In 2022, Xiaomi cars will be quiet

"Xiaomi encountered obstacles in building cars, and the Xiaomi car brand has not received approval."

News coming from the public always has quite an impact. According to rumors, the model of Xiaomi Motors has been finalized, looks very similar to the Taycan, and has been "copied" a lot. In addition, the more serious point is that the Xiaomi Motors brand has not been approved, but has been included in the capital. Disorderly expansion.

Micar hasn't even started yet, but it's already over?

There is no doubt that Xiaomi Auto's brand will most likely not be able to continue to be used after being slapped with a "big hat". At this point, Huawei and Baidu seem to have received guidance from experts and have avoided it perfectly.

But the ensuing question becomes, if Xiaomi Motors changes its brand name, or there is a problem with its production qualifications, does that mean that Xiaomi Motors will become the second self-operated car manufacturer?

Perhaps it was a pain point, or the rumors were really wrong. Xiaomi Motors, which had promised not to refute the rumors, unexpectedly went out of its way and refuted the rumors in a hurry.

Wang Hua, general manager of Xiaomi's public relations department, personally stepped down and bluntly stated: The news is untrue, and there is no such thing as the so-called brand requiring approval.

There is no need to elaborate on the ensuing bickering. In summary, there are no more than three points: whether the source of the information is accurate; whether Xiaomi's car looks like Taycan; how to solve the problem of Xiaomi's production qualifications.

But it is precisely these three issues that are constantly being cut and confused, and no one is willing to explain them word by word.

Therefore, many melon-eating people can only try to guess the truth in this confusing fog.

After all, the iterative changes in the new energy vehicle market have entered a new stage with the arrival of 2023.

No more "refuting rumors", so only rumors remain

There is no doubt that the new energy vehicle market in 2023 will become even more volatile. Whether it is Tesla's potential price reduction offensive or the continued efforts of strong brands such as BYD and Weixiaoli, it all hints at the upcoming huge changes in the market structure.

However, Lei Jun, who had staked all his honor on it, didn't seem to be in a hurry.

This year, the biggest revelation about Xiaomi cars came from Lei Jun’s speech.

At that time, in the final One More Thing session of Xiaomi's press conference, Lei Jun personally disclosed: Xiaomi Motors decided to take autonomous driving as its first breakthrough direction, investing 3.3 billion yuan in the first phase of research and development, and its dedicated team has exceeded 500 people.

But what is surprising is that when it was revealed that Xiaomi Motors was betting on autonomous driving, Lei Jun went further and said: In the next two years, he will not refute the rumors or introduce any new developments until the appropriate time. Report regularly.

Today, when marketing routines are everywhere, Xiaomi Motors chooses to remain silent because of "rumors." It’s hard to imagine how Xiaomi, which is so timid, can establish itself as a car brand. And without formal caliber output, all that is left in the market are "rumors" flying in the sky.

In fact, the issue of Xiaomi automobile production qualifications is not a new topic.

Previously, according to Yizhuang New Energy Vehicle Research Institute, it is expected that Xiaomi Automobile Factory will obtain automobile production qualifications from June to July 2023. Earlier, people familiar with the matter revealed that relevant parties in Beijing are trying to push Xiaomi to acquire Borgward Automobile and transfer Borgward Automobile's 180,000-unit production capacity into the Xiaomi automobile project.

On November 29, 2022, Beiqi Foton issued an announcement about the court declaring Borgward Automobile bankrupt, officially declaring Borgward Automobile bankrupt. But as of today, there has been no more progress in the "good things" between Xiaomi Auto and Borgward. What's more, taking over Borgward actually means taking over negative assets of up to 2.29 billion yuan.

In general, it is not easy to draw a conclusion in advance whether Xiaomi Motors will be responsible for the rise of new energy vehicles in the north. But judging from its aggressive move to build a factory, Xiaomi Motors must have a lot of confidence in its car-making qualifications.

