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Since the group’s board of directors proposed to study the development prospects of electric vehicles on January 15, 2021, in 75 days today, Xiaomi has conducted 85 industry visits and communicated with more than 200 automotive industry veterans and conducted in-depth exchanges. 4 internal management meetings and 2 formal board meetings.

In addition, Lei Jun also communicated with many friends around him. Although some friends gave negative opinions, more friends gave voices of support; and Lei Jun visited Ma as early as 2013. Sk, and for the recognition that Tesla was able to win the market at that time, a large part of it was brought about by “intelligence.”

So although Lei Jun said that in the past period of time, every day after he came up with 100 reasons to enter into car building, he came up with 100 ideas not to enter into car building. In the end, the following three reasons made him determined to enter. Smart electric vehicle industry:

  • Xiaomi Group has a team of more than 10,000 engineers;

  • Supported by the world’s third-largest mobile phone business;

  • The most complete smart ecology in the world.

Even if based on the above three advantages, Xiaomi ultimately failed to build a car, Xiaomi still has enough funds to afford this challenge.

It’s also fun to say. Lei Jun’s entry into electric vehicles is different from others; some companies “build a car without talking, take out the product and release it”, but Lei Jun chose “what Not at all, release a determination.”

Of course, Lei Jun is much better than those companies that “do nothing, rely on PPT to get money”; and Lei Jun dared to talk only about determination and attitude at the press conference, and there are reasons behind it.

In the announcement of “Project Establishment of Smart Electric Vehicle Business” issued by Xiaomi Group, three core elements were mentioned:

  • In 10 years, the management of the project can mobilize US$10 billion of funds, and the first phase of investment of RMB 10 billion will start;

  • In order to provide a more complete and better-use smart ecology for Mi Fan, and to open up all existing software and hardware products, the subsidiary of this project is wholly-owned by Xiaomi Group;

  • Lei Jun personally led the team to promote this business.

Attention, whether Xiaomi’s entry into smart electric vehicles is out of satisfaction with rice noodles or to ensure the core competitiveness of Xiaomi Auto, the subsidiary is wholly-owned by Xiaomi Group, which is the biggest bright spot.

(Xiaomi’s “first car”, smart home Xiaomi RV)

In other words, after Lei Jun has invested in 10 electric car companies in recent years, he is well aware of the importance of capital to building cars, but at the same time he understands better that when capital is mixed with a company that just decided to build a car What does it mean after your business.

So the automobile business led by Lei Jun, on the one hand, relies on wholly-owned control to realize Lei Jun’s development and control of smart electric vehicles, and on the other hand, it has sufficient funds to complete the initial design and research and development of Xiaomi cars.

Of course, in fact, whether it is 10 billion yuan or 10 billion US dollars, it is nothing to the automobile industry; “wealthy” companies like Dyson have smashed in the implementation of electric vehicle test projects. 500 million pounds, nothing came to an end.

Li Bin once said publicly: “An electric vehicle company needs at least 20 billion yuan to go to the mass production stage.”

He Xiaopeng once said: “I used to think that 10 billion was too exaggerated to see other people making cars, but now I jump in and I feel that 20 billion is not enough.”

But the obvious difference is that the new car power is because the car is the only business and there is no other cash flow in; Dyson’s expectations and ideas for electric vehicles are too idealistic, and the distance is too far to give up.

However, Xiaomi has a steady stream of cash flow, as well as the original experience and foundation for intelligence and AIoT. The expectation of US$10 billion has actually been enough to support Xiaomi’s development in the smart electric vehicle business for some time.

But for Lei Jun, the determination to enter the car business is very strong, the capital is very sufficient, and the courage can support his sentence “This decision means that we must be prepared to sprint for at least 5-10 years”; But Xiaomi still can’t pass a huge threshold to build a car.

That is the brand issue.

Xiaomi has always adhered to the principle of “technology-oriented, cost-effectiveness as the key link”. In almost all the release conferences of Xiaomi products, there must be such a link: comparing competing products. Anyone familiar with it knows that XiaomiIt will definitely achieve “the same price, higher configuration”, or “same configuration, lower price”. This “golden sign” is the core reason why Xiaomi has gained the trust of Mi Fan.

So although the electric vehicle industry has developed relatively mature now, Xiaomi can find mature and affordable solutions from suppliers to provide core components such as three powers, but the construction of production plants and other aspects of the car, Xiaomi It is a lack of time and experience. If you want to imitate a mobile phone and use an absolutely mature solution to reduce costs through optimization, the difficulty is not an order of magnitude at all.

This will bring about a core problem. If Xiaomi can’t achieve the “price-performance ratio”, how can Xiaomi Motors gain the favor of the so-called rice noodles and the “golden sign” of Xiaomi; in addition, if Xiaomi achieves the “price-performance ratio”, Next, we will face the problem that a certain friend has already encountered, that is, after the brand image is established, if you want to go from low to high, the resistance will be huge.

In other words, when Xiaomi’s signature, that is, its core competitiveness, no longer exists, how could Xiaomi be recognized by the market; besides, it has not been mentioned that when Xiaomi Auto came out, the products on the market had already What kind of “good quality and low price” can be achieved, and how can Xiaomi highlight its own competitiveness.

It is true that in Lei Jun’s last talk about the automobile business, the author can see his enthusiasm and confidence in this challenge; but the cruelty of the market is that “Hammer mobile phone touched tens of thousands of people, but it could not be exchanged for the expected sales.” If Lei Jun wants to take the right step when the Xiaomi Group celebrates its 11th anniversary, it may take several times more effort than the previous 10 years before it can be realized.

“The first electric car for young people”, Lei Jun’s road has just begun.