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Written by | Tabor Network Yang Wenfei
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"I am willing to bet all the reputation of my life to personally lead the team and fight for Xiaomi cars."
Lei Jun's car-making declaration resounded throughout the car-making circle in 2021.
On March 30, Xiaomi Group issued an announcement that the smart electric vehicle business was approved. So far, more than eight months have passed since Xiaomi officially announced the car, during which the Xiaomi car-making plan has been intensively carried out.
Start early, prepare early
On the evening of March 30, it should have been the second half of Xiaomi's spring new product conference, and the original preview of new products included Xiaomi MIX and surging chips, but to the surprise of the industry, it is reasonable that the protagonist has become Xiaomi's smart electric vehicle plan.
The "Xiaomi car" that has been full of suspicion and controversy has finally been officially announced.
According to the announcement released by Xiaomi Group, the board of directors officially approved the establishment of the smart electric vehicle business project, and 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 it is expected that the investment amount will be 10 billion US dollars in the next 10 years, and Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, will concurrently serve as the CEO of the intelligent electric vehicle business.
Different from other new car-making forces, compared with the OEM model, Xiaomi has chosen the car-making model with an upgraded difficulty coefficient - self-built factories, and listed the car-making business as "special", and the organization is also isolated from the original business.
As early as 2013, Lei Jun went to the United States to "learn from Tesla CEO Musk" and became the first batch of Tesla owners. Afterwards, Lei Jun wrote an article saying: Musk's Tesla is a triathlon that integrates software, hardware and the Internet.
Perhaps it was from then on that Lei Jun planted the seeds of car building in his heart.
Compared with the whole vehicle, Xiaomi began to start from the smart cockpit early and cut into the automotive field.
In 2014, Shunwei Capital invested in Kailide, which is deeply engaged in navigation electronic maps; in 2016, Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi Group invested in Banya Technology, which focuses on smart vehicles and intelligent travel, and the Xiaomi IoT platform and Xiaoai team have established in-depth cooperation with them.
In addition, Shunwei Capital invested in Weilai and Xiaopeng in 2015 and 2017 respectively. However, at that time, Xiaomi's participation in cars was mainly in the application scenario of laying out cars in the Internet of Things ecology, and it was not deeply involved.
Xiaomi and Xiaopeng Automobile have reached in-depth cooperation, through the NFC function of the mobile phone can open the car door; Xiaomi watch integrates some functions of the Weilai APP, you can view the driving status, power, mileage and so on.
In addition to cooperation with investment partners, in the automotive application scenario, Xiaomi has also made many attempts through ecological investment.
Around 2017 and 2018, Xiaomi's Shunwei Capital also invested twice in the driverless system supplier "Zhixinger" and the autonomous driving technology developer "Momenta".
The action is intense
After announcing the car, Xiaomi Group chose the fastest speed of advancement.
Only three days after the official announcement, Lei Jun organized an automotive industry party, and He Xiaopeng of Xiaopeng Automobile, Li Bin of Weilai Automobile, Li Xiang of Ideal Automobile, and Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD, all attended the meeting. The guests almost included half of China's intelligent electric vehicles.
Subsequently, Lei Jun visited a number of car companies non-stop, including FAW, Changan, SAIC, Wuling, Great Wall, etc., as well as battery giant Ningde Times and bosch, a global supplier of autonomous driving chips.
Lei Jun's focus has also shifted to car manufacturing, focusing on recruiting talents and obtaining supply chain support for car manufacturing. Late Post news said that Li Xiaoshuang, the former general manager of Xiaomi's major electrical appliance department, and Yu Kai, former deputy chief of staff of the general staff, were both dispatched to participate in the preparation of car construction.
In addition, Xiaomi's investment has also been carried out non-stop with the progress of car manufacturing.
During this period, Xiaomi has invested in the core links of automobile manufacturing such as batteries, autonomous driving technology, and automotive chips, and continuously improved its own automotive industry chain ecology.
After announcing the construction of cars in 2021, Shunwei Capital once again invested in "Momenta". The Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund threw an olive branch to the automotive driver assistance technology (ADAS) software and hardware solution provider "Longitudinal Technology" and the automatic driving technology developer "Geometric Partner", and the "Geometric Partner" once again received investment from Xiaomi Technology.
At the end of August, Xiaomi Group acquired Shendong Technology, an autonomous driving technology company, for a total transaction amount of about 500 million yuan, which is also the only merger and acquisition in Xiaomi's car manufacturing.
