There are still about two years left, before Xiaomi’s first electric car will be released. For this product, we have been concerned about its configuration and price. In the cell phone industry, Xiaomi’s products have been adhering to the concept of high-cost performance, but in the car industry, can Xiaomi still adhere to the high-cost performance route? A few days ago, “Late Auto” reported that Xiaomi’s first electric car is a sedan and will be equipped with LIDAR from Woosai Technology.
When it comes to LIDAR, most people who know the industry will have the word “expensive” in mind, indeed, the high cost of LIDAR, the car equipped with it is usually more expensive, and the cheapest LIDAR models are also more than RMB 200,000.
Xiaomi, which is famous for its cost performance, did not choose the industry favorite Luminar LIDAR, but chose the domestic industry giant Woosai Technology, is it to try to reduce costs?
Here it comes! Wo Sai Lidar
Some time ago a certain car company was on Weibo hot search because the automatic braking function of their product did not take effect, and it ran straight into the accident vehicle parked in front. It is the car company’s pot that the automatic braking did not work, but it is not entirely the car company’s pot, which is related to the characteristics of radar.
The car commonly used radar is divided into ultrasonic radar, millimeter wave radar, and lidar three, ultrasonic radar has high accuracy, but detection range is small, so usually used for collision warning, backing radar, etc., the other two radar because of the detection range is far, so usually used for automatic cruise assistance, automatic braking.
Most of the common smart cars on the market today only have millimeter wave radar. Millimeter wave radar is not unable to identify static objects but is too sensitive to metal, so it is likely to treat billboards and traffic lights in front as obstacles, resulting in ghost braking. Therefore, car companies simply filter the signals reflected back from static objects (static clutter filtering), which leads to smart cars not being able to brake automatically when facing static objects instead.
LIDAR is currently the best comprehensive performance of radar, and can accurately identify dynamic and static objects, however, the costs tens of thousands of dollars each, but car companies are not willing to afford it, so most of the cars on the market equipped with LIDAR are not expensive. As for the cooperation with Xiaomi Wo Sai technology, the product price is certainly not low.
When the new power of car-making flocked to the car, lidar companies also came one after another, they may be born later than overseas lidar companies, but in this competitive land in China, but at a very fast pace of growth.
According to the “LIDAR in Automotive and Industrial 2022 Report” published by research firm Yole, Woosai Technology’s LIDAR has achieved first place in the world in terms of the number of front-mounted mass production fixed points for ADAS and first place in the world in terms of L4 autonomous driving radar assembly and is far ahead of the second place Waymo. the agency also predicts that 200,000 pieces of LIDAR will be assembled in cars in 2022, of which 20% of the share is from Hoser Technology, ranking second in the world.
What’s more, the transmitter driver chip and receiver analog front-end chip developed by Hosai Technology have been mass-produced, eliminating the need to purchase chips from Texas Instruments and ADENO Semiconductor, which not only shows the technical strength but also reduces part of the cost. In the competition with Velodyne, the world’s No.1 LIDAR company, Woosai Technology’s products have no inferior performance in all aspects and price advantage and join hands with Speedy Polytron to finally force Velodyne out of the Chinese market.
However, Wo Sai Technology is also facing some problems, that is, its own volume is too small, but the investment in research and development is too high, and the capital reserve is a problem. Previously, Hersa Technology had applied for a listing in North America through SPAC, but the listing was terminated due to consecutive years of losses. Now, WoSai Technology needs the support of car companies to have funds to continue research and development.
In the cell phone industry, Xiaomi is a supporter of domestic components, and the Redmi K50 Ultra released some time ago, is equipped with Huaxing Optoelectronics and Tianma domestic screens. These companies understand that sourcing parts from overseas may be a little more cost-effective than domestic products in the short term, but in the long term, it is certainly not as good as growing up with your own business.
Xiaomi car and Wo Sai technology cooperation, on the one hand, the latter’s technical strength, on the other hand, is also to support domestic enterprises. Just with Wo Sai Technology’s LIDAR, it means that the selling price of the Xiaomi car will definitely not be low, and it is estimated to be around 300,000 yuan.
