Big news! Xiaomi Auto makes its own lithium batteries!

After investing in four power battery companies, Xiaomi Auto decided to "take the field" itself!

Tianyancha information shows that on November 18, Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. was established with Lei Jun as the legal representative and a registered capital of 1 billion yuan.

From the perspective of business scope, there is a broad limitation before the specific business scope: "technology development, technical services, technical consulting, technical exchanges, technology transfer, and technology promotion." In other words, Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. will focus on technology research and development in the future.

Regarding specific business categories, they include: manufacturing of new energy vehicles; technical research and development of complete vehicles and parts; research and development of motors and their control systems; manufacturing of intelligent vehicle-mounted equipment; manufacturing of electrical signal equipment; manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries ; and manufacturing of other batteries .

From this, it can be seen that Xiaomi Auto wants to do everything from vehicle manufacturing to motors and parts, to smart vehicle-mounted devices, and to the research and development and manufacturing of lithium batteries , which is also in line with Xiaomi's consistent corporate genes. "Replicating" the idea of ​​building a mobile phone industry ecosystem, Xiaomi Auto will also open up every link in the electric vehicle industry chain, and then establish a complete electric vehicle industry chain, thereby accelerating its own growth in the electric vehicle field.

 Image source: Tianyancha

Xiaomi Motors to be launched in 2024

In fact, this is the second automotive company registered by Xiaomi this year. As early as early September this year, Xiaomi invested 10 billion yuan to establish Xiaomi Auto Co., Ltd., which is wholly owned by Xiaomi EV Limited.

The two companies are obviously entrusted with different missions. From the perspective of funding scale, Xiaomi Auto is mainly a manufacturing plant and the mother of the R&D center. Xiaomi Auto Technology is mainly the mother of intelligent driving, chip R&D, power battery R&D, and future development exploration. In the later stage, they will operate independently, not interfere with each other, and each will reflect its own value. The establishment of the two automobile companies has confirmed that Xiaomi Auto is one step closer to landing.

Lei Jun previously announced at Xiaomi's annual Investor Day that the progress of Xiaomi's car manufacturing and the team's various work have far exceeded his expectations, and Xiaomi Automobile is expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.

Xiaomi Vice President Lu Weibing also publicly stated on Weibo on November 4 that Lei Jun has announced that Xiaomi Automobile will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024, and elaborated on the reasons for Xiaomi's car manufacturing, which is the sharing of Xiaomi's existing assets and capabilities: brand, users, retail, supply chain, technology, etc.

Therefore, in the future, Xiaomi Home will have to take on the responsibility of Xiaomi car sales and services, and provide a linkage experience for the Xiaomi ecosystem based on user scenarios. Therefore, it must open large stores to sell cars.

The speeches of the two executives conveyed the same message, that is, Xiaomi is ready to build cars. According to the plan, Xiaomi cars will be seen in 2024 and can be purchased at Xiaomi Home.

How is Xiaomi Auto preparing for the power battery, which is the "heart" of the electric car and accounts for about 40% of the cost of manufacturing the car?

Reserve four "future suppliers"

So far, Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund has invested in four power battery companies, namely Ganfeng Lithium Battery , Honeycomb Energy, AVIC Lithium Battery and Zhuhai Guanyu. Except for Zhuhai Guanyu, the other three are power battery growth companies that Xiaomi has targeted since December last year.

Ganfeng Lithium Battery

On October 14, Ganfeng Lithium announced that Hubei Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) is the 30th largest shareholder of Ganfeng Lithium, with a subscribed registered capital of 75 million yuan and a shareholding ratio of 3.5117%.

Earlier in July, Ganfeng Lithium's capital increase proposal showed that Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund and Jimu Venture Capital (Xiaomi private equity fund), as the lead investors, invested 187.5 million yuan respectively, and after the capital increase and share expansion, they each held 3.51% of Ganfeng Lithium's equity.

Ganfeng Lithium Battery was established in June 2011 and is backed by lithium giant Ganfeng Lithium. Its current business scope covers consumer batteries, TWS batteries, power/ energy storage batteries and solid-state batteries.

Ganfeng Lithium Battery has made breakthrough progress in both liquid lithium batteries and solid-state batteries.

In terms of liquid lithium batteries, in June this year, Ganfeng Lithium's lithium iron phosphate batteries were equipped with Chery Costinec1 and included in the 345th batch of new car announcements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Regarding solid-state batteries, there are reports that Ganfeng Lithium Battery has officially signed a contract with Dongfeng Motor Corporation's Technology Center. The two parties are negotiating on cooperation in solid-state battery demonstration operations and have signed a demonstration and promotion agreement for the solid-state battery E70 model.

Honeycomb Energy

On August 18, Honeycomb Energy underwent industrial and commercial changes, with registered capital increasing from 2.014 billion yuan to 2.811 billion yuan, an increase of 39.54%. At the same time, several new shareholders were added, including Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund. Among them, Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund is the 41st shareholder, with a shareholding ratio of 0.2756%.

In 2018, Honeycomb Energy was spun off from Great Wall Motors and became an independently operated battery business unit. It has developed rapidly and has steadily taken root in the top 10 camp in terms of domestic installed capacity. Among the top 10 domestic power battery companies in terms of installed capacity from January to October 2021, Honeycomb Energy ranked seventh with an installed capacity of 2.05GWh.

In terms of customers, Honeycomb Energy has 25 sales points including Great Wall, Geely, Dongfeng and other mainstream brands, and has reached a global cooperation project with Stellantis with a total value of 16 billion yuan. It has also signed a procurement contract with France's PSA to provide support for its global electric vehicles. In addition, Beam Automotive, a joint venture between Great Wall and BMW for domestic electric vehicles, will also be equipped with Honeycomb Energy batteries.

In terms of production capacity, according to statistics, Honeycomb Energy has invested a total of 77.6 billion yuan since the beginning of this year, and has newly built 204.6GWh of power battery production capacity.

It is worth mentioning that Honeycomb Energy is planning to list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. It is expected to complete the share reform in the second half of this year, submit application materials in the first half of 2022 , and plans to raise 3-5 billion yuan.

AVIC Lithium Battery

On December 15, 2020, there was a change in investors of AVIC Lithium Battery. New investors included Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund, which held a 2.2826% stake and was the 14th largest shareholder.

Among the TOP 10 domestic power battery companies in terms of installed capacity from January to October 2021, AVIC Lithium Battery ranked third, with its installed capacity rising to 6.42GWh.

Currently, AVIC Lithium Battery has established seven major industrial bases in Changzhou, Luoyang, Xiamen, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hefei and Heilongjiang. The battery production capacity in mass production, under construction and started in 2021 will exceed 100GWh, and the planned capacity in 2022 will reach 200GWh.

In view of longer-term goal planning, at the CALB strategic launch conference held recently, AVIC Lithium Battery announced that the company's planned production capacity will exceed 500GWh in 2025, and the expected production capacity will reach 1TWh in 2030.

In terms of customers, AVIC Lithium Battery has become the largest battery supplier for GAC and Changan, with a battery penetration rate of 90% or more. Other major customers include Geely Auto and SAIC-GM-Wuling. The main supporting models include GAC Aion series, Hongguang MINI, Benben E-Star and other popular car series and models.

It is worth mentioning that AVIC Lithium Battery recently announced that its civilian products business has completed the shareholding reform and established a new AVIC image - "AVIC New Aviation". In addition, it is reported that AVIC Lithium Battery is applying for an A-share IPO in the first quarter of 2022 with December 31, 2021 as the base date.

Zhuhai Guanyu

In December 2018, before the announcement of its car manufacturing plan, Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund invested in Zhuhai Guanyu and held 4.3% of Zhuhai Guanyu’s shares, becoming its fifth largest shareholder.

On October 15 this year, Zhuhai Guanyu officially listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund holds a 3.7% stake in Zhuhai Guanyu.

Zhuhai Guanyu was established in 2007. Its main products are consumer polymer soft-pack lithium batteries, covering battery cells and PACKs. The main application areas of its products include laptops, tablets, smart phones, smart wearable devices, consumer drones and other fields.

In 2020, Zhuhai Guanyu ranked second in the world in combined shipments of lithium-ion batteries for laptops and tablets, and ranked fifth in the world in shipments of lithium-ion batteries for smartphones.

For Xiaomi, the financial investment in Zhuhai Guanyu is a two-birds-with-one-stone move that combines investment income with supply chain advantages.