If you follow tech news, you will probably associate Xiaomi with smartphones but that is about to change. According to Reuters, the company is planning to make electric vehicles.
Xiaomi may be popular for phones but the company is also into mobile apps, laptops, scooters and home appliances. The product roster is about to add a significant item.
Per reports, Xiaomi is engaging Great Wall Motors to bring this goal into reality. Great Wall Motors is an established named in the auto industry, with more than thirty years of manufacturing SUVs, pickups, etc. Xiaomi will use Great Wall’s production facilities to make the car under the Xiaomi brand. Great Wall will also contribute its engineering expertise to make the project executed faster.
Great Wall on its own part has dabbled into electric vehicles, even releasing a concept but there has been no real product to show for it.
Xiaomi’s electric vehicle is targeted at the mass market, more like the company has been doing with its phones and electronics. The first electric vehicle can be expected in 2023, still according to Reuters.
Xiaomi will not be the first smartphone or internet related business to be linked with electric cars. Apple has been rumored to be partnering with traditional auto makers to make a car, while Baidu, Chinese search giant has said it wants to make electric vehicles using Geely plants. Huawei, another Chinese company, has also been associated with electric vehicles.
It would make business sense for Xiaomi to diversify its product lineup has profit margins on its smartphones are low.
Confirmation of this news bit however has arrived as the company said in its recent exchange filing that it is investing $10 billion in making electric cars. Plans are serious enough for a new unit dedicated to smart vehicle to have been created. It will be headed by Lei Jun, co-founder of Xiaomi. Lei had been involved in a study of the potentials of the electronic vehicle industry, Bloomberg reports. It also states that recruitment for the software side of the business has started already.
Xiaomi had risen to the top of the smartphone industry in about a decade. If the success can be replicated in this proposed venture, the global electronic vehicle landscape is about to get more interesting.