Wijaya Ng, who tracks China's automotive industry at Ipsos Business Consulting, said the new venture dovetails with a larger, global trend wherein traditional automakers are entering the ride-hailing sector. "They see that moving forward, if car-hailing is going to be the future, they want to tap into this market sooner rather than later," said Ng. Changan said that itself, Dongfeng and FAW will each have a 15 per cent stake in the joint venture, which will set up a ride-sharing company with a focus on new energy vehicles. Suning will be the biggest shareholder with a 19 per cent stake while Alibaba and Tencent's investment units will together hold the remainder shares with some other funds, it added. The new ride-hailing company and its investors, which come from a range of fields, will help form "business synergies which will help enrich the companies' ecosystems", Suning said in a statement.