CaiNiao's unmanned vehicles merge into the JiuShi RoboVan ecosystem

Author | Huang Yu

After nearly 10 years of investment in autonomous vehicle research and development, Cainiao has made a significant decision.

On January 29, Cainiao's autonomous vehicle division and Jiushi Intelligent jointly announced that they have reached a deep strategic integration regarding the autonomous vehicle business. Cainiao has become a shareholder of Jiushi by injecting its own autonomous vehicle business and making cash investments, supporting Jiushi in building the RoboVan super carrier.

In fact, news of Cainiao's investment in Jiushi Intelligent had been circulating for more than a month.

This announcement marks the official start of deep collaboration between the two parties in the field of autonomous vehicles.

According to information from Cainiao, after this business integration, Cainiao will no longer directly produce and sell autonomous vehicles, but will still leverage its logistics scenarios and ecological advantages to increase the application of autonomous vehicles in the logistics field.

Jiushi Intelligent will operate under a dual-brand strategy. The "Cainiao Autonomous Vehicle" brand will be authorized by Cainiao for use by Jiushi, while maintaining its identity as an ecological enterprise incubated by Alibaba.

It is worth mentioning that sources from Cainiao revealed that the management and technical leaders of Cainiao's autonomous vehicle division will also join Jiushi Intelligent to deeply participate in future strategic planning and operational management.

It is reported that in future market positioning, Jiushi Intelligent and "Cainiao Autonomous Vehicle" will form clear differentiated brand positioning: Jiushi Intelligent will continue to focus on self-developed full-stack autonomous driving technology, providing intelligent transportation solutions for all scenarios; "Cainiao Autonomous Vehicle" will rely on its logistics technology gene, focusing on specific scenarios and key customers, providing in-depth services based on RoboVan for intelligent supply chains.

At the same time, products from both brands will collaborate through technology sharing, operational synergy, and resource interconnection to jointly create a future-oriented RoboVan super ecosystem. The intention of both parties is clear: to achieve win-win development across different market dimensions through this integration.

Cainiao's autonomous vehicle business is expected to make breakthrough progress in 2024, with the working scenarios for autonomous vehicles officially shifting from closed and semi-closed parks/roads to public roads based on last-mile delivery scenarios. Its L4 level autonomous vehicle GT has officially launched and entered mass production.

Since last year, Cainiao's autonomous vehicle division has continuously introduced new models, successively releasing the upgraded GT Pro and the new affordable model GT-Lite, developing lightweight mapping functions, and continuously lowering the usage threshold for autonomous vehicles. Its autonomous vehicles have been deployed in various scenarios including heavy load, short distance, medium to long distance, cold chain delivery, and traffic police patrols.

Against this backdrop, Cainiao's autonomous vehicle division has also secured numerous business contracts, having reached cooperation agreements with Shentong, Inspur Intelligent Terminal, Zhongying Pharmaceutical, and others just in July last year.

According to Wall Street Insights, since its establishment, Cainiao has aimed to promote the digital upgrade of the entire logistics industry through data and technology, making autonomous vehicles an important technology and product for driving changes in the entire logistics industry.

In addition, Cainiao itself is a comprehensive logistics company that hopes to enhance its overall competitiveness by making better use of autonomous vehicles in logistics scenarios.

Unlike Cainiao, logistics autonomous vehicles are the core business of Jiushi Intelligent, which entered the L4 RoboVan (medium to large autonomous cargo vehicle) field right after its establishment in 2021 By the end of 2025, Jiushi Intelligent will have over 16,000 unmanned vehicles operating on the roads, with a cumulative operating mileage exceeding 75 million kilometers, covering application scenarios in more than 300 prefecture-level cities across the country.

Data disclosed by Jiushi Intelligent in October last year showed that its RoboVan's market share in complete vehicle sales has exceeded 76%.

In addition, Jiushi Intelligent has also gone global. In Singapore, Jiushi Intelligent became the first Chinese company to obtain an unmanned logistics vehicle license and has partnered with the largest local supermarket chain FairPrice and Singapore Post to provide delivery services locally. In the Middle East, Jiushi Intelligent has established a joint venture with Emirates Post to serve postal logistics.

Regarding the integration with Cainiao's unmanned vehicles, Jiushi Intelligent CEO Kong Qi stated that this is a key milestone for the autonomous driving industry, moving from "single-point breakthroughs" to "system integration," which will inject a broader global perspective into the company.

Currently, multiple companies have launched logistics unmanned vehicle products, including logistics enterprises like Cainiao, Meituan, and JD Logistics, as well as startups like Jiushi Intelligent, New Stone Age, and White Rhino. The average selling price of mainstream logistics unmanned vehicles is 50,000 yuan, with the main business model being complete vehicle sales + FSD service fees.

Analysts from Guojin Securities pointed out that the demand for unmanned logistics vehicles is considerable and can help express logistics companies reduce costs and increase efficiency. They have been widely applied in various fields such as express delivery, takeout, B2C retail, convenience stores, and fresh home delivery, corresponding to the replaceable urban distribution market capacity, which is a trillion-level market.

Against the backdrop of technological breakthroughs, product price reductions, road rights opening, and policy support, logistics unmanned vehicles have ushered in a period of large-scale commercialization in recent years, with 2025 being regarded as the "explosion year" for the large-scale commercialization of unmanned logistics vehicles.

However, the application of unmanned vehicles is still in its early stages, and it is not easy for participating companies to achieve ultimate success in this field. Whether the integration of Cainiao and Jiushi Intelligent can bring about a "1+1>2" effect remains to be seen.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

The market has risks, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances. Investment based on this is at one's own risk.