Xiaomi denied the two-line layout, and Lei Jun concentrated on building cars

Xiaomi Group (01810. HK) to build a car is a well-known thing in the industry, but to the industry's expectations, there are reports in recent days that Xiaomi has begun a two-line car-making layout, and its ecological chain enterprise Zhimi Technology has also entered the game of car-making. Industry analysis believes that Lei Jun really regards car building as the most important thing in the second half, and has enough confidence in this "last entrepreneurship of life".

However, on December 14, Wang Hua, general manager of Xiaomi Public Relations, responded to the matter of "Xiaomi Group's double-line car manufacturing" and said that Xiaomi did not have a two-line car-making plan. Zhimi is a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise, and Xiaomi Group will not directly participate in Zhimi's strategic decision-making. At the same time, Wang Hua also said that they also learned about the relevant information of their car manufacturing from the report and learned about it at the first time. Zhimi Company, out of interest in researching electric vehicles, formed a small team and was doing very early work.

On the 14th, Xiaomi Group's stock price fell by 4.16%, closing at 18.44 yuan.

Lei Jun focused on building cars

According to Tianyancha, Beijing Zhimi Technology Co., Ltd. was established in June 2014 with a registered capital of 20 million yuan, and is a Xiaomi ecological chain company mainly engaged in air conditioners, air purifiers and other products. Unlike other Xiaomi ecological chain companies, Zhimi Technology is a holding subsidiary of Xiaomi, and the legal representative is Xiaomi co-founder Liu De, accounting for 95% of the shares, and CEO Su Jun shares 5%. In April 2015, Zhimi Technology completed a Series A financing, jointly invested by Shunwei Capital, GGV and Morningside, and in April 2016, after the completion of the Series B financing by GIC Singapore Government Investment Corporation, Zhimi Technology was valued at US$1 billion that year.

According to a recent report, including Ma Yongdong, former head of GM's pan-Asian electric vehicle project, and some electronic and electrical architecture personnel from BAIC joined Zhimi Technology, and at present, there are automotive design companies in contact with Zhimi, mainly docking vehicle design related work.

Although the news of double-line car manufacturing has been debunked, it can also be known through the expression of Wang Hua that Zhimi Technology is indeed doing some work related to electric vehicles.

Recently, the fact that Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi, has successively stepped down as the legal representative, operating director or chairman of a number of affiliated companies has once aroused market suspicion that he is focusing on car manufacturing. In this regard, Wang Hua said on Weibo that this is a normal change. "Mr. Lei's energy this year is mainly focused on car-related matters, and executives can already share some of the relevant work and responsibilities. This is a gesture, but also an action, I believe you still remember at the investor meeting Lei zong happily revealed that 'the current progress of Xiaomi car manufacturing, faster than I expected. This information has shown that xiaomi's work of building cars has accelerated. ”

In March this year, Xiaomi Group announced that the company intends to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary to be responsible for the intelligent electric vehicle business, with an initial investment of 10 billion yuan and an expected investment of 10 billion US dollars in the next 10 years, and Lei Jun is also the CEO of the intelligent electric vehicle business.

On September 1, Xiaomi Automobile was officially registered, the company name is Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd., the registered capital is 10 billion yuan, and Lei Jun serves as the company's legal representative.

According to Xiaomi's third quarter financial report, the current smart electric vehicle business is progressing smoothly, with more than 500 team members, and Xiaomi's smart electric vehicle is expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.

Xiaomi car manufacturing still needs to be accelerated

On the 27th of last month, Xiaomi Technology and the Administrative Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone held a signing ceremony, and Xiaomi Automobile officially announced its settlement in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. The xiaomi automobile project signed this time includes the construction of the xiaomi automobile headquarters base, sales headquarters and research and development headquarters, and the construction of an annual vehicle plant with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, of which the first and second phases of production capacity are 150,000 units, and it is expected that the first car will roll off the production line and achieve mass production in 2024. The signing of this contract also means that the pace of xiaomi car manufacturing will be further on the right track.

For Xiaomi Automobile, the settlement in Beijing Economic Development Zone has multiple advantages, on the one hand, Beijing Economic Development Zone is not only the location of Xiaomi's intelligent factory, but also an important base for Beijing's automotive industry; on the other hand, Beijing Economic Development Zone is also the main automatic driving demonstration area in Beijing, Baidu, Xiaoma Zhixing and other domestic head autonomous driving companies have carried out a large number of automatic driving tests here, which will also have a certain role in promoting the research and development of Xiaomi Automobile in automatic driving.

The industry believes that the core of future car manufacturing lies in the automatic driving of cars, but the data shows that the patents currently applied by Xiaomi are mainly concentrated in the smart cockpit, and there are almost zero in the field of automatic driving. Some analysts in the industry believe that Xiaomi not only lacks the design and manufacturing capabilities of the vehicle platform, but also lacks the accumulation of automotive technology related to autonomous driving, and in the case of obvious lack of its own core technology, Xiaomi catches up with the new outlet of intelligent electric vehicles, and it is difficult to complete it only by relying on 10 years and 10 billion US dollars.

Moreover, at present, Xiaomi Automobile has not yet clarified the model of the first car, before Lei Jun only revealed that the first model plan of Xiaomi Automobile is a sedan or SUV, and the pricing range is between 100,000 and 300,000 yuan. According to several new forces of head car manufacturing, from the establishment to the launch of the first mass production car to the delivery, the time required is about 3-4 years. At present, there is still a big gap between Xiaomi Automobile and the new forces of car manufacturing and even traditional OEMs in terms of technology and experience. Founded in 2021, Xiaomi Automobile still needs to speed up the speed of car manufacturing if it wants to officially mass-produce its first model in the first half of 2024.

At present, the delivery volume of new car-making forces has entered an explosive period, and the competition in the new energy vehicle market has become more and more intense. Although Xiaomi, as a well-known mobile phone manufacturer, has the accumulation of funds, technology and personnel, as a new entrant in the car-making market, when Xiaomi, which has no car-making experience, launches competitive products has become the key.

Under the sweep of the wave of new energy vehicles, Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile, which have broken through, have successfully established their own brands and complete product research and development systems. In addition, the models and technologies of Huawei, Baidu and other enterprises are becoming more and more mature, coupled with the acceleration of the electrification and intelligent transformation of traditional car companies, the competition in the entire industry is further intensifying. From the time node of Xiaomi Automobile's launch of the first model, it will face a more fierce competition pattern in the new energy vehicle market, and whether it can win is still unknown.

Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping