Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi is expecting to mass-produce its own electric vehicles in the first half of 2024, its CEO Lei Jun said on Tuesday. The comments were made during the company’s investor day and confirmed later in a post by the CEO on China’s Twitter-like service Weibo. Zang Ziyuan, a director in Xiaomi’s international marketing department, also shared the development on his verified Weibo account.
In March, Xiaomi announced its entrance into the electric car race and said it plans to invest $10 billion into the business over the next 10 years. Last month, Xiaomi officially registered its electric vehicle business Xiaomi EV, Inc. Xiaomi EV now has 300 employees, the company said in September.
Lei leads the group. China’s electric vehicle market is getting more and more crowded, with the entry of new players. Chinese search giant Baidu launched a standalone electric car company in January and in February hired a CEO for that business.
Xiaomi has not yet hinted at the type of electric vehicles it will produce in the new business. Though it is likely that the company will aim to produce affordable electric vehicles for its home country, China, and other international markets.
When Xiaomi officially launches an electric car, it will face off against its Chinese rivals like Nio and Xpeng as well as larger automakers like Elon Musk’s Tesla and BYD. China’s electric vehicle market has had favorable government support over the last few years which helped the industry grow. While some of that support has been reduced, the market is still growing.
Market research firm Canalys forecasts 1.9 million electric vehicles will be sold in China in 2021, growing 51% year on year.
The company even purchased autonomous driving technology startup Deepmotion for a sum of over $77 million. The acquisition is meant to help Xiaomi in its research and development efforts. Xiaomi is not the only tech company planning to capture the EV market. Various reports have suggested that even Apple might be working on its electric car.
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