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Recently, it has been reported that Xiaomi is close to being qualified for the production of new energy vehicles. Some media sought confirmation from the public relations department of Xiaomi Group, but the other side said they would not comment on the car-making business. However, a person familiar with Xiaomi told the media: "at present, it seems impossible to build a car in one or two days, one or two years, and it is still a long way from being qualified."

Looking back on the fact that Xiaomi has been building cars for nearly two years, Xiaomi Lei Jun also shouted out the declaration of fighting for Xiaomi cars, but the process of Xiaomi car building has been questioned. Earlier in 2021, it was reported that Xiaomi had acquired the production qualification of Bowo car and transferred the production capacity of 180000 Bowo cars to Xiaomi Automobile Project. At the same time, as the existing capacity of the Baowo automobile plant cannot meet Xiaomi's investment of as much as US $10 billion in the next four years, Xiaomi will select a site and build its own factory in Wuhan by acquiring existing production capacity and production qualifications. Adopt the "Beijing + Wuhan" dual-plant model to ensure a stable production capacity effect in the future. However, Xiaomi did not respond to the relevant reports at that time. It was then exposed that Xiaomi and BAIC had discussed the acquisition of factories and licenses to complete the acquisition of car manufacturing qualifications, but in the end there was no news.

In November 2022, there were media reports that Xiaomi's car-building was stopped. However, in response to the news, Xiaomi responded: Xiaomi's car project is progressing smoothly. On January 2 this year, Xiaomi's car-building was once again rumored to meet the hurdle. According to Weibo blogger "Liji" post said: Xiaomi car building difficulties, so far Xiaomi car brand has not been approved, has been included in the concept of capital disorderly expansion, may not be allowed to call Xiaomi car in the future, can only work for others. However, in response to the blogger's statement, Wang Hua, general manager of Xiaomi's public relations department, then forwarded the post on Weibo: the news is not true, there is no saying that the brand needs approval, and Xiaomi is progressing smoothly. Thank you for your attention.

At present, the new forces of car building can be divided into three ways to obtain vehicle production qualification: contract production, acquisition qualification and independent application qualification. For example, Xilai Automobile achieves the production of ES8 and other models through Jianghuai OEM, Xiaopeng Motor also uses Haima OEM in the early stage, and obtains production qualification through the acquisition of Guangdong Fudi Motors in the later stage. Ideal car obtains the production qualification through the acquisition of Lifan passenger car, while Nahu car applies for the production qualification independently. However, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the relevant national departments have gradually tightened the qualification for new energy production, and it has become very difficult to obtain the qualification for vehicle production.

At present, it is not known whether Xiaomi has obtained the qualification for the production of new energy vehicles, but its progress is still slow. Xiaomi's life is not easy at this stage, facing not only the huge cost of building cars, but also the decline of its main business. According to Xiaomi's Q3 financial report for 2022, revenue in the third quarter was 70.5 billion yuan, down 9.7% from a year earlier. The net profit in the third quarter was 2.117 billion yuan, down 59.1% from the same period last year. Smartphone revenue in the third quarter of 2022 was 42.5 billion yuan, down 11.1% from a year earlier. In the third quarter of 2022, the overall gross profit margin fell to 16.6% year-on-year, of which the smartphone gross margin fell from 12.8% to 8.9%. In addition, in order to build cars, Xiaomi cars have also invested huge costs. according to the third quarter of 2022, innovative businesses such as Xiaomi intelligent electric vehicles invested 829 million yuan, an increase of 35.68 percent over the second quarter. Xiaomi car-making business invested a total of 1.865 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year.

Lei Jun said again at Xiaomi investors' Day in February that Xiaomi's future goal is to enter the top five in the world within 15-20 years. Of course, it also responded to the question on the market whether Xiaomi was too late, saying that cars are a century-old racetrack, as long as you are optimistic about the auto industry, it is never too late. Lei Jun's goal is beautiful, but according to the current situation of Xiaomi, its main business has declined, which also makes the future of Xiaomi car-making uncertain.

Lei Jun has said that Xiaomi has tens of millions of loyal fans and users in China, and as long as 1% of them are willing to give Xiaomi a chance, Xiaomi cars can get off to a fantastic start. However, as we all know, the car manufacturing industry belongs to long cycle, large investment and high barriers. It takes at least 4-5 years for a car to develop from market research to production and manufacturing, and there will be no return during the research and development period. Later successful listing still needs market testing. For Xiaomi, if it can not be mass-produced and delivered as soon as possible to achieve scale effect, the risk it will face is huge.

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