According to Mr. Zhu Jiang’s previous resume, he has been deeply involved in the automotive and cross-automotive industries for more than 20 years. He has served as the Vice President of BMW China and the Deputy General Manager of MINI Brand Management, and the Deputy General Manager of Lexus China. In 2017, he joined the “new force in car making” NIO, serving as the Vice President of User Development.
On June 1, 2020, Zhu Jiang left NIO to join Ford China as the project leader of the Ford electric vehicle MACH-E. He is mainly responsible for the operation and management of MACH-E-related business such as markets, public relations, sales, services, and customer experiences. He reports directly to the President and CEO of Ford Motor China. During his tenure, he led the team to complete the localization, release, channel construction, and charging pile network of Ford’s first pure electric vehicle Mustang Mach-E.
In 2021, after leaving Ford’s electric vehicle department, Zhu Jiang coincided with the time when many Internet and travel giants entered the car-making field. It was rumored that Zhu Jiang received invitations from several giants including Xiaomi and Didi. And it was also rumored that Zhu Jiang had joined Jidu Auto in June of this year, but it has not been made public due to non-competition agreements. The reason why he chose Jidu Auto is largely due to his recognition of Jidu Auto’s concept of “car robots”.
As a joint venture between Baidu and Geely, Jidu Auto combines the strengths of both companies, with Baidu excelling in the industry-leading Apollo autonomous driving system and Geely excelling in vehicle manufacturing. Therefore, Jidu Auto has been highly valued since its establishment. It is led by CEO Xia Yiping, the co-founder and CTO of Mobike.
Recently, Wang Weibao, the head of Jidu Auto’s intelligent driving team, stated in an interview with the media that the Jidu SIMUCar has started dynamic training and will be iterated on a “weekly” basis in the future. It is expected to achieve intelligent assisted driving in urban areas and on highways by the end of this year.
On June 10, the first model “Black Forest” was exposed as a clay model; on July 7, the design was completed and the engineering development began; on August 30, the full-size clay model wind tunnel test was completed; on September 24, the SIMUCar began road testing. The development speed is ahead of the industry average, which also means that Jidu Auto’s commitment to release its first mass-produced car in 2022 should be on track.
Mr. Zhu Jiang has joined Jidu Auto, mainly responsible for building Jidu Auto’s marketing, channel, and after-sales market system from scratch. As of November 16th, Jidu Auto has not yet launched its official website, and only has 1838 fans on Weibo. According to Baidu Index, Jidu Auto’s popularity is far behind NIO and XPeng, even compared to Xiaomi and “fellow apprentice” Zeekr who announced their entry into the auto industry at a similar time, it still lags behind quite a bit. We look forward to Mr. Zhu Jiang’s joining to change this situation.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.