After nearly a decade of testing, Apple finally gave up its efforts to produce electric vehicles last year, canceling a project that absorbs $10 billion.
However, last year in China, electronics manufacturer Xiaomi launched its first electric vehicle after just three years of development, delivering 135,000 vehicles. I vowed to double that number in 2025.
The ability to succeed if Xiaomi fails to show how thoroughly Apple has arrived that Apple has come to dominate the supply chain of electric vehicles. Chinese companies are learning to manufacture electric vehicles. By tapping on that infrastructure, Xiaomi was able to get components quickly and cheaply.
More Chinese electric car companies, including Leapmotor, Li Auto and Seres Group, are beginning to make profits after years of burning cash in fierce competition in the world's largest auto market.
Also, Xiaomi is not just a Chinese home appliance company that has branched out into electric vehicles. Telecommunications giant Huawei, which has long been targeting sanctions and legal action by the US government, is creating autonomous driving software. Huawei works with several Chinese automakers, including Seres Group and state-owned companies Saic Motor, Baic and Chery.
Xiaomi has been compared to Apple for a long time. They bet that rivals rushed to imitate, mainly online, including selling low-cost, highly designed mobile phones. For the launch of Xiaomi's first phone in 2011, its CEO Lei Jun was dressed like Jeans and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in a black shirt.
Xiaomi's first electric vehicle was announced last March. SU7 is Xiaomi's appliance program from the road, with 4-door sedan with artificial intelligence features to help you play movies for parking, passengers. Ray said it looks like a Porsche. But at $30,000, that's a quarter of the price.
Xiaomi manufactures all kinds of electronic equipment, from robot vacuum cleaners to air conditioners. The air conditioner is connected through the operating system and controlled by an app. The SU7 is, in a way, another gadget. Data collected from other devices can be used to determine the best time to charge your car's battery using data about the driver's daily routine.
“Xiaomi has really begun to sneak into your home,” said Gary Ng, an economist at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. “It's all linked and this is something other companies couldn't do.”
The SU7 has won just a small portion of the sales of China's top electric car manufacturers, but among Chinese companies Xiaomi is taking a major blow to the long command of foreign automakers on the Chinese market for premium cars. Since the SU7 was sold, Porsche delivery in China has dropped by nearly 30%.
Xiaomi, held in Beijing on Thursday night, released the high-end version of the Su7 Ultra, in addition to the premium version of the latest smartphone. The company staged a flashy teaser of the car by racing prototypes around the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany. There, Xiaomi said it set a record for the “fastest four-door sedan.”
According to a Chinese regulator's submission, Xiaomi will also release the Yu7, a sports utility vehicle this year.
Chinese electric car companies have benefited from billions of dollars in government support, which has helped them gain control of the supply chain, down to the minerals in the car's batteries. This early edge helped two Chinese and modern Ampelex Technology companies known as BYD and Modern Ampelex Technology companies (known as CATL) to add to the Pentagon's list of Chinese military companies in January to become the world's largest battery manufacturers.
Xiaomi has used this supply chain to its advantage. The car includes BYD and CATL batteries. By taking over the factory from the Beijing Automobile Group, production was soon able to begin. Construction workers in Beijing work 24 hours a day at the second factory.
All of this manufacturing capabilities have helped Chinese electric car companies move from development to production in much less time than traditional Chinese automakers, allowing them to focus on quickly bringing new models to market and creating software that can be updated continuously.
Fierce competition at home has led many Chinese automakers to flood the global auto market with affordable electric vehicles. Last year, BYD sold over 4 million new cars worldwide.
Qi Dongshu, executive director of the China Passenger Automobile Association, said it's only a matter of time before Xiaomi cars are on roads outside of China.
Xiaomi's popularity as a manufacturer of all kinds of appliances gave them a deep knowledge of the preferences of Chinese consumers. The SU7 was delivered, where buyers could go to Xiaomi's App Store and trick the car into obtaining accessories, such as a clock on an analog dashboard or a line of physical switches that attach to the touchscreen panel.
“The brand strength is that Xiaomi is ahead of many of its competitors,” said Tu Le, managing director of Consultancy Sino Auto Insights. “That's because it's not just a consumer product, it's an emotional product.”