Cost-effectiveness tradition, millet will not be discarded
Any car company has the heart to impact the high-end, even Nezha Motors, which claims to bring a 300,000 yuan car experience in a 100,000 yuan car, has launched a model priced at RMB 300,000 or more. Xiaomi has continued to hit the high end in the cell phone sector, but the results have not been great. The reason for this is that Xiaomi initially positioned itself as a high-cost-performance company, with phones that were highly configurable but relatively inexpensive, and the image of Xiaomi in the minds of consumers was already set.
Now in the car industry, Xiaomi learned the lessons in the field of cell phones, it seems to be intended to go directly to the high-end route, which can be from the high-end to low-end development, which will be much easier. What worries consumers is that Xiaomi will give up the price/performance route, and what its overall configuration will be like.
The first Xiaomi electric car configuration has been exposed to not much news, according to the price, you can refer to the Azera ET5. Azera ET5 is a medium to large coupe, size and Xiaomi electric car is estimated not too much difference, in central control, power, interior, audio, range, and other configurations, and Azera ET5 will have a gap, but should not be too big, the car is not so valued cost-effective, but also would not say that the cost is not important.
In fact, if you compare the car for around RMB 300,000, you will find that the ideal, Azure and other car companies, a lot higher than the BBA configuration, this is because the Azure, ideal brand value has not yet caught up with the BBA, so it also needs to cost-effective to attract consumers. It is true that hundreds of thousands of yuan of cars, the cost has not been so important, drive a Mercedes-Benz, BMW out, certainly more than many domestic cars of the same price has faced, but not everyone is not concerned about the cost, after all, the face is false, driving comfort, is their own experience.
In the cell phone industry, Xiaomi is indeed very famous, and now has some brand value, but in the field of automotive, Xiaomi is a completely newcomer. Xiaomi just entered the impact of high-end, naturally, to come up with some sincerity, for consumers, the best sincerity is the low price and high configuration. Since the choice of impact on the high-end, the price must not be too low, then Xiaomi should be in the configuration to highlight its sincerity.
In addition, the electric car is the most worrying for consumers or range, because the charging time is too long. Car companies are through large batteries and fast charging as two solutions to solve the range problem, but not any place can find a fast-charging head, so the large battery has a more general purpose. Earlier, car companies have released models with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, but not many have been listed, and the cost is relatively high at this stage. Xiaomi car will be released in 2024 when the cost of large batteries should be reduced a bit, perhaps we can see in a variety of Xiaomi cars 1000 km long range.
All in all, despite the birth of Xiaomi cars on the impact of high-end, but will not forget the tradition of high-cost performance, Xiaomi needs to attract the first consumers through high-cost performance, playing Xiaomi car fame and brand value.
The 300,000 yuan Xiaomi car, rice fans are still willing to buy?
Xiaomi’s planning is very good, but there is a naked reality in front of you, priced at 300,000 yuan Xiaomi car, there will be consumers willing to buy? Not to mention the German triumvirate BBA, domestic car companies Azure, ideal, Xpeng car has been operating for many years to cultivate such a large audience, luxury car consumer groups would not have been much, Xiaomi can succeed?
It is difficult, but there is hope. The electric car industry has just emerged, and the stockpile is not too high. There are still many fuel car owners who plan to replace their cars with electric cars, and these people are potential consumers of Xiaomi cars. Secondly, Xiaomi and Redmi phone sales are mainly among young people, and many of the former Xiaomi phone users have already entered middle age and are starting to have some spending power.
Finally, the national attitude towards electric cars is very different from that toward fuel cars, because domestic car companies are half a century behind in the fuel car era, and it is difficult to catch up even with great effort. When Azure was first founded, there was a saying on the internet that electric cars would be the best time for domestic car companies to overtake the competition.
The global car sales figures now show that this statement is true, with BYD, Nezha, Weimar, and WeiXiaoLi all doing amazingly well, especially BYD, which is expected to sell around 1.6 million electric cars in 2022, catching up with the older car companies.
So to speak, the advent of the electric car era has greatly boosted the pride of domestic consumers, making them more willing to accept domestic cars and the environment in which domestic car companies find themselves is getting better and better. Xiaomi has met the best time, and with the popularity accumulated by the cell phone business, as long as the product quality is competitive, there is room for a big show in the future.
