FAW Group and CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC) inked an agreement on December 21, saying both parties will build a long-term cooperative partnership in new energy vehicle (NEV), intelligent connectivity, mobility service and product program, etc. FAW Group has been accelerating the development of NEV and self-driving technologies this year. On January 8, Xu Liuping, chairman of the state-owned automaker, announced that its premium car brand Hongqi aims to achieve Level 5 autonomous driving ability by 2025 and comprehensively electrify vehicles by 2023. He also added that all PVs made by FAW Group will be electric-driven by 2028 according to its planning. FAW Group signed a strategic agreement with Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in Beijing on October 10, which allows two parties to make full use of AVIC's advantages in aviation field and FAW Group's vehicle technologies to conduct in-depth collaboration in such areas as the next-generation travel mode, the virtual reality technology, the automotive parts and the NEV (new energy vehicle), etc. In the same October, FAW Car Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of FAW Group, and Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co., Ltd inked an MoU (memorandum of understanding) to jointly develop IoV (Internet of Vehicles) products and services. They agreed to set up the Baidu-Besturn DuBest United Lab for Intelligent Connectivity to research the volume production of vehicle-mounted products, involving such areas as voice, semantics, image recognition as well as AR (augmented reality) navigation.