Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi plans to develop a battery-powered midsize sedan to take on Tesla’s Model 3 as it steps up efforts to tap the mainland’s electric vehicle (EV) market.
The first model from the Beijing-based company is expected to launch at the end of this year, joining an overcrowded market of nearly 200 EV builders amid an accelerated pace of electrification on the mainland’s roads, according to a report by Chinese media LatePost on Thursday.
The basic edition of the car could be priced between 260,000 yuan (US$37,900) and 300,000 yuan, compared to 229,900 yuan for the entry-level version of the Model 3, one of the bestselling premium EVs on the mainland, according to LatePost.
The car, which will be powered by BYD’s lithium iron phosphate battery packs, will also be fitted with Lidar sensors, intelligent cockpit and Nvidia Orin chips, considered to be the best automobile chips in the world, it added.
Lei Jun, one of the co-founders of Xiaomi, announced the company would enter the smart electric vehicle market at an event in Beijing, on March 30, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE
Xiaomi did not respond to a request for comment about the car’s development status on Friday.
“The market is pinning its hopes on Xiaomi’s smart electric cars,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “The first Xiaomi model will not be considered a success unless it beats Model 3 in terms of performance and pricing.”
Xiaomi is among a clutch of Chinese technology firms diversifying into the EV sector, buoyed by a bullish forecast that three out of every five new cars in China will be electric in 2030.
Search engine and artificial intelligence major Baidu, telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co, and Foxconn, the world’s largest contract maker of consumer electronics, have all expanded into carmaking by taking advantage of their technological and manufacturing strengths.
But a wave of new model launches will make survival difficult for some unprofitable carmakers who have spent billions on R&D while struggling to boost sales of their vehicles.
China’s top three home-grown smart EV builders – Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto – have yet to make a profit although they are seen as the nation’s best response to Tesla.
Texas-headquartered Tesla delivered more than 390,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to Chinese customers from its Shanghai factory in the first 11 months of last year, 21.5 per cent more than its full-year sales of 321,000 units in 2021. The carmaker has not disclosed its December deliveries.
Its delivery volume from January to November also exceeded the total full-year sales by the three Chinese start-ups.
Xiaomi unveiled its plan to build EVs in March 2021, hoping to replicate its success with cars and use the technology that made its smartphones so popular among consumers.
A growing number of young Chinese drivers are looking to own a smart EV like Tesla’s Model 3 or Model Y, but a slowing economy has forced some of them to shift to cheaper models.
In 2023, sales of EVs on the mainland are expected to grow 30 per cent year on year to 8.4 million units, slowing down from a 114 per cent year-on-year jump in 2022, according to an estimate by the China Passenger Car Association.
Keyword: Smartphone maker Xiaomi has Tesla in its sights as it reportedly plans to debut first car model by year-end