AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/20 Report--

According to 36 krypton reports, from investors close to Lei Jun and car executives and other people familiar with the matter learned that Xiaomi Group is rapidly promoting car building matters, the fastest is expected to be in 1-2 months project approval, preliminary discussion of brand positioning and Xiaopeng car similar, mainly strong technology attributes of the high-end market, the plan is directly responsible for Xiaomi veteran Wang Chuan.

According to the data, Wang Chuan joined Xiaomi Group in 2012. He is one of the co-founders of Xiaomi Group. He has successively taken charge of TV Department, Staff Department, China District and Household Appliances Department, and participated in the whole chain work such as product R & D, production, channel and sales. According to reports, Wang Chuan is exploring the automobile industry on behalf of Xiaomi Group, seeking talents, technology and factory manufacturing and other resources.

In the past year, there have been many rumors about Xiaomi's car building. The most recent occurred on February 19, a number of media reports said that Xiaomi Group has decided to build a car, and regard it as a strategic decision, the car-building project will be led by Xiaomi Group founder Lei Jun personally. On February 21, Xiaomi Group issued an announcement in response to the rumors of car building: "The Group has been paying attention to the development of electric vehicle ecology and conducting continuous evaluation and research on relevant industry trends. Xiaomi's research on electric vehicle manufacturing business has not yet reached the formal project stage."

Compared with the previous response, Xiaomi Group's response is less firm and has not substantially denied the rumors of car building. Xiaomi does intend to enter the development of the automobile industry, but it is still in the research and evaluation stage. As for whether to enter the development of the industry, there are certain variables.

Although Xiaomi is a well-known mobile phone manufacturer in China, it has a lot of layout in cars. In 2013, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi Group, flew to the United States twice to visit Musk. In 2014, Xiaomi invested in Kelid, a manufacturer of vehicle-mounted intelligent terminal equipment, and Ruimi, a developer of vehicle-mounted intelligent products; in 2015, Xiaomi Group began to apply for invention patents for automobile and IOT-related cruise control and vehicle control; in 2015 and 2016, Shunwei Capital under Lei Jun participated in investing in NIO and Xiaopeng, new forces of domestic car-making. In 2019, Xiaomi Group invested in Xiaopeng Automobile again.

In fact, it doesn't matter whether Xiaomi builds a car, what matters is whether it can build a car. However, as we all know, building mobile phones and building cars are completely different areas of development. Although Xiaomi has certain achievements in the mobile phone industry, it still faces many difficulties in entering the automobile industry. The first is the car-building mode, is it self-built, joint with traditional automobile enterprises to launch brands or traditional automobile enterprises contract production? The second is independent research and development capability, which is related to product competition. Secondly, brands, sales channels, etc. need to be rebuilt, which is obviously not an easy thing. Finally, in terms of products, it is well known that Xiaomi has always been proud of its "cost performance" in the mobile phone market, but the most lacking in the automobile market is the cost-effective models, including Changan, Geely, Great Wall, Chery, which have many cost-effective models. If you can't become an advantage in price, then you can only find another shortcut, and this shortcut is most likely to be "intelligent". However, from the current point of view, Xiaomi does not seem to have much action in terms of autonomous driving, and the related patents have little to do with autonomous driving.

At present, technology giants into the auto industry seems to have become the trend of the industry, as for why Xiaomi will be so "taboo" on car-building related rumors, it is likely that the company thinks it has not yet reached the critical moment to build a car. However, with the achievements made by new forces such as NIO, Xiaopeng and Ideal in the automobile field, car-building may become a trend, and large and small technology companies all hope to integrate into automobile manufacturing. As far as Xiaomi Group is concerned, it is certainly not groundless to spread car-building. It is only a matter of time before entering the bureau, and it is another problem whether a good car can be built.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat