author
Cui Liwen
The biggest unknown of Xiaomi's car is whether Lei Jun can all in.
Responsible editor 丨 Shi Jie
Edit 丨 Chic
"Intelligent manufacturing will further help the rise of Chinese brands, millet will become an emerging force that cannot be ignored in China's manufacturing industry; millet will become a long river of meandering, flowing through the beautiful life of everyone in the world, running to the sea of stars that everyone yearns for; millet will continue to work hard for a better life for everyone in the world."
At the party of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Xiaomi, Lei Jun stood in the spotlight and excitedly gave a speech to the guests present. At that moment, looking at the many followers in the audience, perhaps even he would not have thought that this still young company had firmly held the third position in the world's smartphone shipments.
However, it is not difficult to think about it calmly and find that although the prospects of millet are still bright, when it faces the current situation of increasingly saturated consumer demand and increasing pressure on terminal competition, it inevitably falls into temporary confusion.
Especially when Huawei was "suppressed" by the US government, and its share in the global market shrank rapidly, Xiaomi did not take this opportunity to take much advantage, and continued to be crushed by Apple, and the bottleneck of the rush was clearly placed there.
Therefore, finding a new "exit" to share the pressure has become the trend of the times, and "building a car" has become a new answer given by Lei Jun after making up his mind. To this end, he even gambled on all the glory and reputation he once had, and invested tens of billions of dollars as an endorsement.
What followed was a few months of frenzied recruitment, factory site selection, and disclosure of key nodes, all of which seemed to be developing in the expected direction.
However, what needs to be vigilant is that the more seemingly beautiful things are, the more full of crises. The resources and challenges required to build a car are far more than 10,000 times more than imagined. And when most people firmly believe that Lei Jun made a rather correct decision, individuals take the opposite attitude.
For Xiaomi cars, "looking down" occupies a larger proportion. As for the reasons, they are manifold.
01
What exactly is a label?
In the past year, when Xiaomi officially announced the construction of the car, it was always thinking about what benefits such a choice could bring to it?
From the perspective of dismantling, at the capital level, when Lei Jun participated in the investment of Weilai and Xiaopeng, they were located in the US stock market and created their own capital miracles, and the former market value was even close to Xiaomi.
Tesla's rocket-like stock price is more like proof that a new era is coming to everyone, and the head musk has quickly become the richest being on the planet. The crazy performance of the above-mentioned car companies is honestly the envy of many onlookers, and Lei Jun, who has already participated in it, is no exception.
At the national policy level, it is needless to say that the formulation of the new four modernization guidelines has escorted the development of intelligent electric vehicles for a long time in the future.
On the consumer side, an epidemic and Tesla's rapid entry into China have made the consumption structure of the entire new energy terminal market rapidly mature, rising month-on-month for many consecutive months, and the wholesale volume in 2021 will exceed the 3 million mark, giving everyone more and more confidence.
Therefore, standing on the right time node, Xiaomi was pushed by the times to make a choice. There have been reports that Lei Jun has considered the feasibility of building a car three times before and after, and in the end it may be an irreversible wave of electrification that convinced him.
After all, in the next decade, the opportunities and dividends contained in smart cars are far greater than smart phones, and no one can refuse them. And with enough tempting conditions as an endorsement, letting go has become a natural success, so there are various measures mentioned at the beginning of the article, but new problems have emerged.
As a bystander, I believe that everyone is not unfamiliar with the poster of the Xiaomi car product designed by the "rice noodles" that was recently circulated on the Internet.
Although it is not official, only from the information conveyed by the product itself, the quality of all aspects is still balanced, but there is still no too deep memory point, and this is exactly where I am most worried about Xiaomi cars.
As an argument, on the evening of December 28, 2021, Xiaomi officially released three flagship mobile phones: Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Xiaomi Mi 12X. The parameter configuration still maintains the company's consistent habit of pulling full, and the cost performance is still outstanding compared with the same level of products of other manufacturers.
Because of this, Lei Jun even shouted out: "Xiaomi 12 small size flagship mobile phone, to unplug more than 2 million Millet 6 nail households, and it is also a better grip than Apple 13 mobile phone." ”
But even so, it is not difficult to open Xiaomi's official flagship store on various e-commerce platforms to find that the above three new products are currently on sale. From a positive point of view, it is enough to prove that Xiaomi is well stocked. From a negative point of view, it is an indisputable fact that consumer recognition and terminal response are less than expected.
"I always feel that millet is good, but the price of spending more than 5,000 always feels not worth it." Aside from the phone itself, the brand can't bring me much added value. So even if Huawei doesn't have a 5G chip right now, I might still be willing to spend more money on the latter, or even spend more money to buy Apple's latest flagship. ”
Such a point of view really comes from a friend who has needs. What cannot be avoided is that on the mobile phone business side, even if the offensive towards high-end has been launched, from the final effect, the product is acceptable, lack of brand support, and there is no clear enough memory point, which has gradually become a stereotype in the minds of consumers.
