Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

DIDI Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, said Thursday that it has teamed up with British oil major BP to build electric vehicle charging (EV) stations in China.

The two firms will form a joint venture aimed at providing charging services to both Didi and non-Didi car owners.

BP has already linked its first charging site in Guangzhou with Didi’s open automobile solutions platform, Didi said in a statement.

With the launch of the joint venture, Didi aims to scale up the charging network “significantly” in China.

In April 2018, Didi pumped US$1 billion into its auto services business, called XAS. XAS works with a broad range of automakers, fleet operators and energy partners to provide integrated automobile solutions — with charging service being one of the highest priority sectors.

With more than 600,000 electric vehicles running on its platform, Didi will leverage its data analytics and large user base to keep improving industry standards and enhancing customer experience, working together with its partners, it said in the statement.

The tie-up between Didi and BP comes one week after Didi announced that it had received funding totaling US$600 million from Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.

As part of that deal, Didi and Toyota Motor set up a joint venture with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services to Didi drivers.