Author | Cui Qiuyang
Edit | Chapter Ripple
Xiaomi Auto is one step closer to its official debut.
On August 29th, Xiaomi Group released the results announcement for the second quarter and the first half of 2023, and held a conference call.
On the whole, although the overall revenue decreased in the second quarter, the gross profit, operating profit and adjusted net profit all ushered in year-on-year growth, of which the operating profit and net profit reached 4.04 billion yuan and 5.14 billion yuan respectively, both of which increased by more than 130% year-on-year.
And published together with various financial data,There is also a set of data about Xiaomi’s automobile business: 1.4 billion yuan of research and development expenses.
Financial Information of Xiaomi Group in the Second Quarter of 2023
In this regard, Lu Weibing, partner of Xiaomi Group, president of the group and chairman of the brand Committee, revealed that thanks to the efficient use of funds, "this figure is even less than we expected."
Since the official announcement of the car, according to the public financial data, Xiaomi Group has invested more than 5.5 billion yuan in the automobile business, from supply to manufacturing, to products and sales..
The time plan for mass production in the first half of 2024 is getting closer and closer. What is the specific progress of Xiaomi Automobile??
01
Acknowledging the summer test, the progress of building a car exceeded expectations.
Although in the financial report meeting, Lu Weibing made it clear that the news about Xiaomi Automobile was not authorized by the company and could not be disclosed more, but a small part of the news was released.
He clearly admitted that Xiaomi Automobile had conducted a summer test in Xinjiang, and the progress was very smooth..
On August 19th this year, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi, took a group photo on social media, with the IP belonging to Xinjiang, and the banner held by everyone in the photo read "Fight for Xiaomi Automobile".
Recently, Lei Jun released the Weibo in Xinjiang
This has aroused widespread concern from the outside world, and it has been speculated that Xiaomi Automobile is very likely to conduct a road test in Xinjiang in summer, and Lei Jun personally leads the team.
"Two days ago, I and Lei Zong sent Weibo’s IP to show in Xinjiang at the same time, and everyone was wondering whether we went to Xinjiang to take part in the summer test, which is true. Our summer test should be said to be very smooth. " In response to this incident, Lu Weibing gave a positive answer.
He added:"Our goal of mass production and sales in the first half of 2024 has not changed. Now everything is going very smoothly, which can be said to have exceeded our original expectations and plans.. "
According to Lu Weibing,Xiaomi Automobile currently has nearly 3,000 R&D personnel.. "When Xiaomi Automobile chose to enter the automobile industry from the beginning, we made all the layouts from the perspective of’ a century-old industrial change’ and with the strategic goal of’ Xiaomi will enter the top five global electric vehicle brands in the future’. Based on this layout, we adopted the whole process of self-research, and almost all aspects of our first car were self-developed by Xiaomi. "
Due to the choice of self-built factories and full-stack self-research, Lu Weibing said frankly,Xiaomi automobile has adopted a very over-investment approach."It can be said that in order to ensure the smooth progress of the first car, we have invested a lot. We will also disclose relevant investment every quarter, which can be used as a reference for Xiaomi’s investment in automobiles. Of course, from the perspective of cash flow, it may be faster. "
02
Everything seems to be ready, from manufacturing to channels.
Although Lu Weibing didn’t disclose much, we can still find out how Xiaomi’s car-making business is progressing from the aspects of supply side, manufacturing side, product side and sales side.
First of all, look at the supply of parts.
In the era of new energy vehicles, the most important part is the battery, regardless of the cost or the function of the whole vehicle.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited is rumored to be one of the suppliers of power batteries for Xiaomi Automobile.
Earlier, according to Interface News, Xiaomi Automobile has confirmed that Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited are the primary and secondary power battery suppliers at this stage. BYD, which was previously speculated by the outside world, is not on the supply chain list.
However, some insiders told Cybercar that,The power battery supplier of Xiaomi Automobile has already been determined, and it will still adopt the combination of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and BYD, in which Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited will supply ternary lithium batteries to Xiaomi Automobile and BYD will supply lithium iron phosphate batteries..
