Xiaomi recently shared its plan to enter into the electric vehicle segment. Within months after announcing it, the company has shared its grand ambitions. Xiaomi, one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturing companies, has said that its EV factory will have an output capacity of up to 300,000 vehicles. The company has plans to build a factory in Beijing. According to reports, the plant will be built in two phases. Xiaomi is hopeful of starting production of EVs in this factory as early as 2023. It is planning to launch EVs in the market by 2024. The smartphone manufacture will also set up its electric vehicle headquarters in Beijing. Apart from this, it will also have a research and sales division The company also has plans to use the strong presence of its retail stores to sell cars. However, all these things are at a very nascent stage and there are very few details related to the Xiaomi car that are available at the moment. There is no information available about the initial models of the vehicle as well as how the company is planning to expand.
The mobile company has plans to the equivalent of USD 10 billion in the EV division. It would invest the amount over the period of 10 years but has not shared information related to this. But Xiaomi has indicated that it would like to be among the mainstream EV manufacturer. Also, it has plans to compete with both the Chinese rivals as well foreign automakers that have a significant share in the EV market. The one which it will target the most is Elon Musk’s Tesla. Some of the prominent Chinese rivals are Nio and Xpeng. Xiaomi has already completed the paperwork for its EV unit. It finished the business registration process of EV unit in late August this year. It is important to mention that the smartphone company had acquired an autonomous driving focused startup known as Deepmotion earlier this year. It is reportedly planning to launch a subsidiary soon with the intention of further increasing the pace of the project.
As per a report, more than 500 employees of the research and development team of the company are working on the EV project. There are around 14,000 employees who work for the R&D wing. It must be noted that there are several other tech companies in China that have signaled their intentions to enter into the EV market. Alternatively, they are entering into partnerships with existing carmakers in order to develop some new driving technologies. Baidu, a Beijing-based technology company, has already announced that it would launch an electric car business. The company, which specializes in internet-related services, announced this in January. Alibaba, the e-commerce giant of China, has even formed an electric vehicle joint venture with SAIC. Moreover, ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing has joined hands with automaker BYD to make electric vehicles. According to reports, the EVs would be specifically designed for the services of Didi.
