Text丨Wu Kai
Source丨Times Finance APP
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"[Xiaomi Auto] should be in the store after its release, at the end of December or the beginning of next year. On December 11, a staff member of a Xiaomi Home store in Dongcheng District, Beijing told Times Finance.
The launch date is approaching, and Xiaomi is speeding up the advancement of automotive products. On November 15th, two Xiaomi brand cars were unveiled in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products"; Subsequently, a number of bloggers released "Xiaomi car camouflage car" related road test videos on social platforms; recently, some bloggers broke the news that Xiaomi cars will be released on December 28, which once again raised the attention of the outside world.
"The Xiaomi Auto SU7 release time is now set: December 28. The above-mentioned blogger said on social platforms. The blogger revealed that at present, Xiaomi has "finalized" the Xiaomi car debut conference in Beijing on the 28th, and the pre-sale price of the new car will be announced at that time. At the same time, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, will give a speech in person.
There are many signs that Xiaomi is stepping up preparations for the arrival of automotive products. On December 11, Times Finance verified with Xiaomi about the release time of the above-mentioned online rumors, and the other party said that "it has not yet been determined (time)". However, an internal staff member confirmed the accuracy of the aforementioned release time.
The expansion of the factory accelerated
Xiaomi is accelerating the implementation of the automotive business in many aspects, and its actions on the production side are particularly obvious.
Previously, two Xiaomi brand electric vehicles were unveiled at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which means that the production capacity and production qualification of Xiaomi cars have been guaranteed to a certain extent. The two vehicles are equipped with CATL's ternary lithium-ion batteries, BYD Fodi lithium iron phosphate batteries, and motors from Suzhou Inovance United Power Systems Co., Ltd. and United Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd., respectively.
Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website
In terms of body size, the length, width, and wheelbase of the two Xiaomi cars are 4997mm, 1963mm, and 3000mm respectively, and the height is different, which is 1440mm and 1455mm respectively, reaching the level of medium and large sedans. In addition, both Xiaomi brand cars have the "Xiaomi" logo on the front of the car. At the rear, both cars display the tail mark "Beijing Xiaomi".
What has attracted much attention is that the name of the two automobile companies is Beijing Automotive Group Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd., the registered address is No. 1, Tongxin Road, Zhaoquanying Town, Shunyi District, Beijing, and the production address is No. 21, Huanjing Road, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.
It should be noted that among the above addresses, the former is the location of Beijing Automotive Group Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd., and the latter is Xiaomi's new automobile factory in Yizhuang. According to the declaration information, there is speculation that Xiaomi Auto has temporarily relied on the support of BAIC Off-road in terms of production qualifications, but the specific manufacturing process is still carried out in Xiaomi's self-built factory, which is intended to promote the launch of Xiaomi Auto as scheduled.
At the same time, Xiaomi's car factory is also expanding. According to the previously disclosed plan, the Xiaomi car factory will be built in two phases, one of which covers an area of about 720,000 square meters, with an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, and is scheduled to be completed in June 2023, and the second phase is scheduled to start in 2024 and be completed in 2025. According to public information, the relevant plants of the first phase of the Xiaomi Automobile plant have passed the acceptance on June 12.
In addition, Times Finance also learned that Xiaomi is recruiting a large number of automotive workers through official websites, recruitment websites and other channels, covering general workers, testing, quality inspection, equipment maintenance and other positions.
Cars are about to arrive
While accelerating the construction of production capacity, Xiaomi has also begun to build a sales system for automotive products, preparing for the sales of automotive products in terms of employees and stores.
At the employee level, Xiaomi Auto has opened the recruitment of Xiaomi Auto store managers, new energy vehicle sales supervisors, retail market managers and other positions in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and other places, and many positions require automobile sales experience and valid car driver's licenses. Among them, some positions such as the manager of Xiaomi Auto Store also need to have the ability to build a sales team and a management team. In terms of salary, the salary of the above positions reaches 15,000-30,000 yuan.