In contrast, those new forces in the automotive industry who have successfully broken through have built cars, taking Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal as examples. It must be admitted that as early as the beginning of the establishment of the three, it has formulated multi-dimensional things including product sequences, technical architecture, intelligent paths, energy replenishment systems, after-sales service and even listing nodes. More importantly, a brand label that is deep enough.
Weilai's "high-end luxury", "user enterprises", "quality service", "replaceable power", Xiaopeng's "full-stack self-research", "more in line with the national conditions of assisted driving", "excellent intelligent cockpit", the ideal "medium and large daddy car", "extender no mileage anxiety", have accurately concentrated their respective potential user groups, and the brand image has been quickly established.
Using this as a yardstick, what kind of label should Xiaomi car be given? At the moment, I don't see the answer it gives.
Is it to continue to adhere to the "cost performance" route? Blindly stacking materials and stacking configurations? Or go back to the past and try to become the so-called "popularizer" of smart electric vehicles? To be honest, there is already more than one car company doing this overcrowded track.
The time left for Xiaomi to weigh and consider is really not much.
02
Can Lei Jun all in?
Half a month ago, 2021 NIO Day ended in a field of flowers and applause, waiting for many years, Weilai finally ushered in the rapidly and enthusiastically sought after the explosive model ET5.
In the interview the next day, it was obvious that he could feel the tiredness on Li Bin's face, but he still maintained the output of high energy density as always, giving every media as thorough an answer as possible.
The brand has been established for seven years, and it has been fully in it, and Li Bin is old with the naked eye, and the painstaking efforts and pressures he has endured can be imagined.
Similarly, In an interview with CCTV media, He Xiaopeng quipped: "In 2021, Li wants to be the most comfortable, and Li Bin and I are more difficult." ”
In life, there will be a WeChat group between the three of them, and some industry and policy topics will be discussed every day. In his opinion, the most annoying problem for him in 2021 is the lack of cores, and if someone can provide him with a chip, he is willing to invite that person to drink.
And after going all out and surviving a deep enough extreme stress test, Xiaopeng successfully won the annual new force sales crown.
As for Li Xiang, at the end of last year, he published a tweet on Weibo entitled "40-year-old me and 14-year-old Li Xiang said a few words from the heart". Between the lines, you can feel his sharp character, which has never changed.
"When you were 40 years old, you were still speechless, mischievous, annoying, and did not live the mature, stable, broad-minded, rational and objective that others wanted. 26 years later, your heart and behavior are almost the same as when you were 14 years old, and you haven't complicated yourself because of your environment, which is perhaps the proudest insistence in these 26 years. ”
Along the way, even though it was full of huge controversy, Li Xiang still pushed the ideal ONE product to the same height as the largest competitor Highlander, and after full force, he paid an additional 20 kilograms of weight for it.
To explain these, I want to prove that it is still a simple and easy to understand truth: car building is far more complicated than imagined, as a founder, go all out to be in it, and attach itself to the brand with enough willpower, which has become a path that must be followed. Li Bin is so, He Xiaopeng is so, Li wants to be so...
So, I can't help but ask: Xiaomi made a car, can Lei Jun really be all in? Can you really let go of all your baggage and devote yourself to it?
To be fair, it is still impossible to give an answer with certainty, and more can only be handed over to time feedback. But what is certain is that as the founder or the largest IP of Xiaomi Car, if Lei Jun cannot participate in it as much as possible in the future, and only provides resource support, it is very likely that there will be a deviation at the strategic level.
And don't forget that after many years, Weilai, Xiaopeng, and Ideal, which one is not gradually learned to grow up after making mistakes. How Xiaomi effectively evades will largely test lei jun's ability to "steer the helm". In other words, the latter desperately needs to prove himself once again in the rim. Otherwise, it is likely to become the biggest "bottleneck" hindering the development of the company.
At the end of the article, I would like to say that according to the nodes currently known, the debut time of the first product of Xiaomi car will be in 2024. At that time, the frontrunners are still desperately running wildly, and the product matrix of "Wei Xiaoli" has become increasingly perfect; Tesla is still playing the role of the "big devil"; BYD has continuously broken through the annual sales of new energy millions; the public has gradually completed the "elephant turn"; Apple and Huawei are like barbarians outside the door, rampage.
You can imagine how terrifying the competitive pressure that the former will face is. But as the text title ""Looking Down" Xiaomi Makes a Car" said, the significance of the existence of that eye-catching quotation mark is still to hope that the direction of the final story plot will leave room for moving towards the bright light.
After all, making the very courageous decision of "building a car", Lei Jun must have been ready to break and stand up.
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