Lei Jun: The automobile R&D team has exceeded 2,300 people and strives to be among the top five in the world in 15-20 years

According to news on February 10, NetEase Technology learned that Lei Jun recently mentioned the latest progress and goals of Xiaomi Auto at Xiaomi Investor Day. Lei Jun said that 1/2 of his time and energy is spent on Xiaomi 's planning, and 1/4 of his time is spent on Xiaomi mobile phones, IoT and high-end products. At present, the Xiaomi Automobile R&D team has recruited more than 2,300 people. Xiaomi Automobile will be officially mass-produced in the first quarter of 2024. The plans of each team are better than expected.

It is understood that investment in new businesses such as Xiaomi Auto in 2022 has exceeded 3 billion yuan. Currently, Xiaomi Auto’s R&D team has more than 2,300 people. In Xiaomi's third quarter financial report in 2022, Wang Xiang, then president of Xiaomi, once revealed that Xiaomi's R&D team has exceeded 1,800 people. In just three months, the Xiaomi R&D team has increased by 500 people, and the team has expanded rapidly.

Lei Jun said that Xiaomi Motors’ investment in the start-up stage was three times that of other automobile manufacturers.

In terms of the progress of the entire project, Lei Jun said that in September 2022, Xiaomi's soft-coated vehicles will roll off the production line as scheduled, and winter testing will begin at the end of December. According to him, Xiaomi's first phase of autonomous driving plans to have more than 140 vehicles tested across the country, and will be officially mass-produced in the first quarter of 2024. The plans of each team are better than expected.

Lei Jun disclosed the progress of Xiaomi Motors in August 2022. He made it clear that Xiaomi Motors will support autonomous driving and will use 100% full-stack self-developed algorithms. This is something that few companies in the entire industry can achieve, because autonomous driving is a smart electric vehicle. The key to victory. At that time, Xiaomi Motors already had 144 test vehicles on the road for testing across the country.

There is a question about whether the time for official mass production in the first quarter of 2024 is a bit late. Lei Jun said that automobiles are a century-old track and as long as we are optimistic about the automobile industry, it is never too late. It said that Xiaomi’s operation and maintenance of electronics, user experience, and electric vehicles are all on these points. Therefore, it is just right for Xiaomi to launch mass production cars in 2024.

Regarding the profitability of Xiaomi cars, Lei Jun said that in addition to hardware profits, Xiaomi is more concerned about software profits, just like Xiaomi mobile phones. Lei Jun believes that in the past, cars could integrate sales, after-sales services, and charging piles. In the future, cars can integrate more and more services, and Xiaomi's integration capabilities are very good.

Will Xiaomi have an independent financing plan for its automotive business in the future? Lei Jun said that Xiaomi’s 100% ownership of Xiaomi Auto lies in the reuse of Xiaomi’s resources. In the past three years, the 10,000 offline stores established by Xiaomi President Lu Weibing have been very helpful to the marketing of Xiaomi cars. Xiaomi has operations in many countries around the world and will also have a huge marketing network.

"We strive to be among the top five in the world in 15-20 years." Lei Jun mentioned. Regarding Xiaomi Auto’s goals, Lei Jun once said that it will enter the first camp in 2024 and will continue to build cars for decades to come.

Lei Jun once wrote in the book "Xiaomi Entrepreneurship Thoughts": If smart electric vehicles are "consumer electronics", they will inevitably follow the laws of the consumer electronics industry. When the industry enters a mature stage in 15-20 years, the top 5 brands in the world will It will definitely hold more than 80% of the share. In other words, it only makes sense to eventually enter the top 5 in the global industry and achieve annual shipments of more than 10 million units. This will be extremely brutal competition.

This means that the only way for Xiaomi Auto to succeed is to become one of the top five and ship more than 10 million vehicles annually.

In March 2021, Xiaomi officially announced its entry into the electric vehicle industry, expecting to invest US$10 billion in ten years. Lei Jun once said: "This is the last major entrepreneurial project in my life. I am willing to stake all my reputation in life and personally lead the team to fight for Xiaomi Motors."

It is understood that the Xiaomi Automobile project has settled in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone to build the Xiaomi Automobile headquarters base, sales headquarters, and R&D headquarters. It will build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, of which the first and second phases have a production capacity of 15 10,000 units, and it is expected that the first vehicle will roll off the assembly line and achieve mass production in 2024.

Lei Jun once asked netizens on social media to choose what price they thought Xiaomi Motors’ first car should be. The voting results show that fans hope that Xiaomi will make mid-to-high-end cars, so the price range of Xiaomi’s first car is between 100,000 and 300,000 yuan.