Xiaomi Officially Registers its Electric Vehicle Business 

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has officially registered its electric vehicle business and said the division has entered a “substantial development phase,” the company said. The name of the subsidiary is Xiaomi EV, Inc. and it was set up with a previously announced registered capital of 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion).

Just the drive technology for electric passenger vehicles is not the only area of interest for the Chinese technology specialist: Xiaomi is busy building up staff for its automotive business. Notably, Lei Jun posted a job ad via his Weibo account for the company’s autonomous driving business unit at the end of July, intending to enlist 500 technicians for in-house developed Level 4 smart driving capability. The new division is planned to cost around $10 billion USD over the next ten years as well.

In March, the Beijing-headquartered firm announced plans to launch an electric car business and invest $10 billion over the next decade. Xiaomi EV now has 300 employees, the company said, and the business is led by the group’s founder and CEO Lei Jun.

Xiaomi has also been buying up other companies to “enhance the technological competitiveness” of its electric vehicle business, such as the acquisition of DEEPMOTION TECH, a Beijing-based startup, for $77.37 million in late August. The company focuses digital mapping technology, which will be used for autonomous drive development.

Xiaomi said its electric vehicle team has “conducted a massive amount of user research” in the last five months. It has also visited industry partners while “pressing ahead with the EV product definition and team formation,” and the business has yet to unveil a car.

Xiaomi, known for its smartphones and other internet-connected hardware, is jumping into an incredibly crowded space in China among start-ups like Nio and Xpeng as well established players including Tesla and Warren Buffett-backed BYD, a Chinese automaker.