(Reuters) – China’s Geely Holding said its premium electric mobility brand, Zeekr, will make electric vehicles for Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, to be deployed as fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across the United States.
The vehicles will be designed and developed at Zeekr’s facility in Sweden, and later integrated with Waymo’s self-driving technology, Geely said on Tuesday.
Waymo is the first and only fully driverless taxi service in the United States. It has driven thousands of people since launching its services a year ago in Phoenix.
The partnership with Zeekr will help Waymo expand its driverless ride-hailing service as the space gets more competitive, and also create inroads for Chinese brand Geely into the U.S. market.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
