In 2024, can Xiaomi Automobile really respond to the expectation of rice noodles？

After the poor Baowo car was divided, Xiaomi, who was qualified to build a car, was finally able to build a factory to build a car. At the recent group meeting in Beijing, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun confirmed that the progress of Xiaomi’s car-making project exceeded expectations and it can be mass-produced in the first half of next year.

The long-awaited "young people’s first car" is coming, but in 2022, the share of new energy vehicles in China has accounted for about 25% of the total car sales, and there are a wide variety of new energy vehicles. Is Xiaomi really worth looking forward to?

The true nature of price/performance ratio, can Xiaomi Automobile inherit?

Cost performance is undoubtedly the most distinctive feature of Xiaomi’s mobile phones, computers and other products. The same price configuration is relatively high, and the same configuration price is relatively low. In 2011, when the low-end chip mobile phone dared to sell for three or four thousand yuan, Xiaomi’s mobile phone with flagship core dared to sell for 1999 yuan. With its high cost performance, Xiaomi’s mobile phone has gained a large number of digital talents and young consumers soon after it went on the market.

So, can Xiaomi’s cost-effective concept continue to the automobile?

Earlier, Xiaomi Automobile has exposed some news on the Internet, including some configuration, design and price of the model. According to the exposed information, Xiaomi’s first product is a high-end car, with two versions, both equipped with Qualcomm’s next-generation intelligent cockpit chip and NVIDIA’s Orin X chip, equipped with lidar and a 15.6-inch central control screen.

Orin X is not uncommon in high-end models in the past two years, but NVIDIA has released a stronger Thor car chip, which is 8 times more powerful than the former, and the real car may be upgraded. The application of NVIDIA chip and lidar is to provide support for autonomous driving technology. In official website, Xiaomi Automobile introduced its own self-driving technology in great length, and plans to enter the first camp of the industry in 2024.

Source: Xiaomi Automobile

The low version of Xiaomi Automobile is equipped with BYD lithium iron phosphate battery, based on 400V platform, and the high version is equipped with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited Kirin battery, based on 800V platform. In terms of system, Xiaomi, who was born in the Internet and mobile phone industry, has a high probability of making a system that is not bad, and can be interconnected with Xiaomi Smart Home. At this stage, Xiaomi has launched CarWith, which is similar to Apple CarPlay, allowing users to experience some functions of the Xiaomi car system in advance.

Whether the configuration is attractive enough or not depends on the price. There are many rumors about the price of Xiaomi car on the Internet. Some people broke the news that Xiaomi car started at more than 100,000 yuan, while others said that the low version started at 300,000 yuan, and the high version started at 350,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan, which is a big gap. Previously, Lei Jun had initiated a vote in Weibo, asking about the price of the first electric car that Rice Noodle hoped Xiaomi would get. 150,000 ~ 200,000 yuan won the most votes, followed by 200,000 ~ 300,000 yuan, and the option above 300,000 yuan got the least votes.

Source: Weibo screenshot

According to the current situation of the new energy automobile industry, Xiaolei thinks that the price of Xiaomi’s first car with low version will be around 200,000 ~ 280,000 yuan, and the high version is expected to be 280,000 ~ 350,000 yuan.Apart from Weibo’s votes, the most important thing is that the new energy automobile industry is in a period of rapid development, and it is appropriate to enter the high-end market now, but the price is too high for new brands to support, and 200,000 yuan is the starting line for high-end cars.

What’s more, Xiaomi’s configuration is not bad. The low-profile version is likely to lose BYD Seal, as well as the flagship chips of NVIDIA and Qualcomm, and the price is unlikely to be less than 200,000 yuan. Although it is said that some high prices have been exposed on the Internet, it is not certain that Lei Jun will "persuade executives overnight" to reduce the price of cars. Cost-effective ratio is probably the least worrying place for Xiaomi Automobile. Even Lei Jun once said that Xiaomi Automobile mainly relies on software fees to make profits.

However, whether the first product launched by a new brand of Xiaomi Automobile is mature, whether the after-sales service system is perfect, and whether it is direct sales or distribution mode are all places that may worry consumers.The most important thing is that Xiaomi seems to be a little too low-key, which is not a good thing for new brands entering the automobile industry.

The low-key millet is in sharp contrast with the high-profile Meizu.

