Lei Jun spoiled the latest progress of Xiaomi's car manufacturing.
Recently, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Group, accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV's "Face to Face". During the interview, Lei Jun talked about the development experience and current situation of Xiaomi Automobile.
Lei Jun said that the average car company to build a car, the investment in research and development is roughly 1 billion to 2 billion, and the number of personnel is roughly 300-400 people. However, Lei Jun adopted a 10-fold investment model, that is, 3,400 engineers were invested in the first car of Xiaomi Auto, and the R&D cost was as high as 10 billion, which is 10 times that of ordinary car companies.
It seems that "fighting for Xiaomi cars" is not a slogan, just from the perspective of R&D investment, it can reflect Lei Jun's "ambition" to build cars.
Xiaomi made a car and Lei Jun blocked everything
Building a car was described by Lei Jun as one of the most important decisions in the history of Xiaomi's development.
When he announced the construction of the car in 2021, he said: "Xiaomi Auto will be the last major entrepreneurial project in my life, and I am willing to bet on all the accumulated achievements and reputation in my life to fight for Xiaomi Auto!" Xiaomi will face this new journey with great dedication, great awe and lasting patience. ”
Compared with the new forces that entered the car earlier and showed their edge, Lei Jun believes that "Xiaomi has many natural advantages in making cars, because the essence of smart electric vehicles is the integration of the consumer electronics industry, which is a big integration." To use a less accurate analogy, a smart car is equivalent to a large mobile phone with four wheels, indicating that the two industries are highly integrated. Entering the automotive industry is challenging for Xiaomi, but overall the difficulty is manageable. ”
In this interview, Lei Jun also said that three years ago, he felt that it was a difficult thing to build a car, and he had enough awe of it, and set the principle of "keeping the right and surprising", that is, fully respecting the laws of the automotive industry, using mature technology in the industry to ensure that the first car is done well, and then innovating under this premise.
However, even after making 10 times the investment, Lei Jun still has anxiety about building cars.
He said he was worried that no one would buy the first car when it came on the market, and that everyone would buy it and have to wait for a long time.
This anxiety is very complicated, which shows that even with the foreshadowing of previous entrepreneurial experience and large R&D investment, Lei Jun still cannot see clear results in today's complex situation for car manufacturing.
As of now, there is still no accurate price information about Xiaomi cars on the market, but there are two mainstream versions, one is that the price range of Xiaomi cars is 19990,000 yuan-29990,000 yuan. The other version is that one car sells for 200,000 and the other for 300,000.
A crazy car-building track
Obviously, Lei Jun has been fully psychologically prepared, and the worst result and the best result have been thought of, that is, sales are dismal or in short supply. However, this battle is really crucial for Xiaomi Auto.
In July this year, another major milestone in the history of the development of China's automobile industry - the 20 million new energy vehicles rolled off the assembly line, marking that China's new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of high-quality development of scale and globalization.
According to the statistical analysis of the China National Association, in November this year, China's automobile production and sales were completed 30930,000 units and 2.97 million units, up 7% and 4% m/m, respectively1%, an increase of 29 year-on-year4% and 274%。
While China's new energy vehicles are rising rapidly, there is also an increasingly fierce battle in the automobile market. For example, as a latecomer, Xiaomi's first car SU7 faces a number of competitors, including but not limited to BYD Han EV, ZEEKR 007, Zhijie S7, Geely Galaxy E8, AVATR 12, and Feifan F7. Each of these competitors has its own advantages, and some have become hits.
Liu Feilei, secretary of the board of directors of GAC Aion, once said, "The automobile industry is entering the 'Warring States Era', and resources are accelerating to focus on leading enterprises. He believes that in 2023, the first-class battle in the automobile market will enter the white-hot, and the market competition will enter the "knockout" stage, and 3-5 first-class head enterprises will be formed in the future. In 2022, the top five brands in the new energy vehicle market accounted for 501% of the market sales, and it is expected that the top five brands will account for 80% of the sales volume in 2030.
Lei Jun has also said, "When the electric vehicle industry enters the maturity period, the world's top five brands will occupy more than 80% of the market share, in other words, the only way to succeed is to become one of the top five and ship more than 10 million vehicles per year." The competition will be brutal. ”
In the face of cruel competition, Xiaomi Su7Can it be popular, at least it must be able to get differentiated competitiveness, is the smart car machine smooth and silky, or is the intelligent assisted driving stronger? Is it longer driving range, or is the power consumption controlled? In short, there should be something that makes people shine.