The bankruptcy application was submitted to Beijing No. 51% of Didi's joint venture with Li Auto, according to a court filing. A statement from the Supreme Court on Thursday showed that 1 Intermediate People's Court was in the hands of 1 Intermediate People's Court.
Didi and Li Auto did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2018, Didi and Li Auto, previously known as Chehejia, founded Beijing Judian Chuxing Technology to develop and manufacture customized electric vehicles for ride-hailing services. It was among a series of partnerships Didi struck with major automakers including Volkswagen, Toyota and BYD with plans to adopt more EVs with autonomous driving technologies in its fleets.
Most of the collaborations have made little progress while Didi and BYD launched a co-developed EV model D 1 in 2020.
Didi has to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after being re-listed for suspected violations of data security due to a scandal from Beijing.
The ride-hailing firm has quietly pushed ahead with a car-making project, code-named Da Vinci Reuters reported in June.
It was also in advanced talks with the state-backed Sinomach Automobile to buy a third of its electric-vehicle unit, according to Reuters.