Recently, the topic of “Lei Jun said he was financially free at the age of 37” has been on the top of the hot search. The accompanying “Xiaomi’s decision to build a car was a forced decision” has also attracted a high degree of attention. For the Xiaomi Group, whose share price continues to be in the doldrums, “building a car” is a concept that can attract investors’ continued attention. Recently, ST Shuguang took 18 stops in 22 trading days with rumors of a Xiaomi takeover.
ST Shuguang shares soared behind and also exposed investors’ concerns about Xiaomi’s car-making qualifications. So, how far away from mass production is the “forced out” Xiaomi car?
Xiaomi car making is “forced out of the decision”?
On September 15, CCTV released the “Genting Dialogue – Lei Jun” pilot film, Lei Jun said in an interview that the reason for founding Xiaomi is actually very simple, after leading Jinshan to complete the IPO, he semi-retired for three or four years, in the investment circle is also considered to be a “wind and water”, at the age of 37 he was financially free but remembered the book that he read when he was 18 years old The Fire of Silicon Valley”, hoping to start a technology company to influence the world.
When talking about Xiaomi’s moves into the automotive field over the past few years, Lei Jun said, “At this moment, the wind is in the smart electric car, because this has become a fusion of the automotive industry and consumer electronics, if you don’t do it, you’re out of date, so Xiaomi building a car is a decision that was forced out.”
“If this is a decision forced out, it is also Lei Jun’s own will forcing him to take action sooner himself. Lei Jun’s personal speech in 2022 revealed his regret for missing the Internet windfall at that time.” According to industry sources. Mobile Internet era of the smartphone windfall, Lei Jun and Xiaomi enjoyed the windfall brought dividends; however, the lack of innovation and sales of cell phones downward, but also let Lei Jun feel the crisis of “lagging behind”. Therefore, with the initial regret and now the sense of crisis, Lei Jun was “forced” to the wind of new energy vehicles.
And Lei Jun’s car progress also shows that this “forced out of the decision”, is what he wants to do. According to Xiaomi’s fiscal year 2021 statement, the size of Xiaomi’s car research and development team has exceeded 1,000 people, and the first car will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
For the timing of entering the field of new energy vehicles, Lei Jun’s view is consistent with that of smartphones, that is, when the relevant industry windfall is formed, the relevant industry chain supports the maturity of entry. On September 9, Lei Jun posted on social media, “Tesla entered the electric car industry more than 10 years earlier than Xiaomi, some people think that Xiaomi has missed the time window to enter the electric car industry. In this regard, I disagree, the game has just begun, and I think Xiaomi still has many opportunities.”
It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi Auto has also become one of the few highlights of Xiaomi Group that can currently stimulate investors’ enthusiasm for Xiaomi stock. Since hitting a new high price of 35.9 yuan/share on January 5, 2021, Xiaomi shares have fallen all the way to about 10 yuan/share so far. A new 2-year low was set. In today’s consumer electronics downturn, the Xiaomi Group is also in dire need of the concept of “cars” to boost its share price.
Behind ST Shuguang’s soaring share price: Xiaomi’s car-making factory problem comes to the fore
Interestingly, companies related to Xiaomi’s car manufacturing have been hotly speculated in the secondary market recently. on the evening of September 13, Liaoning Shuguang Automobile Group Co. Since August 12, the stock price rose 115.34% in 23 trading days. Subsequently, the SSE issued a regulatory letter, and ST Dawning began to suspend trading on September 15.
On September 15, ST Shuguang told the media that the rumors were not true. After verification, the company’s board of directors confirmed that there is no other material information that should be disclosed but not disclosed, including but not limited to major asset restructuring, share issuance, acquisition of listed companies, debt restructuring, business restructuring, asset divestment, and asset injection and other material matters.
However, the rumors also reveal Xiaomi’s current predicament: self-built factories, may not be too late to achieve mass production in the first half of 2024; the purchase of production qualifications from other car factories is too expensive, and the money spent is not worth it, etc.
“In fact, from the announcement of Xiaomi to build a car, there are constant rumors about which car brand or factory Xiaomi is going to acquire to get the qualification and factory to build a car, these may not all be rumors, some may really be talking about.” Industry insiders pointed out that there is no shortage of Evergrande Auto, Baohuo Auto, ST Shuguang, BAIC, etc.
For Xiaomi’s current predicament, the source believes that “Xiaomi will still insist on building its own factory, and most likely will not acquire the way to get the qualification to build a car, but mainly apply for the qualification by itself. In order to acquire a car qualification, spend a lot of money to get a factory that has not been used for several years, and may even come with a large number of employees who are not poorly paid and whose ability is not guaranteed, as well as potential debt. This money is not worth spending, and with the current form of development of the cell phone industry, Lei Jun and Xiaomi can not afford to spend this money.”
If not through acquisition, then how to build a car qualification to solve it?
“Xiaomi is definitely trying to build its own factory and successfully take the qualification. Finish the factory construction on schedule, promote the first car design, release and pre-sale, to comply with the regulations to get a license. Although there are more restrictions now, for Xiaomi, the factory, production capacity, technology and other aspects can meet the standard, and production qualification can still be obtained.” A car company source said.
And Xiaomi has the support of the Beijing Economic Development Zone behind it. Xiaomi car project is following Xiaomi technology in Beijing Economic Development Zone completed and put into operation Xiaomi intelligent factory, again layout major projects. At that time, Beijing Economic Development Zone announced that it would make all efforts to provide good protection services for the Xiaomi Auto project, promote the early start of the project and put it into production as soon as possible, and build an industrial ecology in collaboration with the linkage, so as to build Xiaomi Auto into a national brand of new energy vehicles with global influence.
“Now there are nearly 2 years from the previously scheduled time, in case we really can’t get the production qualification by then, it’s too late to start acquiring the qualified factory at the right time. It took only about 40 days from the completion of the plant and the arrival of the equipment to the launch of the first Ola. After the qualification, even if Xiaomi’s first car may not be so fast, but do enough to prepare, a few months should be enough time.” The aforementioned person added.
When the “young people’s first car” mass production will determine whether Lei Jun’s last venture to bet his entire fortune can be successful; and in the context of the smartphone market downturn, Xiaomi car can save the current Xiaomi sluggish share price has also become a topic of great concern to investors.
