Xiaomi's R&D investment in the first car exceeded 10 billion
Su Bingtian once asked Lei Jun in the Xiaomi column**: "As an entrepreneur, have you ever thought about retirement?"Lei Jun said that entrepreneurs will definitely retire, but entrepreneurs will not retire, because entrepreneurship is an attitude towards life. ”
Nearly three years after announcing the second venture to build a car, Lei Jun, a 54-year-old model worker in the Internet industry who has not yet retired, is also about to reap new results. Xiaomi Auto will be launched next year, and the overall preparations for its launch are also gradually advancing.
Source: Screenshot from the program "Lei Jun Invites You to Super Cup".
In the recently aired CCTV "Face to Face" program,Lei Jun revealed that we invested 3,400 engineers in our first car, and the entire R&D investment exceeded 10 billion, and we used more than 10 times the investment. Anyway, I did it the way I wanted to go.
Lei Jun said that he thinks Xiaomi has many natural advantages in making cars, because the essence of today's smart electric vehicles is the integration of the consumer electronics industry, which is a big integration, so entering the automotive industry is a challenge for Xiaomi, and the overall difficulty is controllable.
Source: Screenshot from CCTV's "Face to Face" program.
Of course, Lei Jun also admitted that it was quite difficult to decide to build a cross-border car three years ago, but he still had enough awe to do some user research. After the investigation, Lei Jun set a principle, called "keeping the right and surprising".
The so-called "integrity" means fully respecting the laws of the automotive industry, ensuring that the first car can be done well, and innovating under this premise.
Our second strategy is called "10x the investment". For example, the average car company invests about three or four hundred people to make a car, about 1 billion or 2 billion R&D funds, and many car manufacturers invest so much money in their cars.
Although he is building a car with the mentality of ambition, Lei Jun is not not anxious, he is worried that everyone will not buy it, and he is afraid that the car will sell too hot. When asked "what would you like this car to come out, what feedback did you get and did you expect it?".”
Lei Jun said, I definitely have expectations, but the car is indeed very complicated, I am particularly worried that it will not be popular, and everyone will not buy it, you must be very worried about this;What's more worrying is that if everyone comes to buy it, it will take a year or two to wait, and they will definitely be scolded miserably, which is actually a variety of very anxious emotions.
Regarding the news that Xiaomi Auto's R&D investment exceeded 10 billion, some netizens said, "R&D investment exceeds 10 billion, so how many cars do you need to sell to earn back the R&D expenses?".During the period, there were netizens speculating about the new car.
In addition, talking about donating 1.3 billion yuan to his alma mater not long ago, Lei Jun said that he won a lot of scholarships when he was studying at Wuhan University, and he basically relied on scholarships and helping teachers do projects to support himself in four years of college. This time he donated to his alma mater, and Lei Jun positioned it as a trip to repay his wishes.
Lei Jun said that once I got a scholarship with a lot of money, and at the award ceremony, when I stood on the stage, I was thinking, one day I have the ability, I will definitely pay it back 100 times or even 10,000 times.
Xiaomi cars have entered the sprint stage
Since getting the "birth permit" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Xiaomi Auto has also attracted special attention from the outside world, and news about **, press conference time, etc.
In November this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the information on the declared models of Xiaomi automobiles, with a total of SU7 and SU7 MAX two models and SU7, SU7 PRO, SU7 MAX three tail marks, which are pure electric cars, the product trademark is Xiaomi, the tail logo of the car is "Beijing Xiaomi", and the manufacturer is Beijing Automotive Group off-road vehicle
Source: The official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Previously, a blogger revealed that Xiaomi has confirmed that Xiaomi will hold a Xiaomi car debut conference in Beijing on December 28, and the new car configuration and pre-sale will also be announced. On the 11th of this month, Xiaomi officially responded to this, saying that it was indeed considering this point in time, but it has not yet been determined, and other contents are false.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released on December 12, the "Catalogue of New Energy Vehicle Models Exempt from Vehicle Purchase Tax (72nd Batch)" shows that Xiaomi SU7 is produced by Beijing Automotive Group off-road vehicle, and there are two versions, the difference is in battery pack capacity and mileage. Both versions have a battery pack capacity of 736 kWh and 101 kWh, corresponding to a range of 668 628 km and 800 750 km respectively.
