215,900 Xiaomi cars, can Rebus become Reske?

"Core Tips"

13 years ago, the first press conference of Xiaomi mobile phones, Lei Jun "1999, make a friend", can Xiaomi cars use 215,900 to pry a piece of market in the automotive industry today?

Author | Zhu Xiaoyu

Edit | Xing Yun

The moment he stood in the center of the stage of Xiaomi's car press conference, Lei Jun seemed to have returned to the home of Xiaomi's mobile phone 13 years ago.

It's still a familiar recipe, a familiar taste. As Lei Jun shouted 215,900 yuan (standard version), the atmosphere of the press conference was pushed to a climax, and the applause was thunderous.

After an hour and a half of foreshadowing, Lei Jun announced the pricing of Xiaomi SU7, the standard version is priced at 215,900 yuan, the Pro long-range version is priced at 245,900 yuan, and the Max version is priced at 299,900 yuan.

On the live barrage, fans continue to brush "too expensive", however, this price is about 50,000 yuan lower than the previous "Leopard Change" price, and some Xiaomi car insiders told "Leopard Change", "The price was originally set according to one percent of the profit, and now I really plan to lose money and change the market."

Lei Jun also said at the press conference that the discussion began at 7 o'clock last night and reached a consensus at 8 o'clock, which is also the fastest time in major product pricing.

Looking back on the past, the success of the first press conference of Xiaomi mobile phones laid the foundation for Xiaomi Group to move to today. 13 years have passed, and the Xiaomi car entrepreneurship promoted by Lei Jun this time, like Xiaomi mobile phones, is also starting from scratch. For Lei Jun, the anxiety and worry he experienced back then were the same this time, and he even faced a more complex environment and more difficulties.

What is different from that year is that Lei Jun has built his own Xiaomi car factory, and there is more than 100 billion cash flow lying on his books.

To a certain extent, perhaps this conference will also be recorded in the history of Xiaomi, whether Xiaomi cars succeed or not, it will be a turning point for Xiaomi Group - towards a trillion market value or fall off the altar. Whether he can transform from Rebus to Reske, the answer is slowly being revealed.

1. Lei Jun's two pricing problems

At the first press conference of Xiaomi Automobile, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, and Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, and Li Xiang, the founders of "Wei Xiaoli", all appeared to cheer.

Xiaomi Auto has held a technical conference before, this time Lei Jun still spent an hour and a half to introduce the four major designs of Xiaomi Automobile, nine colors, and even sunscreen ingenuity, storage space, and Xiaomi ecological chain products also made a speech.

After the price of 215,900 yuan came out, some netizens commented: "This makes Li Bin, who is still on the scene, sell the car." ”

It took Xiaomi three years to build a car, and it took even longer for Lei Jun to take this step.

In 2010, Xiaomi was officially opened in a very small office in Beijing, and the founder Lei Jun and the start-up team members gathered around a rice cooker and drank a bowl of millet porridge, which opened the road to the growth of Xiaomi Group.

So far, Lei Jun himself has transformed from a simple programmer to a manager of the company's territory, completing the first real identity change.

In the early days of Xiaomi, Lei Jun's entrepreneurial road was not smooth. Lei Jun recalled that when he founded Xiaomi at the age of 40, Xiaomi's financing road was not very smooth, and he sat in the investor's office for two hours, but he was greatly questioned, they questioned Lei Jun, "You have never made hardware, how can you prove that you can do hardware well?"

Even after the investment, how to produce Xiaomi mobile phones once gave Lei Jun a headache. According to Tencent's deep web report, in 2010, Inventec, where Zhang Feng was an executive, was one of the few foundries willing to OEM for Xiaomi mobile phones. After Xiaomi's mobile phone became an instant hit, Xiaomi was introduced to Foxconn and other factories for OEM production.

Difficult pricing has never been just a problem for Xiaomi cars. As early as 2011, when Xiaomi's first mobile phone was launched, Lei Jun also experienced it.

In the 2020 Xiaomi 10th anniversary keynote speech meeting, Lei Jun introduced the history of the Xiaomi brand in the past ten years, including the introduction of Xiaomi's first-generation mobile phone was originally planned to be sold for only 1499 yuan, instead of the final price of 1999 yuan.

In 2011, the Xiaomi team just started to make mobile phones, originally planned to strictly control the cost, and make a low price priced at 1499 yuan, a product with good performance, but in order to pursue ultra-high cost performance and experience, the top suppliers were selected, plus all aspects of expenditure, and finally found that the cost "risked 500 yuan, reaching 2000 yuan".

Out of consideration for the company's development, Lei Jun and the founding team believed that selling mobile phones at a loss was not a long-term strategy, and Lei Jun decided that the Xiaomi Mi 1 would be priced according to cost.