No matter which battery manufacturer’s products are used, it is certain that Xiaomi will adopt a multi-supplier model in the supply of power batteries from the very beginning..
On the one hand, it has absorbed the experience of the predecessors of the new energy main engine factory in the previous two years. In 2022, many new energy OEMs adopted a single supplier model for some parts and components, and all of them were cut off under the impact of the epidemic, resulting in that they could not produce and deliver on time even if they had more orders, which not only reduced the capacity utilization rate, but also caused orders to be unsubscribed by users.
On the other hand, although Xiaomi Automobile is already a big traffic user before it is officially listed, what is always seen in the automobile industry is the sales volume, not the topic heat. Xiaomi Automobile, which has no mass production delivery experience, does not have much bargaining power in front of suppliers.
After the introduction of the multi-supplier model, coupled with the obvious oversupply of power batteries, Xiaomi Automobile has more initiative.
In the supply of other key components, we can spy on Xiaomi’s capital layout..
Among them, in terms of lidar, Xiaomi has invested in four lidar manufacturers, including Hesai Technology, Innovusion Tudatong, Beixing Photon and Sagitar Juchuang, through Xiaomi Group, Xiaomi Investment and Shunwei Capital associated with Lei Jun; In the autonomous driving solution, Xiaomi also invested in Zongmu Technology, Geometry Partners, Smart Walker and Momenta, and even acquired the autonomous driving company Deepmotion, taking its accumulated technology in intelligent driving perception, decision-making, planning and control as the basis for self-research.
On the manufacturing side, the Yizhuang Phase I factory built by Xiaomi Automobile is nearing completion, and its annual production capacity is expected to reach 150,000-200,000 vehicles.. It is reported that Yizhuang factory has also started to recruit workers in large quantities for more than 100 job vacancies in painting, welding and battery workshops.
Yizhuang will become the future R&D and manufacturing center of Xiaomi Automobile.
But in 2023, production qualification is the most important thing for car companies in the manufacturing end.
After the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology successively issued the Regulations on the Administration of Newly Built Pure Electric Passenger Cars and the Regulations on the Administration of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturers and Products Access, it is difficult to enter the new energy market in 2023. Both the self-traveler and Jidu were subject to the new regulations, or regretted leaving temporarily, or turned to seek a new car-making model.
But recently,According to the report of Reuters, Xiaomi Automobile has removed this obstacle and obtained relevant vehicle-making qualifications, but the reason and process for Xiaomi Automobile’s specific qualification are unknown..
In terms of products,According to the public information, the first two products of Xiaomi Automobile will be marked with Tesla Model 3 and Model Y respectively, and it is likely to provide a battery version of 101kWh, and there is also a high probability that at least an optional version of lidar will be provided..
Regarding the most important selling price,According to insiders, the starting price of Xiaomi’s first car will probably drop below 200,000 yuan and reach the level of 170,000 yuan..
Judging from the summer test performance of Xiaomi Automobile exposed by Hu Zhengnan, a partner of Shunwei Capital Investment, in Weibo a few days ago,In the high temperature environment, Xiaomi automobile can give a performance of 8.8kWh/100km. For comparison, the reference data of Model 3 energy consumption given by Tesla is 12.6kWh/100km..
On the whole,With the starting price of 170,000 yuan, plus 101kWh battery, lidar version and 8.8kWh/100km energy consumption, Xiaomi’s first product is already quite competitive..
Hu Zhengnan released the energy consumption performance of Xiaomi automobile in summer test in his Weibo.
Finally,existOn the sales side, Xiaomi is likely to learn from Huawei, select some of its own more than 10,000 channel stores and upgrade them to user centers. Even if only one tenth of the stores are upgraded, there are about 1,000, which is also the level of the head of the domestic new energy main engine factory..
According to the public information, Xiaomi Automobile has started the site selection of the delivery center, requiring the candidate venue to provide at least 120 parking spaces, and the construction area should not be less than 3,000 square meters.
