36Kr Exclusive | Xiaomi car manufacturing is expected to be established in April, Wang Chuan is responsible, is exploring the automotive industry

Xiaomi's car is already on the string.

36Kr learned from investors close to Lei Jun and car company executives and other informed sources that Xiaomi Group is rapidly promoting car-making matters, and is expected to be established as soon as 1-2 months, and the initial discussion of brand positioning is similar to Thatcock Automobile, focusing on the high-end market with strong technology attributes. The direct person in charge of the plan is Xiaomi veteran Wang Chuan.

Informed sources revealed to 36Kr that at the end of February, Lei Jun met with Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, to consult on car manufacturing matters. There are also industry insiders close to Lei Jun who told 36Kr, "As soon as this month or next month, Xiaomi car manufacturing may be approved." ”

Many industry insiders believe that Lei Jun is a long-distance runner with strong endurance, and the problem is not big when it takes into account both car building and mobile phones. The direct person in charge of the car-making plan is Wang Chuan, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Xiaomi, who was once at the helm of Xiaomi TV, which is considered one of the most successful businesses outside of Xiaomi mobile phones.

"The person in charge of Xiaomi's car is Wang Chuan, which is almost an internal consensus." Sources said to 36Kr. Some car company executives also told 36Kr, "Last year, Wang Chuan often ran to the ideal car, if the person in charge of Xiaomi Car No. 1 is Lei Jun, the person in charge of No. 2 is Wang Chuan." ”

Wang Chuan joined Xiaomi in 2012 and has successively managed the TV Department, the General Staff Department, the China Region, and the Major Appliances Department, and participated in the whole chain of product research and development, production, channels, sales and so on. Wang Chuan has become Lei Jun's business partner and friend for many years, according to media reports, Lei Jun once said to Wang Chuan: I support what you do. Before joining Xiaomi, Wang Chuan was a serial entrepreneur who founded Leishi Technology, a video and audio entertainment equipment company, and Duoguan Technology, which is the predecessor of Xiaomi Box.

36Kr learned from a number of sources that Wang Chuanzheng is exploring the automotive industry on behalf of Xiaomi Group, seeking various resources such as talents, technology and factory manufacturing.

In terms of talent, Wang Chuan is already in contact with some high-quality executives in the automotive industry, seeking CANDIDATEs for CEO candidates of automobile companies. But sources also revealed that this plan has not yet been determined, and it is not ruled out that xiaomi itself will eventually serve as CEO.

In terms of technology, Wang Chuan is also in contact with industry projects, and capital sources close to Xiaomi's senior management told 36Kr that Xiaomi hopes to understand the automotive industry chain through investment, and the investment action is likely to surface before the car-making project. At present, Xiaomi focuses on hardware technologies related to intelligent driving, including chips and lidar.

In terms of factory manufacturing, Xiaomi also has many actions. Sources revealed to 36Kr that Xiaomi has contact with Borgward Automobile and Kering Automobile, which is positioned in the city logistics, but negotiations with Borgward Automobile have stopped. "Xiaomi has also thought of finding OEM for CAR companies such as BYD, but it is more worried about the resource investment and controllability of the latter." The source told 36Kr, "Therefore tend to look for partners who have productive resources to facilitate control through restructuring." ”

36Kr asked Xiaomi officially about the above-mentioned car-making matters, and Xiaomi replied: The Group has been paying attention to the development of the electric vehicle ecology and conducting continuous assessment and research on the relevant industry situation.

From the perspective of business logic, cross-border car manufacturing by mobile phone companies is not new. At the beginning of this year, Apple's car-making rumors began to spread, and there were news of negotiating car-making cooperation with Hyundai Motor and Daimler Group.

Although the domestic mobile phone giant Huawei does not build a car, it also cooperates with car companies by launching a full-stack solution, and the body will be affixed with the brand logo of Huawei's car solution. In November last year, Ren Zhengfei signed an internal resolution stating that Huawei would not build cars for three years, and after three years, once Huawei launched its car-making plan, the previous cooperation with car companies would become a rich accumulation. Whether Xiaomi should build a car seems to have no suspense.

The US ban at the beginning of this year became a catalyst for Xiaomi's rapid action to build cars. On January 15, according to the Global Network, the US government put nine Chinese companies on the blacklist of so-called "related to the Chinese military", including mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi. Under the investment ban, U.S. investors are required to sell their shares in "blacklisted" companies by November 11 this year.

On March 13, before the ban went into effect, a U.S. federal judge ruled to suspend the implementation of the Defense Department's ban on Xiaomi.

36Kr synthesizes the current information and learns that although the United States has suspended the ban on Xiaomi, Xiaomi has not stopped the pace of car building, and car building is still Xiaomi's vital "Plan B". "Huawei sold the glory mobile phone business, and there is a basic disk, if one day the millet mobile phone business encounters resistance, it will be dangerous." There are industry insiders to 36Kr analysis.

In addition, the mobile phone industry is obviously not as large as the automotive industry. Although Xiaomi Group is already a mobile phone giant with a Hong Kong stock market value of more than 550 billion yuan and has also launched a "mobile phone + AIoT" strategy to find increments, the new car company Weilai only sells 43,000 electric vehicles in 2020, and the market value is more than $90 billion, approaching Xiaomi Group.

All kinds of resources and capital are also pouring into the emerging car manufacturing industry. Since 2020, the new car head companies Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile have hoarded more than 30 billion yuan of capital respectively, and will carry out all-round investment and layout in the fields of talents, chips, intelligent and power technology, offline sales and service channels, charging and replacing facilities, and overseas markets. Even if the technology giants build cross-border cars, there is not much time left.

Coupled with the changing direction of the international wind, Xiaomi can make cars faster.