(Yicai Global) May 18 -- China's biggest ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing will team up with GAC Group’s new energy vehicle brand Aion to mass-produce self-driving electric vehicles.

The pair will discuss cooperation or joint venture opportunities in smart vehicle development, they announced in a joint statement yesterday, without disclosing more details about their agreement.

The two will make use of GAG Aion’s development platform of driverless electric cars and its automotive design and manufacturing capabilities, as well as Didi Chuxing's software and hardware technologies in autonomous driving and other research and development advantages.

China is expected to become the world’s largest market for autonomous driving, according to McKinsey & Co. Sales of driverless vehicles will reach USD230 billion by 2030, with the value of self-driving services reaching USD260 billion, the US management consulting firm added.

Didi Chuxing has more than 1 million vehicles on its platform, which equals massive amounts of driving data.

Last month, Guangzhou-based GAC upgraded its level-three autonomous-driving system ADiGO 3.0 to ADiGO 4.0. The firm had invested CNY3 billion (USD466.3 million) to build the original system, launched in July 2019.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi