After Great Wall is BYD. Who will Xiaomi eventually choose to make friends with when building cars? Will you go it alone?
As one of the world's largest smartphone providers, rumors of Xiaomi building cars have always been loud, but Xiaomi has always denied the rumors of building cars. It was previously reported that Xiaomi will cooperate with Great Wall Motors to launch smart electric vehicles, and the two parties are currently negotiating the specific details of the cooperation. Not only that, Xiaomi is also reported to have partnered with Great Wall Motors to launch young people’s first smart electric car! The news is completely different. For a while, I not only believed in netizens, but also in the capital market. Affected by this news, Great Wall Motor's Hong Kong stock rose by 10%, Great Wall Motor's A shares rose, and Xiaomi Group rose by 7.3%.
While netizens were asking questions such as "When will Xiaomi smart cars be launched?" and "How much will they cost?", Xu Jieyun, deputy director of Xiaomi Group, spread "this is a completely nonsense rumor" on social platforms. Subsequently, Great Wall Motors also issued an announcement to clarify the rumors of cooperating with Xiaomi to produce electric vehicles, saying that the reports were not true and that Great Wall Motors had not negotiated with Xiaomi regarding the above-mentioned news reports. In fact, the news about Xiaomi building a car is not a rumor without any factual basis. Since 2014, Xiaomi has applied for 9 patents related to the automotive field, including cruise ships, driving assistance, and Xiaomi mobile phone NFC car keys. In addition to this, Xiaomi plans to invest in 2015. In the following years, Xiaopeng also invested twice. Various signs indicate Xiaomi's determination to enter the automotive field, but the form and path it will take to cross-border the automotive industry in the future is still uncertain and there may be variables.
The shipbuilding industry is undergoing tremendous changes. Since 2020, the valuations of new energy vehicle companies have risen sharply, and the development prospects of the new energy vehicle field are also very clear. Previously, Tesla CEO Musk became the richest man in the world in one fell swoop. Everyone envied him. No wonder Lei Jun was not impressed? Just like Geshan, it is not easy for Xiaomi to enter the automotive field. After all, there is a big difference between the automotive industry and the mobile phone manufacturing industry. If you want to develop in the automotive field, you must invest tens of billions of huge assets in the early stage. However, Xiaomi's performance in its own field is not ideal now, and the initial investment has already been This has brought a lot of pressure to Xiaomi.
In addition, the automotive industry has very high requirements for product quality, performance, and reliability. In the past, Xiaomi was able to stand out in the mobile phone manufacturing industry because of cost-effective product positioning and online marketing methods, but these did not seem to be of any benefit to the automotive industry. Not only that, Xiaomi does not have its own factory. To implement the car-building plan, you need to find your own foundry. Apple, which is a strong competitor to Xiaomi, has yet to find its own foundry, which is not easy for Xiaomi. Will Xiaomi cooperate with Great Wall to manufacture electric cars? The official response is here
For Xiaomi, choosing to build a car itself is a big challenge, so it is not surprising that Xiaomi will take every step thereafter very carefully. Although the cooperation between Xiaomi and Great Wall Motors was officially revealed to be false news, both parties also benefited from rising stock prices based on this news. The possibility of future cooperation between the two parties may also be a bad thing, but in the end, the entire network is looking forward to that "young people's first electric car."