Caocao Inc, the mobility arm of Geely Holding Group, plans to deploy thousands of robotaxis globally from next year, intensifying competition in a market increasingly defined by autonomous vehicle ambitions, according to its chief executive.
Chief executive Gong Xin told Reuters at the Beijing auto show that the company is positioning itself for large-scale autonomous deployment across multiple regions, including Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and five mainland Chinese cities, beginning in 2027.
The expansion sets up a direct competitive track with Tesla, led by Elon Musk, which is also developing a purpose-built autonomous vehicle, the Cybercab. Both firms are converging on the same concept: dedicated robotaxi fleets designed from the ground up rather than modified consumer vehicles.
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Caocao’s long-term roadmap is more explicit on scale. The company expects large-scale delivery of its Geely-built Eva Cab robotaxi in 2028, with fleet expansion reaching 100,000 vehicles by 2030. Gong said production, delivery, and deployment will be closely aligned, suggesting a compressed rollout cycle once regulatory and operational conditions are in place.
The Eva Cab is seen as a different design philosophy from most current autonomous test fleets. Unlike retrofitted passenger vehicles, it is purpose-built for ride-hailing, with a simplified cabin layout, reduced storage compartments, and no enclosed door pockets. The design aims to lower costs and improve durability while reducing passenger misuse and maintenance complexity.
Gong said the stripped-down configuration allows the vehicle to be priced below traditional private cars, although he did not disclose exact figures. The focus on cost control is central to Caocao’s approach, which treats robotaxis less as premium technology showcases and more as scalable transport infrastructure.
This contrasts with many existing robotaxi programmes, which rely on modified versions of mass-market vehicles. Those systems often face constraints in interior optimization, energy efficiency, and cost scaling, limiting their ability to reach high-volume deployment without significant redesign.
Caocao’s ambition is underpinned by its parent company’s industrial footprint. Backed by Geely, the company benefits from access to manufacturing capacity and global automotive supply chains, which executives argue will be critical in scaling autonomous fleets competitively.
Gong described the group’s positioning as a structural advantage in the emerging robotaxi market. He said Caocao is aligned with Geely’s international expansion strategy and suggested the company could emerge as one of only a few dominant players in China’s autonomous mobility sector by 2030.
The timeline indicates growing confidence in the commercial viability of driverless transport in China, where regulators have been more open to large-scale autonomous testing than many Western jurisdictions. However, the market is also becoming more crowded, with multiple automakers and tech firms accelerating their own programmes.
Xpeng is also advancing its robotaxi ambitions, with plans to produce hundreds to thousands of autonomous vehicles over the next 12 to 18 months, according to its president, Brian Gu. The company is expected to begin early deployments while still seeking operational partners for global expansion.
The parallel efforts by Caocao and Xpeng come amid a shift among Chinese automakers: a transition from vehicle manufacturing toward integrated mobility services. This evolution reflects both competitive pressure in China’s domestic EV market and the search for higher-margin, recurring revenue models. It also signals a broader global race that is increasingly converging on a shared endpoint. Both Chinese firms and U.S. competitors are now focusing on purpose-built autonomous vehicles rather than retrofitted platforms, suggesting the industry is moving into a second phase of robotaxi development.
On the U.S. side, Tesla’s Cybercab programme remains one of the most visible efforts, with Musk indicating that production will scale gradually before ramping up significantly. The company’s long-term goal is to deploy fully autonomous vehicles at scale, replacing human-driven ride-hailing networks with software-managed fleets.
The emergence of Caocao’s plan introduces a parallel trajectory with different structural advantages. While Tesla is building vertically integrated hardware-software systems, Chinese players like Caocao are leveraging established manufacturing ecosystems and state-backed industrial capacity to reduce costs and accelerate deployment timelines.
The competitive overlap is becoming clearer. Both sides are targeting similar use cases, urban mobility networks operating at high utilization rates with minimal human intervention, but are approaching them through different industrial models.
Investors and industry participants now face a market that is no longer speculative in concept but increasingly defined by execution timelines, regulatory readiness, and fleet economics.
Caocao’s announcement adds another layer to that race as it does not just signal entry into autonomous mobility, but an attempt to define one of its most critical variables: cost per kilometer at scale. Industry experts say that metric, more than technological capability alone, is likely to determine which players ultimately dominate the global robotaxi market.