A few days ago, a document was circulated on the Internet**, which showed that Xiaomi Auto will complete the first car listing in March this year and achieve delivery in April, and it is expected that the first quarter vehicle production will be about 2,000 units. Once again, it has aroused the attention of the outside world to Xiaomi cars.
Since the Lunar New Year in 2024, the automobile market has been in fierce turmoil, and in the huge ** battle of the table, the suspension of production of Gaohe, and Apple's farewell to the huge ** of car manufacturing, Xiaomi Auto has suffered from the enemy on its belly and back, and it has not yet been put on the table, and a heavy sense of oppression has come to the face.
Of course, the outside world is most concerned about the price of the SU7, the first model of Xiaomi Automobile. In the situation of such an involution in the market, how to price Xiaomi Auto to play the cards in its hands, and stand out among a number of new brands, so that the whole industry is heartbroken.
It's hard to become a girlfriend, you can only be a "friend of the enemy"?
In fact, from the moment Xiaomi released its new car, the irony between its peers has not stopped.
On December 28 last year, at the Xiaomi automotive technology conference, the founder Lei Jun was questioned about touching Porsche and Tesla, and even after nearly three hours of speech, the specific car was not announced.
As a result, the outside world will inevitably be suspicious of Xiaomi's "ppt". Randomly, the text "The technology should be in the car, not on the PPT" is suspected of alluding to Xiaomi cars.
If it's just for marketing, Xiaomi takes the initiative to release smoke bombs. But this drama of "encirclement and suppression" of Xiaomi cars has not been completed, and it is still being staged one after another.
Not long ago, after the launch of ZEEKR 001, Lin Jinwen, vice president of ZEEKR Intelligent Technology, talked about Xiaomi cars many times in an interview with **.
Referring to the online rumors of encirclement and suppression of Xiaomi cars, Lin Jinwen responded: "Recently, the Internet has been talking about Geely and Xiaomi, because it poached our people, and we went to encircle and suppress it, which is nonsense." ”
In 2021, Xiaomi announced that it had officially started building cars. At that time, Lei Jun "learned" from everywhere, including the industry giant Geely. Of course, Geely was also very enthusiastic to open its arms to Lei Jun, not only warmly received, but also brought the Geely Research Institute team to have in-depth exchanges with Lei Jun.
It is rumored that Lei Jun backstabbed Geely and poached Hu Zhengnan, president of Geely Research Institute, and several backbones, and the grievances between the two giants spread in the industry. Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, Hu Zhengnan's addition has fulfilled the progress of Xiaomi Automobile.
Before the Xiaomi automotive technology conference, a series of car companies were paid tribute to the major landmark buildings in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, among which there was no Geely, and Geely executives took turns to "open big" in social networking, full of gunpowder.
We go at our own pace, and we never look at what the competition is like. Lin Jinwen bluntly said that Xiaomi is an excellent company, and we respect and respect such opponents.
As soon as the conversation changed, Lin Jinwen talked about the "battle of technology" and said that Xiaomi's technical strength is not the first among technology companies, and the one stronger than it (considered Huawei) is competing with us in the market. At the same time, in the pure electric market of more than 200,000, Tesla is the object of learning.
In other words, in Lin Jinwen's eyes, Xiaomi's strength is not enough to pose a threat to Geely's electric vehicle brand.
Of course, it is also common for war of words to break out between car companies, BYD and Great Wall, NIO and Ideal, Xiaopeng and Huawei, etc., have more or less had varying degrees of friction.
The first battle of car companies, the "price" of Xiaomi cars is difficult
If we say, the friction between Xiaomi and other car companies is only a war of words. Then, the first-class war in reality is the real knife and gun of the car company.
At the beginning of the new year, BYD took the lead in firing the first shot of the Year of the Dragon, and BYD Qin plus dropped 20,000 to 7980,000, making the BYD DM-i model enter the 70,000 range for the first time. Subsequently, the BYD Han and Tang Glory versions were officially launched, continuing BYD's strategy of "electricity is lower than oil" and greatly reducing the minimum sale**.
After experiencing BYD's butcher, Tesla, Weilai, Leap, AVATR and other car companies followed, which also made the ** war enter the white heat.
Car companies continue to release new cars, and reduce prices and increase configurations, making Xiaomi Auto's "**** become more and more confusing." Although "no pricing" has some marketing elements and can whet the appetite of the outside world, if it is postponed repeatedly, I am afraid that I will hit my own feet.
In the mobile phone market, Xiaomi has always been able to occupy the high ground with the best competition. However, at the stage of building a car, Xiaomi was in a dilemma.
According to industry analysis, Xiaomi Auto is likely to be unable to compete with competitors through stronger cost control. Xiaomi mobile phones rely on the mature ** chain behind it, while Xiaomi cars are on the opposite road, and they need to constantly "buy, buy, buy" to make up the entire upper and lower ** chains, and the cost is naturally higher than that of many car companies.
Lei Jun once said frankly that Xiaomi Auto is no longer "close to the people". Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, also said at MWC, a global mobility event in Barcelona 2024, that Xiaomi cars cost 10 billion US dollars (about 72.1 billion yuan) to develop, and cover a series of price points from entry-level to luxury.
For Xiaomi Auto, the first battle is a decisive battle. **High, untested Xiaomi cars will be passive in the fierce battle; Too low, high production costs cannot compensate for lost profit margins.
Fortunately, Lu Weibing said in an interview with ** that the first mass-produced car SU7 will be delivered in China as soon as the second quarter. At that point, the mystery may be revealed, and the outside world will finally wait for the answer it wants.