Electronics firm Xiaomi aims to sell 10 million electric vehicles a year, said Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun according to Car News China. The Xiaomi Group has invested US$115.9 million (RM517.5 million) in innovative businesses, which includes electric vehicles, according to the group’s financial report for the third quarter of this year.
Car News China also cites Chinese social media as saying that a Xiaomi prototype vehicle has been produced at the end of September, internally dubbed MS11. This has been said to use 800V technology, while its powertrain produces 354 hp.
The company’s founder and CEO wrote on Twitter that he foresees the world’s top five brands holding more than 80% market share in the electric vehicle segment, adding that the only way for Xiaomi to be part of said top five is to sell more than 10 million vehicles annually.
Many Xiaomi Fans are curious about Xiaomi EV and our thoughts on it. In fact, before we entered the EV market, we conducted thorough research and gained deep insights into the EV industry. Now I’d like to share some of my visions from back then.
— Lei Jun (@leijun) October 19, 2022
In his Twitter thread, Lei Jun did not specify when Xiaomi will attain that annual sales volume, however that target is a long way up from the figure reported in an earlier report by Reuters from November last year, which said that the appliances and electronics giant will build a manufacturing plant in Beijing with an annual capacity of 300,000 units.
Lei Jun also said that the manufacturing threshold for EVs has been ‘dramatically lowered’ compared to internal combustion-powered vehicles, with the cost of batteries having dropped by 80% in the past 10 years, and with at least 50% more room for cost reduction in the future, his commments continued.
Prior to that, Xiaomi was reported to be in collaboration with Great Wall for the production of electric vehicles, with sources at the time saying that the EVs will be badged under the Xiaomi brand, and these will be aimed at the mass market.
As for Great Wall Motors (GWM), it was reported in December 2020 to have planned to introduce a standalone electric vehicle brand at higher price points than before. It already has the Ora brand for more affordable EVs which brought the Ora Good Cat to Thailand last February, and which was previewed in December 2021. This EV hatchback will be officially launched in Malaysia next week.