Source: Xiaomi's official website
At the store level, Xiaomi Auto will adopt a similar pattern to Huawei's smart car, putting the car into the existing offline mobile phone stores. However, Times Finance learned from offline visits that the exhibition hall area of many Xiaomi Home stores is not enough to accommodate automotive products.
Among them, many stores on the second floor or above of shopping malls in Beijing said that "Xiaomi cars should not be placed" because it was difficult to place their vehicles upstairs, and in the remaining stores on the first floor, some stores had limited exhibition space, and store employees said that "it was difficult to put down cars".
In fact, when the 10,000th Xiaomi Home opened in Shenzhen in 2021, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, introduced that the new store area reached 600 square meters for the sake of selling cars. At present, in addition to some Xiaomi Home stores with large exhibition halls, many Xiaomi Home stores have begun to reserve space for Xiaomi cars that are about to arrive by expanding or changing the layout of the exhibition hall.
Previously, a number of online design drawings of Xiaomi Home retail stores showed that the Xiaomi Home in the new design mode specially set aside a display area for Xiaomi cars.
On December 11, the staff of a Xiaomi Home store in Dongcheng District, Beijing, said that Xiaomi cars should be placed in the store in the follow-up, but the specific information has not yet been conveyed internally. "You can add our contact information first, and we will invite you to the store as soon as the car arrives. The staff member said.
In the eyes of industry insiders, Xiaomi's original sales network is very important to Xiaomi Auto.
"Similar to the previous display and sales of smart cars in Huawei's stores, Xiaomi Home stores are the key to Xiaomi's car sales business. An anonymous analyst told Times Finance: "Xiaomi's original sales network can quickly expand the reach of Xiaomi cars, which is conducive to its rapid entry into the market." ”
Can you catch up?
Xiaomi cars are just one step away from being launched.
It is reported that Xiaomi's first car has entered the fifth stage of production line verification (PT5) at the Yizhuang factory. In addition, Xiaomi's Yizhuang factory will complete the target of 300 vehicles in December, which is several times higher than in November. Times Finance verified the news with Xiaomi, but the other party did not reply as of press time.
At the official level, on the evening of November 20, when Xiaomi Group held a conference call for the third quarter of 2023, Lu Weibing said that the mass production target of Xiaomi cars is planned to be achieved in the first half of next year, and the second winter test will be carried out soon.
In this context, the industry speculates that Xiaomi cars will be launched at the end of this year or early next year, and the time point of December 28 on the Internet has attracted special attention. Although Xiaomi officially said that the date is uncertain, an insider confirmed the accuracy of this date to Times Finance.
However, compared with other new car-making companies, Xiaomi Auto is still a little late.
Ji Xuehong, director and professor of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, told Times Finance: "Xiaomi has strong supply chain capabilities and abundant cash flow, but lacks mature experience in car manufacturing. In his view, Xiaomi should respect the laws of the automotive industry and launch competitive automotive products from the level of meeting regulatory requirements and safety needs, and at the same time, Xiaomi should also find a reasonable positioning and combine its own audience advantages to create products.
Xiaomi is also well aware of the competitive pressure in the automotive industry. Lu Weibing said in the conference call that media reports about Lei Jun's expectation that Xiaomi cars will sell up to 100,000 units are not accurate, and Lei Jun himself did not make such comparisons or expected statements. At present, the size of Xiaomi Auto's R&D team is about 3,000 people.
Guo Mingchi, an analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, believes that the key selling points of Xiaomi's first model will focus on autonomous driving technology, software ecosystem, 800V fast charging and power configuration, and the price is expected to be less than 300,000 yuan. When the first model is launched in 2024, shipments are expected to be 50,000-60,000 units.
In Ji Xuehong's view, the current domestic mainstream medium and large pure electric car prices have continued to drop from 250,000-300,000 yuan. In this context, if the starting price of Xiaomi's first car is between 200,000 and 250,000 yuan, it will be able to effectively enhance its competitiveness.