As the EV segment holds promising prospects for those in the automobile manufacturing industry, we are witnessing manufacturing companies not traditionally into automobiles, enter this field. Just recently we had reports of the tech giant Apple coming up with its first electric car. And now it is yet another smartphone manufacturer, the Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi. The automobile segment is not the first non-mobile domain that the company has stepped its foot into. Second only to Samsung, it is a large producer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, and household items.
Xiaomi first EV: launch dates
Earlier this year, Xiaomi declared that its first-ever all-electric car would come to the market in 2026. However, Lei Jun, the founder, and CEO of Xiaomi has been seen spending two-thirds of his productive time at the Xiaomi Auto headquarters and has now confirmed that Xiaomi will have its car out by the first quarter of 2024. This news, as confirmed by Gizmochina, came out on China’s popular social media platform, Weibo.
Xiaomi has already established a separate subsidiary that would look into the designing, developing, and manufacturing of its electric cars; and it would be directed by Lei Jun himself. The team working on the company’s upcoming car is from HVST Automobile Design which we know as the one that came out with the Maven concept car for WM Motor.
Lei Jun would reveal the prototype at a public event this coming August. This would soon be followed by the company carrying out the first road tests for the car including the winter tests. The marketing campaign for Xiaomi’s first EV would soon begin once the prototype is out. Xiaomi’s Auto manufacturing plant would spring up in Yizhuang which, according to plan, would also house the company’s R&D center. When the plant functions full-throttle, it would have the capacity to manufacture 300,000 cars per year.
