G7, GLP and NIO Capital Form Autonomous Electric Trucking Joint Venture

author: Eric Walz   

BEIJING — G7, a China-based Internet of Things (IoT) shipping and logistics technology and NIO Capital have announced a joint venture (JV), controlled by G7, focused on developing autonomous driving, new energy technologies, logistics big data and exploring innovative models of 'vehicle-as-a-service'.

The JV is built on G7's massive real-time data and fleet management capabilities, GLP's open logistics ecosystem and NIO Capital's extensive automotive industry partnership.

NIO Capital is a private equity fund based in China which focuses on investment in the NEV industry chain. NIO Capital's investments cover electric vehicles and core components, new energy and connected energy networks, autonomous driving and intelligent systems, IoV (Internet of Vehicles) and mobility services, new materials and related applications.

The JV aims to create the next generation of smart vehicles for logistics and transportation through collaboration between the industries. The joint venture will focus on logistics and road transportation scenarios and delivering breakthroughs in self-driving technology driving and AI powered logistics to meet and exceed customers' expectations.

The JV's immediate objectives are to develop autonomous electric heavy-duty trucks that are powered by artificial intelligence which will increase efficiency and safety in order to build innovation in 'asset-as-a-service' for the logistics and transportation industry.

G7 actively invests in IoT, big data, AI and smart equipment and promotes intelligent transformation, connectivity and sharing for logistics assets, including trucks and trailers. The G7 platform serves more than 50,000 customers and connects more than 600,000 vehicles in real-time, making it the largest open IoT platform in China's logistics sector.

Xuehun Zhai, G7's Founder and CEO said:

"Through its technical capacity, G7 is at the forefront of tackling the latest challenges in fleet safety, energy efficiency and operations management. Emerging technologies and logistics big data are creating revolutionary opportunities to solve these long-term challenges. We will work closely with the automotive industry to achieve seamless integration of AI, trucks and logistics scenarios and will challenge ourselves with a goal of developing a dream truck for logistics companies."

G7 President Julian Ma commented: "Redefining smart transportation equipment through new technologies and big data, as well as bringing innovation into asset management and 'asset-as-a-service' in the age of road transportation robots, represents historical opportunities and challenges to us. We look forward to close collaboration with leading automotive groups, logistics companies, high-tech firms, energy companies and financial institutions around the world and jointly push cross-field innovation to the extreme."

GLP is a leading modern logistics solutions provider and a pioneer in smart logistics and building a logistics ecosystem. Ming Mei, Co-Founder and CEO of GLP said: "GLP is focused on leveraging data to help our customers improve efficiency and maximizing the value of our logistics assets. We are pleased to join this JV with G7 and NIO Capital to drive forward technological innovation as well as exploration of applying renewable energy in the logistics industry globally."

NIO Capital is a private equity fund that invests in themes which are reshaping the automotive, mobility, energy and IoT sectors, through an industry focused and value creation approach. "Focusing on mega industries and creating major projects sit at the core of our investment approach and are the driver of our partnership with G7 and GLP. In our collaboration, we expect to take full advantage of NIO Capital's industry access, actively leverage the resources of NIO's 'Blue Sky Alliance' and share the automotive industry's traditional experience and cutting-edge AI technology with the logistics sector," said the NIO's Founder, Chairman, CEO and NIO Capital's Managing Partner William Li.

Last year, G7 signed an agreement with New York Stock Exchange-listed commercial vehicles technologies and services provider WABCO to develop and sell advanced fleet management systems for trucks and trailers.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.