At the first press conference of Xiaomi mobile phones in August 2011, Lei Jun paved the way for more than an hour. Afterwards, Lei Jun recalled that when he announced that the price of the first generation of Xiaomi was 1999 yuan, the audience applauded for a minute and a half, and he knew that the first generation of Xiaomi had become, and he was nervous before the press conference.

In the end, Xiaomi, the first mobile phone, shipped 300,000 units in 2011, with sales of 550 million yuan. Xiaomi Mi 1 invaded the market with a low price and high performance of 1999 yuan through the online pre-sale model, and the pricing model of sticking to the cost made Xiaomi mobile phones win the reputation of cost performance and opened up sales. Lei Jun said, "At present, there is no brand that can achieve such a turnover in the first year of its establishment." ”

And the year when Xiaomi's mobile phone created a miracle was also the best time for Xiaomi to enter the mobile phone industry.

iResearch research data show that in 2011, China's smartphone market shipments reached 72.1 million units, a year-on-year increase of 103.1%, iResearch analysis believes that the penetration rate of China's smartphones at that time was only 13%, the market potential is huge, and with the continuous popularity of 1,000 yuan smart phones, to further stimulate the increase in smartphone shipments.

Now Lei Jun wants to build another Xiaomi car, and the industry background is completely different.

2. Similar experience, different competitive environment

In the early days of Xiaomi's official announcement of car manufacturing, the development of new energy vehicles has been very hot.

In 2021, BYD topped the list of Chinese automakers with a market value of 780.536 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 47.25%. In the same year, the stock price of NIO, which came back from the dead, reached a maximum of $66.99, and its market value exceeded $100 billion, 10 times that of now.

Three years on, the thriving market opportunity is fleeting. Lei Jun himself is more worried about Xiaomi cars than before.

At present, Xiaomi car is already the highest-level project within Xiaomi Group, in order to concentrate on building cars, Lei Jun handed over Xiaomi mobile phones and Redmi mobile phones to Lu Weibing. Maybe it's because the car is not easy to do, Lei Jun has to invest more time and energy.

According to the "Leopard Change" exclusive understanding,Xiaomi's automobile production base in Beijing Yizhuang production capacity has completed the capacity test,The production capacity of a single shift a day is about 300 vehicles,At this stage, the factory only has a single shift production during the day,The production of the night shift is not opened,If the production capacity of two shifts during the day and night is full,The production capacity of Xiaomi cars in a single month can reach 20,000 vehicles。

At present, the cars produced by Xiaomi Auto's Yizhuang factory are basically supplied in Xiaomi Auto's showrooms and some delivery centers across the country. Now, the Xiaomi factory is waiting for the instructions sent by the headquarters before it dares to pull out the production capacity.

Lei Jun's caution is obvious. According to "Leopard Change", Lei Jun himself also needs to be reassured at the moment when he confirms whether the order volume can be filled.

In the early days of the Xiaomi car project, many Xiaomi employees thought that the car of the future would be a "large mobile phone". Apple's car-making will come to an abrupt halt in 2024, which has also made many good people comment that "the most uncomfortable is Xiaomi". Apple didn't stick to it, how far can Rebus go?

Although Lei Jun has boosted morale internally many times, the sales target of 100,000 units of Xiaomi cars in 2024 is also quite aggressive in the eyes of new players, after all, NIO, which achieved the first year of mass production in 2018, did not exceed 100,000 units for the first time until 2022.

At present, the competition in the new energy vehicle industry is extremely fierce. In February this year, BYD offered the "king bomb" at the beginning of the year, which has already determined the tone of price involution in 2024 to a certain extent. For Xiaomi Automobile, it is more difficult to "hit the ground running" in the first battle.

In the long-term goal of Xiaomi Auto written by Lei Jun, it is to become one of the top five car manufacturers in the world through 15 to 20 years of hard work. According to people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi cars will also be priced at cost and do not pursue short-term profits. Lei Jun emphasized internally that Xiaomi Auto is considering long-term development and preparing for a long-term battle.

Fortunately, Xiaomi Group has more than enough ammunition to combat the uncertainty of future developments.

According to the 2023 financial report data, Xiaomi achieved annual revenue of RMB 271 billion and adjusted net profit of RMB 19.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 126.3%. Xiaomi's cash flow data is also bright, and by the end of 2023, Xiaomi's cash reserves have once again hit a record high of 136.3 billion yuan. The continuous profitability of Xiaomi mobile phones can also continue to transfuse Xiaomi cars.

According to Xiaomi Auto Sales, Xiaomi Auto was released tonight, and there were a lot of people in the store and it was very busy. Previously, they were very confident in the Xiaomi car press conference, and the experience store where they were located was also ready for all 12 people to sell cars overnight.

For Xiaomi Auto, which has been working hard for 15 to 20 years, whether the first battle can be successful or not, the current confidence is very important. Lei Jun, who has been hanging his heart for three years, should be able to sleep well after this press conference.