Besides,Lei Jun also revealed two small messages at this year’s Xiaomi annual conference:At present, almost all smart electric vehicles are equipped with wireless charging; The perception system of the second generation robot dog iron egg is somewhat similar to the current intelligent car perception system..
03
Can you go public on an auspicious day? Xiaomi automobile not only owes Dongfeng.
From supply to manufacturing, from products to sales, Xiaomi Automobile seems to be fully prepared for the launch of the first product.
However, Xiaomi Automobile is really ready for everything, only owing to the east wind. Can it be listed on an auspicious day? It doesn’t seem to be.
After the arrival of the new energy wave, the situation of the whole automobile industry can be said to be changing rapidly, and no matter how many and prudent plans, they can’t keep up with the changes.
Some netizens broke the news and photographed four Xiaomi car test cars in Xinjiang.
From the price point of view,Xiaomi’s first car product is selected as the benchmark Model 3. If the starting price really comes to 170,000 yuan, it means that it is 30,000 yuan cheaper than the current Model 3. This price is very attractive to consumers..
But the mantis catches cicadas, and the yellowbird is behind. On August 28th, Tucki announced that it would lower the price threshold of intelligent electric vehicles to 150,000 yuan. Tucki officially announced that it will acquire Didi’s existing and highly-completed pure electric platform, and launch 150,000-yuan B-end +C-end products on this platform, among which the C-end products will be empowered by Tucki’s roll-up structure and XNGP intelligent assisted driving system.
In this way,Although Xiaomi car products are cheaper than Model 3, their advantages are not obvious compared with Tucki..
Not only that, thanks to the gambling agreement signed with Didi, Tucki’s upcoming 150,000-yuan products will not worry about sales. There is a high probability that there will be a sales scale of 100,000 vehicles every year, while Xiaomi needs to fight alone to fight our way out.
In addition,Xiaomi should also be prepared to "support one child for the whole family" at the beginning of the business..
Xiaomi’s second-quarter financial report data shows that the overall gross profit margin of Xiaomi in this quarter, as well as the gross profit margin of smart phone business and IoT and consumer products business, all reached new highs, reaching more than 13%.
However, from Wei Xiaoli to Zero Run, Nezha, Ai ‘an, etc., all the new OEMs in recent years started with negative gross profit margin and huge losses. Li Bin, founder and CEO of Weilai Automobile, even admitted that "it is impossible to build a car without 40 billion yuan".
Once it officially enters the market, I am afraid that Xiaomi’s auto business will not only face losses, but also drag down the financial data of Xiaomi Group and even affect the performance of the Group in the secondary market.
Xiaomi has rich experience in hardware manufacturing, and the existing sales channel network is also one of the advantages.
But on the bright side,Thanks to the origin of its own mobile phone manufacturer, Xiaomi may also save a lot of costs in terms of large-scale production, sales network layout and some R&D expenditures..
Among them,Different from Wei Xiaoli, Xiaomi has the experience of large-scale hardware manufacturing and mass delivery, and there should be no "productivity hell" in the initial stage of vehicle delivery..
In addition, as mentioned above, Xiaomi Automobile can choose to upgrade its existing offline stores instead of relocating them to deploy its sales network.
What’s more, in order to ensure the competitiveness of the mobile phone business, Xiaomi has laid out the AI ? ? big model technology.Lu Weibing also revealed in the conference call that AI will definitely be combined with "Little Love Classmate" (Xiaomi’s artificial intelligence assistant) in the future. After the release of automobile products, Xiaomi’s accumulated technology in human-computer interaction and AI big model can also be directly adapted to the car end, without extra time and effort to develop related functions for the intelligent cockpit from scratch..
All in all, thanks to its years of experience in the field of mobile phones and IoT, Xiaomi Automobile can be said to have a considerable degree of software and hardware R&D and manufacturing capabilities, not to mention being born with a golden spoon, but even so, in the increasingly cruel automobile market, Xiaomi Automobile is still a long way from getting a "real ticket".