△ Third place on the left: Cai Rui, co-founder and CEO of Shendong Technology; fourth place on the left: Lin Bin, co-founder and vice chairman of Xiaomi
Xiaomi's car-making investment also has a lot of layout in the field of lidar, and in order to build a car without a shortage of chips, it has also invested in various upstream car chip companies to escort the automatic driving technology.
In the key technical field of autonomous driving, lidar, Xiaomi Capital has invested in four companies.
In August this year, Shunwei Capital invested in "Tudtong"; Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund invested in "Lice Technology" in September this year, and Xiaomi Group invested in "Hesai Technology" in November this year.
There is no backwardness in car chips.
The Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund invested in the autonomous driving computing chip "Black Sesame Intelligence" twice in July and September this year, and invested in the vehicle-grade chip "Yuntu Semiconductor" in August.
At the beginning of September, Hu Zhengnan, former president of Geely Research Institute, joined Shunwei Capital as an investment partner, which not only opened a new curtain for the big guys in the automotive circle to join Xiaomi Automobile, but also continued to expand Xiaomi's investment in the automotive field.
As of the end of September, Xiaomi has invested in 62 companies in the automotive field, including 17 in the field of intelligent driving, 13 in the field of intelligent electricity, 6 in the field of smart cockpit, and 22 companies will invest in 2021 alone.
While building its own automotive team, Xiaomi is also constantly using its capital advantages to strengthen investment in the upstream and downstream of the automotive industry chain.
Time is of the essence
At the beginning of September this year, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was established. This is a full 5 months since Lei Jun announced the car, in this year's three quarterly reports, Xiaomi said that the current smart electric vehicle business is progressing smoothly, and the team members have exceeded 500 people.
After three months, the Administrative Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone signed a "Cooperation Agreement" with Xiaomi Technology, officially announcing the settlement of Xiaomi Automobile in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The Xiaomi Automobile Project will build a Xiaomi Automobile Headquarters Base, Sales Headquarters, and R&D Headquarters, and will build a vehicle plant with an annual output of 300,000 units in two phases, of which the first and second phases of production capacity are 150,000 units, and it is expected that the first vehicle will roll off the production line and achieve mass production in 2024.
Some time ago, a reporter visited Xiaomi's headquarters. At present, there are about 1,000 people in the park, and the office area of Xiaomi Automobile occupies about four floors of space, which is under repair, and the relevant employees of Xiaomi Automobile have not been seen in the park.
As Lei Jun's "last entrepreneurial project", Xiaomi Auto will undoubtedly drain him of more energy.
In recent times, Lei Jun has successively withdrawn from the key positions of many affiliated companies, and at the same time, Xiaomi is also frequently adjusting its organizational structure. In order to lead the team to build cars, Lei Jun continued to reduce the burden.
Enterprise investigation shows that in the near future, Lei Jun has successively withdrawn from the positions of legal representatives, executive directors or chairman of many affiliated companies, including Guangdong Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Xiaomi Information Service Co., Ltd., and Zhuhai Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd.
Within a month, he handed over three more businesses, first merging the Youpin E-commerce Department and the Software and Experience Department (MIUI Operating System Division) into the China Region and the Mobile Phone Department respectively, and in a recent adjustment, the Business Middle Office Department responsible for Xiaomi's digitalization and data asset construction and operation was merged into the Group Information Technology Department.
Wang Hua, general manager of the public relations department of Xiaomi Group, said on his personal Weibo that Lei Jun's energy this year is mainly focused on car-related matters: "I believe that everyone remembers at the investor meeting, Mr. Lei happily revealed that 'the current progress of Xiaomi car manufacturing is faster than I expected. This information has shown that xiaomi's work of building cars has accelerated. The things that can be ignored must be ignored. ”
Some people have analyzed that it is not easy for Xiaomi to enter the market. At present, Tesla on the new energy vehicle track has ridden the dust, and the new forces of Chinese car manufacturing represented by Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha, etc. should not be underestimated. On the other hand, BYD, Geely, Toyota and other veteran cars at home and abroad have also begun to bet on new energy vehicle tracks. Even if Xiaomi is very good at cost-effective play, Wuling Hongguang MINI has already seized the opportunity.
NIO was founded in November 2014 and the ES8 was delivered in 2018; Xiaopeng was founded in mid-2014 and the G3 was launched at the end of 2018; Ideal was established in July 2015, and Ideal One began delivery at the end of 2019. It takes about four years for a startup to go from design to development of a new car to production.
Three years of mass production, with Xiaomi's ability to integrate resources and capital reserves, the time is urgent.
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Legal Counsel: Jingshi Law Firm Yingke Law Firm
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