Chinese search engine giant Baidu has introduced a new all-electric, self-driving car for testing in China.

The tech behemoth has now started using a Chery EQ as test vehicles instead of the modified BMW 3-series for the Chinese market, according to Baidu spokesperson Leo Zou, Business Insider reported.

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The BMW was successfully able to complete an 18.6-mile drive in December, performing various tasks like changing lanes, making U-turns and merging on and off highways.

Baidu also conducted tests in the U.S. with the BMW earlier this year and recently made a joint investment in LiDAR-maker Velodyne with Ford. Both companies put in a total of $150 million in the Silicon Valley-based firm, which makes sensors for autonomous cars. The investment will go towards producing cheaper sensors and thereby bringing down the cost of self-driving cars.

The Chery EQ, from Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile, is similar to Google's EV in terms of appearance but it has more cabin room than Google's autonomous cars. The Chery EQ can be driven for about 120 miles after a full charge, according to Tech Crunch.

Baidu, known as the Google of China, has plans to introduce a fleet of self-driving cars that can be used for public transportation in China and aims to have the service operational by 2018, in limited area on a standard loop in China.

The company intends to release the self-driving cars across the country and is using them to map routes and collect information like height of traffic lights and location of curbs.

Tagschina, Baidu, Self-driving cars, Electric Car, Baidu self-driving car, Chery EQ, BMW 3 Series