Let him be strong and let him be strong, and the breeze blows on the hills. Xiaomi Motors has always been well versed in this, and it looks like it will let the wind blow from east to west. But then again, as far as the current new energy vehicle market is concerned, even if Xiaomi Motors can remain calm, it must become urgent.

The failure of Xpeng Motors' G9 model made people see the cruel side of the market, and many people even believed that Xpeng would risk falling behind. Even companies as strong as Tesla have to rely on price cuts to recover increasingly weak orders and deal with the ensuing long-tail problems.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Xiaomi Motors does not stand up and establish its own brand image, it may be too late by 2023.

Live with confidence, die with pride

Jidu cars at the same time as Xiaomi Motors, Robo-01 and Robo-02 have already appeared on the same stage and will inevitably be launched soon. Not to mention Huawei, in addition to Wenjie, Chery, JiFox, JAC, etc. all have smart car selection plans. With the addition of Avita and JiFox Alpha S Huawei HI version, its team has become even stronger.

As competition and changes in the market environment become increasingly severe, how can Xiaomi Motors be targeted?

 Xiaomi car spy photos circulated online

Xiaomi knows marketing, and its marketing capabilities even put Liu Qiangdong to shame.

Therefore, in terms of publicity, it is still unknown whether Xiaomi Motors is holding back a big move and waiting for the final moment. But what we have to face now is still the problem. What kind of promotional content should Xiaomi Motors rely on to most effectively establish its first impression of the industry?

Generally speaking, price/performance is Xiaomi's best label, but in the face of Tesla's dimensionality reduction attack, price/performance is obviously not that easy to achieve. Coupled with the use of autonomous driving as a breakthrough, there may be only one way left for Xiaomi - smart equality.

What is smart equality?

In short, it is to implement sufficiently complete intelligent capabilities, including intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, etc., into relatively affordable electric vehicles. It is obvious that today’s smart label track is very crowded. If Xiaomi Motors wants to stand out, it can only put more effort into intelligence, or even lose money to make a profit.

But on the other hand, Xiaomi Auto seems to be more afraid of falling into a low-price trap, so it shows more hesitation. The good news is that judging from the latest disclosed news, Lei Jun has made up his mind not to make a second "Xiaomi phone".

A person familiar with the matter said that Xiaomi’s first car is a mid-sized fastback sedan (internally codenamed Modena), which is divided into two versions. The plan currently being discussed internally is: one version is positioned in the range of 260,000-300,000 yuan, and the other version is above 350,000 yuan.

Putting aside the product to discuss the price, it is a bit suspected of being a hooligan, but I believe that even if the vast number of rice fans weigh it, the starting price of Xiaomi Auto's 260,000 yuan is beyond psychological expectations.

From the perspective of this pricing range, Xiaomi Motors seems to want to follow the old path of Xpeng P7 and face the challenge of Tesla Model 3. The target of Xiaomi Motors' revolution is not just any "no-brand" car, but at least it will be at the level of Xpeng Motors.

Who would have thought that these two former good brothers would actually draw swords against each other!

"When the electric vehicle industry matures, the top five global brands will account for more than 80% of the market share. In other words, the only way for us to succeed is to become one of the top five and ship more than 10 million vehicles every year."

What Lei Jun said is not completely unreasonable. But now that we think about it further, even if it already has a user base, Xpeng Motors, which is similar to it, only delivers 120,000 cars a year.

And if Xiaomi Motors really sets the price of its first car starting at 260,000 yuan, then it will be as close as heaven and earth to its goal of shipping 10 million cars per year.

So, is Xiaomi Motors too confident?

In fact, confidence has always been a part of brand strategy, and what is required is to live out your posture with confidence. It’s just that on the other side of this coin, if you don’t listen to the voice of the market, and you don’t have a 100% perfect diamond, the conceited young people will inevitably suffer from the double education of the market and consumers.

Xiaomi Motors will not be an exception, and it will even struggle in the uncertain year of 2023, as it is surrounded by many companies.