Pony.ai and China’s SANY to Create a new Autonomous Truck Brand

Pony.ai, an autonomous driving technology company, has announced a joint venture (JV) with SANY Heavy Truck, a subsidiary of China’s SANY Heavy Industry, to create a new  autonomous truck brand. The two companies will integrate Pony.ai’s ‘virtual driver’ with SANY’s technical expertise in the field of wire-controlled chassis and vehicle development to jointly develop high-end heavy trucks. 

The JV plans to start small-scale deliveries of the robotrucks in 2022 and 2023.

Mass production of the L4 truck will commence in 2024 and within a few years will reach an annual production of around 10,000 trucks.

The first prototype of the autonomous truck was built on SANY’s new EV truck platform and has already conducted road testing.

The JV’s autonomous truck product portfolio will include a mix of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and fuel-based, with the aim to increase the proportion of NEV trucks in the future.

James Peng, Pony.ai’s co-founder and CEO, says: “SANY has industry-leading heavy truck manufacturing technology and is pioneering the architecture of ‘new energy’ heavy trucks, intelligent network connections, and other key areas. Integrating Pony.ai’s core autonomous driving technologies with the capabilities of SANY enables our joint venture to create a successful intelligent truck and logistics ecosystem for L4 autonomous trucking.”

Liang Linhe, Chairman of SANY Heavy Truck, adds: “This partnership between SANY and Pony.ai is the ultimate collaboration between truck ‘body’ and truck ‘brain’ and thus makes it possible to mass produce high-level autonomous trucks. This partnership, which features complementary strengths and competitive advantages, will advance autonomous trucking and logistics well into the future and will lead to a safer, more efficient, intelligent logistics system.” 

Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has been a pioneer in extending autonomous mobility technologies and services at a rapidly expanding footprint of sites around the world.

It has formed partnerships with leading OEMs, including Toyota, SANY, FAW Group, GAC Group, etc. To date, Pony.ai has accumulated 8.6 million autonomous testing and operation miles worldwide.