Bolt, Lucid target at least 25,000 self-driving vehicles in Europe

By Danny Callaghan

Sept 17 (Reuters) - Estonian car-sharing platform Bolt aims to deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles in Europe with US-based electric vehicle maker Lucid, the companies said on Thursday.

The companies did not disclose a timeline for reaching the target or the size of the planned investment, but Bolt said it would seek to host 100,000 autonomous vehicles on its platform by 2035.

Europe is looking to develop autonomous-driving capabilities amid growing competition from the United States and China.

"We think over time there's going to be room for millions of robotaxis around Europe," Bolt CEO Markus Villig told Reuters, saying the main obstacle for this was the region's significantly stricter safety regulation than in the US and China.

Europe "absolutely has the potential" to develop the necessary technology, he added, while warning that long-term dependence on imports from competing markets would pose a large strategic risk.

"Long term, we need to build this technology within the EU for EU requirements under the local standards," Villig said. "There just isn't anybody we can partner with in that regard."

Bolt is set to own and operate the fleet under the partnership, and the companies expect to operate the vehicle platform using  US chipmaker Nvidia's Hyperion system.

The vehicles will be manufactured at Lucid's new facility in Saudi Arabia, which is scheduled to come into operation early next year.

(Reporting by Danny Callaghan, editing by Matt Scuffham and Milla Nissi-Prussak)