Image source: Xiaomi Auto official website
On March 28th, Xiaomi SU7 was officially launched, and it exploded when it was listed, and many news about Xiaomi cars rushed to the hot search! Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi Group, revealed that Xiaomi SU7 was on sale in just a few days, and there were more than 100,000 people, and the number of locked orders has exceeded 40,000 orders.
Lei Jun said in the "We Xiaomi People" Values Speech Contest that "Xiaomi SU7 is three to five times more successful than I imagined." Lei Jun believes that the success of Xiaomi SU7 is essentially the success of Xiaomi's model, the success of Xiaomi's methodology, and in the final analysis, the success of Xiaomi's cultural values.
Lei Jun explained: "Actually, it is not a great thing to build a car in three years, but it is very, very difficult to build a car as good as the Xiaomi SU7." "Don't underestimate the selection of millions of netizens, everyone is holding a magnifying glass to watch, and everyone can say a few words. ”
Lei Jun pointed out that under such strict standards, Xiaomi SU7 has withstood the test, the key is that Xiaomi has gathered a large number of industry elites, and the Xiaomi automotive team has no less than 1,000 experts. The vast majority of them have switched from various well-known car manufacturers, so why is it different as soon as they enter Xiaomi? Lei Jun said that the elixir is Xiaomi's cultural values.
From "Lei Jun talks about the success of Xiaomi's car manufacturing", look back at the development of Xiaomi's car manufacturing:
——Manufacturing has not started, investment first
In 2021, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi, announced his entry into the car-making industry, but at this time, domestic new energy vehicles already have leading players such as BYD and Tesla and emerging players such as "Wei Xiaoli", and Xiaomi has become a late enterprise to participate in the new energy vehicle industry. In addition, Xiaomi's car manufacturing is a cross-border behavior and lacks experience in the car-making supply chain and core technology, so in order to successfully realize the planned car listing, it needs to exchange investment and acquisition for technology and time.
Therefore, before Xiaomi announced the construction of cars, Xiaomi's Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund, Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. have begun to make a lot of investment and layout in the automotive industry chain, and even participated in Weilai's A round of financing in 2015 and Xiaopeng Motors' A+ round of financing in 2017.
-- Invest 10 billion yuan to build cars
Judging from the investment data of Xiaomi Group, Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund, Shunwei Capital and other Xiaomi investment entities, Xiaomi has been laying out the automotive field since 2011, and has completed 52 investment events in the automotive field before announcing in 2021, with a cumulative investment of 26.227 billion yuan. After the announcement of the construction of the car, the amount and number of Xiaomi investments from 2021 to 2022 reached a new high, reaching a maximum investment of 29.988 billion yuan in 2021 and 26 in 2022.
——Three paths to help Xiaomi build an industrial chain ecosystem in an all-round way
On March 28, 2024, Xiaomi officially announced its first mass-produced smart electric vehicle, Xiaomi SU7, at the car press conference, which also marks the official entry of Xiaomi Group from an "investor" to a "competitor". Looking back at the layout of Xiaomi's smart car business, it can be found that Xiaomi's entry into the field of smart cars is not a whim, but by investing in industrial chain start-ups, focusing on core technologies, and deepening cooperation with supply chain enterprises, it has gradually entered the game to build an ecosystem covering the entire smart car industry chain.
Xiaomi's construction of the whole industry chain ecosystem of smart cars is mainly divided into three paths: first, investment first, through investment in start-ups, etc., to build an industrial chain ecology in an all-round way; Second, through the company's self-research, it has strongly cut into the core technology links such as motors, batteries, large die-casting, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpits; The third is to deepen cooperation and adopt the method of direct cooperation with suppliers to empower the smart car business. From the perspective of link characteristics, Xiaomi's investment and self-research are mainly focused on core links such as electrification and intelligence, and cooperation is mainly focused on electrical and electronics, chassis/body interior and exterior decoration.
Through the three major paths, the upstream of Xiaomi Auto has covered battery materials, semiconductors and other related fields, the midstream has covered the core links such as electrification system components, intelligent cockpit systems, and intelligent driving systems, and the downstream has laid out the automotive after-sales service market to build an industrial chain ecosystem in an all-round way.
From the perspective of the main suppliers of Xiaomi Auto SU7, Xiaomi's investment company Zejing Electronics AR-HUD products have been supplied to Xiaomi SU7 models, and Xiaomi SU7 Pro and Xiaomi SU7Max are equipped with Hesai ultra-high-definition long-range lidar AT128, with high-end intelligent driving functions, and will be delivered in April and May 2024 respectively.
——In-depth focus to create the core competitive advantage of products
In addition to investing in the layout of the industrial chain through equity participation, Xiaomi focuses on the five core links of automobiles, such as motors, batteries, large die-casting, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpits, and carries out technical breakthroughs to build the core competitiveness of automotive products. Specifically, in the motor sector, the super motor V6 and V6s jointly developed by Xiaomi, Inovance Technology and United Automotive Electronics have caught up with Porsche and Tesla in terms of speed and power density, while the V8s independently developed and produced by Xiaomi has a speed of 27200 rpm and a motor power density of 10.14kw/kg, which is expected to be launched in 2025; In the battery sector, Xiaomi has developed CTB integrated battery technology and the industry's first cell inversion technology to improve the space utilization rate of the battery pack by 77.8%; In the large die-casting link, Xiaomi independently designed a 9,100-ton integrated large-scale die-casting equipment cluster system, and completed the self-research of a full set of processes and standards for large-scale die-casting, and at the same time self-developed the high-strength, high-toughness, heat-free and heat-free environmentally friendly die-casting material "Titan Alloy", becoming the only domestic automobile manufacturer with self-developed large-scale die-casting materials that can be mass-produced; In the intelligent driving sector, Xiaomi's full-stack self-developed intelligent driving technology has improved the perception and recognition technology through three technologies: adaptive zoom BEV technology, road large model, and super-resolution occupancy network technology, and the current intelligent driving exclusive team size exceeds 1,000 people. In the intelligent cockpit link, Xiaomi is based on Xiaomi Surging OS to create a closed loop of people, vehicles and homes.
According to the report of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, new energy vehicles are the main development direction of the global automotive industry. In the first 11 months of 2023, the output of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 8.426 million units, and according to national policy planning and market trends in recent years, it is expected that the output of new energy vehicles in mainland China will exceed 30 million units by 2029.
Goldman Sachs predicts that Xiaomi's EV sales will reach 100,000, 170,000 and 326,000 units in 2024-2026, accounting for 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.5% of China's NEV retail sales, respectively. By 2030, EV revenue is expected to account for 30% of Xiaomi's total revenue.
Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that the mainland's new energy vehicle production accounts for more than 60% of the world's total, relying on scientific and technological innovation to occupy a leading position in the global market. At present, new energy vehicles are in the growth period, and they still need new quality productivity with technological innovation as the core element to continuously promote development, which is a rare historical opportunity for the industry.
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