Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is ready to roll out the red carpet for their new electric car brand, Xiaomi EV. At an investor event today, the company announced that they will begin manufacturing their first electric car in the first half of 2024.
They are expected to release a new model in each of the following three years.
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Xiaomi the money
It’s no secret that Xiaomi has been hard at work on their EV project.
In March, Xiaomi committed to investing $10 billion into a new electric car subsidiary over the next decade.
A few months later, Xiaomi acquired autonomous driving firm Deepmotion for an estimated $77.37 million to bolster its EV division.
In September, Xiaomi finished the business registration of their subsidiary, calling it Xiaomi EV, Incorporated.
With today’s announcement that Xiaomi EV is not only ahead of schedule, but that they are less than three years away from launching their first vehicle, Xiaomi’s shares rose 5.2% to HK$22.50. This is the largest daily percentage leap since May.
Where Xiaomi EV goes from here
At today’s investor event, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun made an interesting comment.
He basically said that, as electric cars are transforming from a mechanical industry to an information industry, Xiaomi’s failure to participate in this widespread EV movement would result in its irrelevance.
Xiaomi is already one of the leading names in smartphone technologies. They also make smart home and smart office products, so they have lots of experience with device ecosystem-esque integration.
In event coverage from cnevpost, Lei Jun said that he believes that this existing “smart ecology” could lead to “extreme expansion potential if well integrated with electric cars.”
Xiaomi is clearly all-in on their Xiaomi EV electric car business. The fact that they believe it to be an integral part of their company’s survival says a lot.
We look forward to hearing more about their first car in the coming months.