Xiaomi is a giant in the technology sector that currently markets a large number of different products. However, the Chinese company has not yet satisfied all its claims, it has an important pending account, and according to its own CEO it hopes to be able to fulfill it during the first half of 2024.
That pending account is as simple as it is ambitious, market your own car. As our regular readers will know, Xiaomi is not the first technology to be attracted to the automotive sector, Apple itself did the same years ago, although it is about a very complicated project that obviously requires a process of preparation, development and association that is not available to everyone.
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, has said, in this sense, that the mass production phase of his car will begin in the first half of 2024. If this deadline is met, the first units of said car should start to be available early in the second half of 2024. We do not have more details about it, but we can expect that it is a vehicle with an electric motorization, and that it represents an important bet at a technological level.
Following this announcement, the shares of the Chinese company rose 5.4%, which means that it was very well received by shareholders. For its part, Xiaomi commented that it was going to commit to investing 10 billion dollars in a new division focused on electric cars, a movement that they will execute in the next ten years.
Interesting, and a successful move by the Chinese giant, although we still have some doubts to resolve. Of all of them, the most important is related to the mass production of that first electric car: Will Xiaomi do it on its own or through a partnership with a third party? I think that, given the difficulty this represents, the most profitable (and probable) for Xiaomi would be to partner with a third party to produce its cars. It would not be the first to do so, Apple has already tried it with Hyundai.
We will be attentive to see how this goal evolves in the coming years, but it is clear that the automotive industry is going to undergo a major change, not only for technification and electrification, but also by the entry into the market of players such as Apple and Xiaomi.