In the mobile phone industry, Xiaomi has always been high-profile. As the top five mobile phone manufacturers in China, Xiaomi has a high-profile qualification. However, after entering the automobile industry, Xiaomi is very low-key. Instead, it is Meizu, Huawei and other original mobile phone industries, and the manufacturers entering the automobile field are extremely high-profile.

Huawei, an industry giant, can say that Meizu has always regarded Xiaomi as its main rival since it entered the mobile phone industry. However, due to various problems, there are many fans, but the sales volume is not high enough. It has been a year and a half since the release of Meizu 18s series, and there is no new machine released in Meizu. However, the voice of Meizu has never been quiet, but it has announced its own plans in a high-profile manner, such as the layout of Meizu 20 and Meizu in the automotive field.

Meizu has announced that it will hold the largest new product launch conference in the history of Meizu at Shanghai Benz Cultural Center on March 14th. If there is no accident, at this conference, Meizu will talk about its plans in the automotive field like Xiaomi. In essence, Xiaomi and Meizu have taken different paths. Meizu and Huawei have become supply chain enterprises in the automotive field, mainly relying on cooperation with car companies. Meizu’s primary partner is Geely.

Source: Meizu

For Meizu and Huawei, high-profile can not only attract consumers, but also attract partners. Xiaomi, on the other hand, has to build its own car and take the asset-oriented route. Compared with building gimmicks and creating momentum, it is more important to develop steadily on the ground now.As for the product momentum, compared with other new car-making forces, Xiaomi’s biggest advantage is that Xiaomi itself is not a new brand, and it can drain cars from the mobile phone business.

Building a car by yourself is much more risky than being a supply chain enterprise. Therefore, when Xiaomi announced to build a car, many netizens and the media thought that Xiaomi was going the wrong way. Let’s not say that there are many new forces to build cars. Those old car companies are insurmountable mountains for Xiaomi. Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, Great Wall Motor, Chery Automobile and other car companies, the sales of electric vehicles are all overwhelming, but the voice on the Internet is small.

Xiaomi’s car-making is a gamble, with high risks and high returns. If you win the bet, you will win everything. Even if you lose the bet, you will sell the car-making qualification, assets and technology, thanks to some money.

Source: Xiaomi

At present, it is too early to discuss the route of making cars between Xiaomi and Meizu. Even Meizu may not have the will to build their own cars. Even Huawei, which once said that it would never build a car, put Huawei logo on the posters in the world, and it has a very high control over the products. Meizu doesn’t build cars, maybe it’s just because Meizu doesn’t have enough inside information and financial resources.

As consumers, we don’t care which route of Xiaomi, Meizu and Huawei is more correct. What we care about is that the value of Xiaomi car is not worth waiting for.

The industry is ever-changing, is Xiaomi car worth waiting for?

In 2021, Celeste Huawei’s SF5 was officially released. As the first product jointly developed by Huawei and Celeste, this car gained a huge momentum after it went on the market, and it received 3,000 orders in two days. As a result, it was weak and did not achieve too high sales. After the second-generation products went on the market, they sold more than 75,000 vehicles in 10 months before they really entered the first echelon of the new force of building cars.

Source: Wenjie Automobile

In 2022 and 2023, the new energy automobile industry became more and more mature. Some established automobile companies released new brands to enter the market, and some new car-making forces quietly fell behind. Even in Tucki and Wenzhou, sales in the first two months of this year showed signs of falling behind. In order to seize market share, car companies have released new products, and the industry is changing with each passing day. Is it worth waiting for the late Xiaomi car?

To be honest, Xiaomi’s first product has a high probability of testing water, which may be immature in all aspects and difficult to measure. The hardware and software of this car will not be bad, but after the inexperienced Xiaomi integrates it, there may be some incongruities. For consumers who pursue perfect products, the reliability of Xiaomi’s first-generation cars may be a little worse.

No product can mature as soon as it comes up. Only by constantly updating and iterating and perfecting the existing problems of the product can the product finally become perfect.Xiaomi also understands this truth, so the first product has not been released and put into mass production, and the second generation product of Xiaomi Automobile has been exposed. The internal code of this product is "Lemans Le Mans", which is the city where the extremely famous "24-hour Le Mans Endurance Race" is located.

With the experience of the first generation of products, Xiaomi’s second generation car will be more perfect in both software and hardware, as well as in the sales and after-sales service system.Xiaomi Le Mans Automobile is expected to be launched in 2025, and then it may be the best time for rice noodles to buy Xiaomi Automobile.

Cover source: Xiaomi