With D-Alliance, Didi plans to overturn car ownership and manufacturing worldwide

Didi Chuxing is launching a program to alter the very nature of car ownership and shake up the automobile manufacturing supply chain in China—and beyond. The company masterminded a shift to “car operation” announcing the move at a glitzy event in Beijing attended by auto industry top brass.

“In the future, software, hardware, and user services will be integrated,” said Cheng Wei, Didi CEO. “And we will be the service provider.” He has hopes that China will become a great automotive nation (汽车强国) in the next five to ten years. This involves Didi becoming the biggest one-stop solution to transport worldwide, to manage the car operation platform and be the world leader in smart transportation.

Didi will also be involved in the design of a car specially developed for ride-hailing with a predicted market of 10 million units in 10 years’ time with the help of the D-Alliance. The alliance, also called Didi Auto Alliance or Torrent (洪流联盟), is a platform that brings together 31 auto partners. The name in Chinese (hongliu or “torrent”) comes from the water drops in the characters for Didi (滴滴 or “drip drip”) as the company sees its drivers and vehicles coming together as droplets to form a torrent.

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