From the perspective of terminal sales, some Xiaomi homes in Beijing, Shanghai and other places have begun to confirm the placement of exhibition cars. A Xiaomi Home store in Xujiahui, Shanghai, is currently under renovation on the first floor (a total of two floors). According to the staff, the first floor of the store will be used to display the show cars in the future, and the show cars will arrive in the first quarter of next year.
Xiaomi Auto has recently issued a number of recruitment information related to store sales, including online service experts, delivery invitation specialists, user management, after-sales product managers, retail store supervisors, Xiaomi Auto store sales operations and other positions.
Among them, the work location of the retail store supervisor involves Wuhan, Chongqing, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Xiamen and other cities, and other cities can also be consulted. Testing engineers, quality assurance engineers and other positions are also being recruited.
At the same time, the "Xiaomi Auto" Weibo was officially launched on the 14th of this month, certified as "Xiaomi Auto Technology*** has not changed its avatar and has not released content." But it didn't take long for the official Weibo of Xiaomi Auto to suddenly and quickly log off.
From the above actions, it can be seen that Xiaomi's car has entered the sprint stage.
It is also reported that Xiaomi's first car has entered the fifth stage of production line verification (pt5) at the Yizhuang factory.
In addition, Xiaomi's Yizhuang factory will complete the target of loading 300 vehicles in December, which is several times higher than in November. In addition, Xiaomi has planned three cars, which will be released in the next three years. Two of them will be pure electric, with the internal code names "Moderna" and "Le Mans" respectively, and the third will be a hybrid model, with the internal code name "Kunlun".
Lei Jun once said that he wants to achieve two small goals at the same time: in 2024, Xiaomi mobile phone sales will be the first in the world, and Xiaomi cars will also achieve mass production. Now, the goal of Xiaomi Auto is close to being achieved.
Judging from the market reaction, a number of brokerage research institutions have given optimistic expectations for Xiaomi's car manufacturing. Guotai Junan** research analysis said that Xiaomi's advantages in intelligent ecology, channel operation and brand traffic will make it a strong competitor in the new energy vehicle market, and it is expected that the company will adopt its own channel system in the early stage, and is expected to form a synergy with the mobile phone channel.
The car is about to go on the market, is Lei Jun ready?
For Xiaomi's future goal of making cars, Lei Jun's plan is to enter the first camp of the autonomous driving industry in 2024, and strive to enter the world's top five within 15-20 years.
Although Lei Jun said that the car is a century-old track, as long as you are optimistic about the automobile industry, it is never too late. But from the current point of view, there are still many problems to be faced when Xiaomi cars are launched in 2024.
Source: Screenshot from CCTV's "Face to Face" program.
Throughout the new energy vehicle industry, the competition of new energy vehicle companies is becoming more and more fierce, and the domestic auto market has also set off three rounds of "price reduction" at the beginning of the year, March and August. Analysts** or more players will be "rolled" out, price reduction is still the future trend of the new energy vehicle industry.
As a latecomer, Xiaomi, if it wants to occupy a place, the pressure can be imagined. For Xiaomi, in the future, it will make greater efforts than other car companies in terms of **, chain, service, and brand.
In addition, how to ensure on-time mass production, charging and other supporting issues, user experience is also a problem that Xiaomi needs to solve.
For Xiaomi Automobile, given that Xiaomi mobile phones have always been positioned as cost-effective mobile phones, although Lei Jun is promoting high-end in recent years, it still takes time to adapt. Based on this positioning, the brand image that Xiaomi has created all year round, and it is estimated that it will be difficult for cars to enter the high-end market directly.
Guotai Junan said that in the early stage of car manufacturing, traffic + ecology + channel synergy is the advantage of Xiaomi Auto, and product shaping capabilities have become the key in the middle and late stages. As a consumer electronics leader with a strong traffic group, Xiaomi Auto did not lack a customer base in the early stage, and with the advantages of Xiaomi's intelligent ecology and channels, the performance of Xiaomi Auto in the early stage of its listing is worth looking forward to.
At the same time, the competition in the new energy vehicle market is becoming increasingly fierce, and in the middle and late stage of market competition, Xiaomi Auto needs to give full play to its ability in product shaping and product positioning in order to gain a higher market share.
Mass production and listing are just around the corner, is Lei Jun ready?
Author |Li Ying.