News hardware Electric car: Xiaomi arrives on the car market to put pressure on Tesla and Elon Musk
Xiaomi, the Chinese company with multiple activities, is still looking for new markets in which to establish itself. Widely known for its electric scooters, the firm now seems to be officially committing a little more to mobility.
Xiaomi: diversify to better reign
Xiaomi is a bit like a Swiss army knife. The Chinese firm does everything and does it, to tell the truth, rather well. Since its creation in 2010, the Tech giant has only expanded its product catalog. Electric scooter, smartphone, hair dryer, electric razor, nail clipper and even vacuum cleaner, Xiaomi has something to meet the needs of almost everyone.
To realize the growing brand awareness, just look at the sales figures for smartphones, since in 2021, Xiaomi has become the second largest manufacturer in the world behind Samsung and ahead of Apple (just that). In addition, the Chinese giant is also a juggernaut when it comes to the sale of electric scootersthe brand was indeed one of the first to ride the wave and has been offering excellent quality products for several years.
As we explained it to you a few weeks agoXiaomi intends to engage more intensively in the mobility market. After the electric scooters, the Chinese manufacturer will therefore indeed launch into the production of an electric car. And according to the information of NotebookCheckthis new vehicle could officially land in 2024.
Xiaomi attacking Tesla?
Remember, we are in March 2021 and Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi, announces between two presentations of smartphones, that the Chinese manufacturer will start producing cars “zero pollution”. For this project, we know that the company has invested no less than $10 billion. A staggering sum which proves that Lei Jun and his teams do not take this project lightly and intend to impose their trademark in the automotive industry.
But a few months ago, we thought that this project “Mi Car” (code name) had taken lead in the wing because of the Chinese laws on the production of high-end products. But this is not the only brake, since negotiations with the Beijing Automotive Group Co (BAIC) – Chinese car manufacturer – for the production of the vehicle never came to fruition. So many problems that caused a delay in the deadlines that Xiaomi had set itself.
All this imbroglio therefore pushed the manufacturer to take the decision to open its own production plant in China. to manufacture its vehicles as explained NotebookCheck. With this program change, Xiaomi still hopes to be able to releasing its very first electric car in 2024 at a significantly lower price compared to Tesla Models, since the “Mi Car” could cost less than 30,000 euros.
Since Xiaomi entered the EV industry 500 days ago, our autonomous driving team has assembled more than 500 members, planned to invest RMB3.3 billion in the first R&D phase, and committed to self-developing full stack algorithms. We aim to become an industry leader in 2024. pic.twitter.com/sRaRJ6t0uk
— leijun (@leijun) August 11, 2022
In addition, we also learn a little more about the characteristics that this vehicle could display. Still according to NotebookCheckthis vehicle would be equipped with an autonomous driving system named Xiaomi Pilot. If rumors are to be believed, this system could even compete with Tesla’s Autopilot. What is certain is that Xiaomi does not hide its ambitions since the manufacturer wants to become a pillar in technologies related to autonomous driving by 2024. It remains to be seen whether the Chinese giant will be able to offer a vehicle that matches its electric scooters in terms of quality.