Only a couple of days ago, Elon Musk was trolling tech companies that are planning or have already started the development of electric and autonomous cars. Well, it seems like there will be another big-ticket player. Oppo, if a report by a Chinese portal Xiuxiushai is to be believed. Like Xiaomi, whose electric car project is being helmed by the billionaire, founder, and CEO, Lei Jun, Oppo's CEO, and founder, Tony Chen will be leading this project. It has been said that Chen and his team spent a couple of weeks investigating resources, hiring talents from within the industry, and have overall been testing the viability of the project. It is exploring discussions on manufacturing, but it is yet to formally establish the project.
Oppo overtook Huawei as the leading smartphone brand in China and like its rival it is pursuing a similar path
Photo Credit: Reuters
Chen has reportedly had also talked about the integration of Oppo technologies and the focus will be on things where Oppo can do well. "Even in car manufacturing, we will focus on areas that OPPO can perform well. If automakers can't build good cars and OPPO has the strength, we will try it in the future," he reportedly said.
Currently, it is said that Oppo may either choose to make its own car or may start developing technologies for cars that can be leveraged by OEMs. This would mean a Huawei-like strategy. Huawei has been developing purpose-built hardware, software, and cloud platforms for integration in smart vehicles.
It has also been said that Chen has already met CATL, the world's largest supplier of EV batteries. CATL delivers more than 46 percent of batteries in EVs that are manufactured in China, including the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai.
Andrew Wu, the vice president of Oppo software engineering has been in talks for interviewing for positions for autonomous driving. So it seems like Oppo is looking at the entire widget. Oppo is owned by the BBK group which also owns prominent smartphone brands like Vivo, Realme, OnePlus, and iQOO. Chances are all of these brands will enter the automotive industry if Oppo makes the move.
