Xiaomi car, getting closer and closer!

Xiaomi car is getting closer and closer.

Today (August 23rd), according to foreign media citing two people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi Company has been approved by relevant departments to produce electric vehicles (EV). However, in response to the above information, as of press time, Xiaomi Company did not respond to the interview of the reporter of New Energy Daily.

Previously, although Lei Jun, the founder and chairman of Xiaomi, did not mention the progress of building cars in his nearly three-hour annual speech, the attention of Xiaomi Automobile has continued to rise recently.

"Fight for Xiaomi car!" Recently, Lei Jun posted a set of photos on social platforms, as the banner in the picture reads. The reporter of New Energy Daily noticed that this dynamic release was located in Xinjiang, and then Lei Jun released several related developments in this area.

Just in the above dynamic comment area, some netizens directly posted the road test spy photos of Xiaomi Automobile in Xinjiang. According to the suspected spy photos flowing out of the network, it can be judged that the car of Xiaomi’s road test may include two versions with and without lidar.

During Lei Jun’s release of the above series of trends, Hu Zhengnan, a partner of Shunwei Capital Investment, also exposed the energy consumption performance of Xiaomi Automobile on his social media: "Today, I was spoofed by engineers. At 8 o’clock in the evening, I threw a tram with a remaining battery life of 152 kilometers, and asked me to take three strong men back to the destination 85 kilometers away. The environmental temperature was 37 degrees … I simply underestimated my golden right foot and stepped on a straight line for you. After arriving at the destination, the remaining mileage showed that there were still 90 kilometers, which was 8.

Yesterday (August 22), it was reported that the battery suppliers of Xiaomi Automobile have been finalized at this stage, and the first supply and the second supply are Zhongchuang Xinhang and respectively.

All this seems to be releasing a signal to the outside world: Xiaomi car is just around the corner.

Build an industrial chain through investment

Xiaomi officially entered the electric vehicle industry in March 2021. In the past few years, Xiaomi has built its automobile industry chain through capital investment.

According to incomplete statistics, Xiaomi’s foreign investment entities include: Xiaomi Group, Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund and Shunwei Capital. On the whole, Xiaomi has invested in five major areas: intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent network connection, intelligent electric power and car cloud service.

Lei Jun believes that autonomous driving is the key point for smart electric vehicles to win. Among them, on August 25, 2021, Xiaomi Group announced the acquisition of Deepmotion Tech, an autonomous driving technology company, with a total transaction amount of about 77.37 million US dollars.

The reporter of New Energy Daily learned that Xiaomi’s autonomous driving technology has formulated the technical layout strategy of full-stack self-developed algorithm at the beginning, covering the core technical fields of autonomous driving such as perception prediction, high-precision positioning, decision planning, etc., and built a self-developed data closed-loop system to efficiently drive the core algorithm and product function iteration.

Up to now, in Xiaomi Auto’s autonomous driving team, there are talents related to autonomous driving full-stack technology, such as sensors, chips, sensing control algorithms, simulation technology, high-precision maps, high-precision positioning, tool chains and training capabilities.

Xiaomi Group also invested in Hesai Technology, which is known as the "first share of China’s lidar"; Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund invested in the smart of autopilot chip company and sagitar Juchuang of laser radar company; Shunwei Capital founded by Lei Jun has also invested in related fields.

"From the perspective of Xiaomi’s existing investment layout, it is closely related to its automobile business. Lei Jun’s move is intended to replicate the layout of Xiaomi’s ecological chain, thereby enhancing the vertical integration capability of Xiaomi’s automobile business and ensuring the supply of the industrial chain. " Some insiders analyzed and said to the reporter of New Energy Daily.

With the official announcement of Xiaomi officially entering the electric vehicle industry, the Xiaomi concept plate has been ignited. Many listed companies have said that they have entered the Xiaomi automobile supplier system, such as. Many other companies said that they are in contact with Xiaomi Automobile.

More than 360 patent applications have been authorized.

In addition to the capital layout, Xiaomi is also accumulating related patents in the field of smart cars.

According to the data of Wisdom Bud, by 2020, Xiaomi had applied for 841 automobile-related patents, mainly focusing on wireless communication network, digital data processing, digital information transmission, image communication, traffic control system, distance measurement and navigation. Among them, 13.67% patents are international patents.

According to the latest news, according to the disclosure of China National Intellectual Property Administration official website, the utility model patent "Display Assembly and Vehicle" applied by Xiaomi Automobile on November 11, 2022 was authorized to be announced on July 18 this year.

The reporter of New Energy Daily recently learned that up to now, Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. has applied for more than 700 automobile-related patents, of which more than 360 patent applications have been authorized, covering: automatic vehicle driving, vehicle early warning, radar, vehicle control, etc.

According to the plan, Xiaomi Automobile is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of 2024, and time is tight. As the industrial chain matures, Xiaomi Automobile will be officially on the road soon.