(Image source: Xiaomi Auto)
On April 16, Lei Jun posted on Weibo, saying, "Xiaomi SU7 has been released for less than 20 days, and there are too many "never expected": The order has indeed far exceeded our most optimistic expectations, and Xiaguang purple has become the hottest color, and the proportion of female car owners is very high......"
Recently, Lei Jun said at the "We Xiaomi People" Values Speech Contest that Xiaomi SU7 is 3-5 times more successful than he imagined. He pointed out that this is the first time that Xiaomi has such a large number of female users, "they are impressed by the good looks, sun protection, and storage of Xiaomi cars, and they may not remember the 2.78 seconds we are proud of, but everyone tells you about sun protection". Lei Jun revealed that nearly 30% of the users who bought the Xiaomi SU7 are women, and many people in the order are for his wife, girlfriend or his sister and sister, and he expects that female owners may reach 40% or even 50%.
In addition, Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei also revealed on his personal Weibo that several female colleagues are paying attention to Xiaomi SU7, one of the reasons is because of Lei Jun's good image and Xiaomi brand, as well as SU7 is good-looking and sunscreen.
On April 14, blogger Sun Shaojun revealed that the number of locked orders for Xiaomi Auto SU7 has exceeded 60,000.
Lei Jun said that although Xiaomi succeeded in building a car in only three years, it is very difficult to produce such an excellent product as the Xiaomi SU7. He revealed that the average car company needs about three or four hundred people to develop a car, plus 1 billion to 2 billion R & D funds. Xiaomi's first car has invested 3,400 engineers, and the entire R&D investment has exceeded 10 billion, of which 4.7 billion has been invested in key technologies for intelligent driving, and the exclusive team size is more than 1,000 people. Xiaomi Auto is expected to become an important member of the new force, and its advantages lie in brand effect, intelligence, ecological synergy and channel layout.
Looking back at Xiaomi's car-making road:
Rapid increase in technical weight through investment and mergers and acquisitions
In 2021, Xiaomi Group acquired Shendong Technology, an autonomous driving company, for a total transaction value of about US$77.37 million. In addition, Xiaomi has also invested in a number of autonomous driving industry chain-related companies in the field of autonomous driving, such as Suteng Juchuang, Hesai Technology, Tudatong, Geometry Partner, and Black Sesame Chip, involving lidar, autonomous driving chips, autonomous driving solutions, optical perception and other aspects.
Invested in Haitian's subsidiaries in the field of large die-casting
According to the content of the press conference, Xiaomi announced that it has developed its own "9100T super large die-casting cluster" and die-casting alloy material "Titan Alloy", which makes it the only car manufacturer in the world and the only one in China that has developed large-scale die-casting equipment and die-casting materials at the same time. In terms of investment in large-scale die casting, in January 2023, Xiaomi Group and Gaorong Capital jointly invested in Ningbo Free Trade Zone Haitian Zhisheng Metal Forming Equipment Co., Ltd. The company can produce a full range of cold chamber die-casting machines with a clamping force of 180T-8800T, with an annual production capacity of 4,000 die-casting machines.
Deepen cooperation and continue to expand the circle of friends in the supply chain
In terms of traditional hardware, Xiaomi mostly cooperates directly with suppliers to empower the smart car business. According to incomplete statistics, in addition to foreign suppliers, more than 40 domestic industrial chain companies have become partners of Xiaomi Auto. In the future, with the large-scale rollout of Xiaomi's automotive business, supply chain partners may continue to expand in the future.
CITIC Securities is more optimistic about Xiaomi Auto, believing that Xiaomi's scale and layout in terms of brand, supply chain, software, ecosystem and channels have become an important advantage in the competition in the smart car market.
Morgan Stanley and CICC said that if Xiaomi can maintain its leadership in the two areas of advanced driver assistance systems and intelligent cockpit, it could make Xiaomi a disruptive force in the industry.
According to the research report of Cinda Securities, Xiaomi Auto has its own user traffic, and since the official announcement of the start of car manufacturing, more than 20 listed companies have said that they will cooperate with Xiaomi's car business. With Xiaomi's advantages in intelligence, ecological synergy, fan effect and channels, the delivery volume of Xiaomi cars is expected to gradually increase, and related parts suppliers are expected to benefit from it.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
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