The plans of Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, continue according to plan. We were counting that in the third quarter the prototype of the automobile division, founded back in September, would be presented. Well, it will be specified in August, reports Sina Technology News. There will be a public event that will be broadcast live on the Internet.
A “deep throat” informed the Chinese media that after the presentation, the prototype will carry out a series of road tests, so we are talking about a functional vehicle. The first climatic tests will be the winter ones, and the calendar is very tight, they intend to mass produce in the first half of 2024, and it is not that far away.
Lei Jun will spend most of his energies on Xiaomi’s electric car project, spending more time in the Xiaomi Auto office building. The company announced at the time that it will have four models, two of them in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, and another two above, from 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. The range of prices in euros would be from 21,688 to 43,375, at the exchange rate.
Xiaomi will do everything possible to meet the deadlines so that there are no delays. Within three years (2027) they intend to have reached 900,000 units, a meteoric growth for a new factory. Given that the capacity of the new Beijing plant will be 300,000 units per year, the deadlines are very tight.
Many things can go wrong, and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, knows a lot about it: “prototyping is easy, but mass production is hard”. The supply crisis has not ended, nor has the crisis in raw materials, nor has COVID been eradicated (in China there are radical closures with few cases), and there may be quality problems. Even veteran manufacturers have problems. Xiaomi’s forecast is very optimistic.
The young manufacturer is hiring public relations staff, a previous step to communicating the news that is taking place. Previously, technical profiles have been incorporated into the company. Lei Jun vowed to launch an “intelligent electric vehicle” on the market, and such is his bid that it will put his reputation at risk. In addition to the CEO, he is the founder of Xiaomi.
