages of the internet, artificial intelligence and traditional manufacturing,” said Alibaba executive vice chairman Joe Tsai. “Alibaba is very excited to work together with XPENG Motors to accelerate the integration and innovation across sectors, leading to more-rapid development in smart transportation.”
BABA stock is down 0.4% and TSLA shares gained 1.1%.
