Xiaomi Motors was disappointed in the first half

There is not much official news about Xiaomi Motors, but the five words "progress exceeds expectations" account for a large part.

It is understandable that Xiaomi Group continues to make blood transfusions, saying that Xiaomi Motors' progress has exceeded expectations, which is worthy of belief; however, in today's turbulent market environment, Xiaomi Motors has not shown "exceeding expectations". On the contrary, the volume of Xiaomi cars is slowly decreasing.

Recently, Xiaomi Group disclosed its results for the first quarter of 2023, with total revenue of 59.477 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.9%; adjusted net profit of 3.233 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%; the group's overall gross profit margin increased to 19.5%, a record high .

Although Xiaomi Group's total revenue declined in the Q1 quarter of this year, its earning power has improved. It is precisely in this group state that Xiaomi smart cars and other innovative business expenses have spent a huge sum of 1.1 billion yuan.

What’s really puzzling is that Xiaomi cars are “burning money” but can’t hear the sound.

In this regard, Lu Weibing, partner and president of Xiaomi Group, said lightly in a telephone financial report conference: Xiaomi's car manufacturing is progressing smoothly and has entered the R&D acceleration phase. Summer testing and winter testing will be conducted this summer and winter respectively. Xiaomi cars will be based on It was originally planned to be launched in the first half of next year.

It is not difficult to guess that Xiaomi Motors’ main strategy is to hide its capabilities and bide its time; and “talk less, do more and never make mistakes” is a development method pursued by Xiaomi Motors. It is estimated that it is for this reason that in August last year, Lei Jun publicly declared that he would "not refute rumors in two years."

But is the market really that simple?

Today, it has been more than 2 years and 2 months since Xiaomi Auto was officially announced. During this period, there have indeed been different rumors and varying degrees of revelations. But as far as the product itself is concerned, the veil of "young people's first smart car" is still tightly covered, and all the problems converge here——

In this era where the fragrance of wine is scary, can Xiaomi Automobile catch up from behind and occupy the limited space in the hearts of consumers?

01

In the first half, Xiaomi cherished "Xiaomi"

At this moment, after more than 2 years, it may be too early to say that Xiaomi Motors has passed the "first half" of car manufacturing; but it is not difficult to speculate that before Xiaomi Motors officially debuts next year, the appalling " "A moth" will most likely not appear.

After all, similar to Huawei , Xiaomi Motors also cherishes the "Xiaomi" brand image.

Looking back at the time when Lei Jun shouted "Fight for Xiaomi cars", there were many doubts among the public, especially the "persuasion" from Wang Chuanfu, the car industry leader, which made more strange eyes focus on Lei Jun and Xiaomi Group.

It was also at that time that everyone would regard Xiaomi's weak mobile phone market business as an imperative prerequisite for Xiaomi Auto. Although Xiaomi was not facing any internal or external troubles at that time, the pressure brought by the criticism from both inside and outside the industry was bound to be considerable.

The arrow is on the string and must be fired.

Lei Jun personally went to the "front line", not only personally recruiting talents, but also calling friends and mingling with major car companies; he also strengthened himself, studying the changes in the entire automobile industry from zero to one.

Needless to say, "laymen" guide experts. To extend the timeline, Musk is not an "old man" in the automotive industry. Li Bin, Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng, etc. cannot be said to be in the automotive industry in the strict sense.

In comparison, Lei Jun's own IP is even more outstanding. However, at this moment, the problem exposed by Xiaomi Auto may be more about timing.

Is it too late for Xiaomi to build a car?

It’s really hard to answer this question, but it’s a fact that must be acknowledged. Today’s Chinese auto market will never return to the state of disorderly expansion it once was. And this also means that a new batch of new car-making forces such as Xiaomi cannot avoid the objective issue - car-making qualifications.

In fact, the helpless failure of Ziyoujia years ago has already revealed many problems.

“In the past, I just took a PPT and built a car. Some even took a prototype and said I would build this model in the future, and then raised a lot of funds from the society. In the end, it became a mess, and some even went to the United States to get away with it. This This kind of thing must never happen again.”

At the beginning of this year, Miao Wei, the former Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said this. And it is precisely because of these lessons learned that the authorities have begun to be cautious and tightened on the issue of manufacturing qualifications for new energy vehicles .

To be fair, the biggest variable for Xiaomi Motors in the future is probably its car-making qualifications. And according to rumors, Huawei's continued determination not to build cars is also related to its production qualifications.

After all, one thing affects the whole world. What the new energy vehicle market needs is stable and positive development, rather than inflating the "bubble" to become bigger and more superficial, let alone "changing orders overnight."

From the perspective of Xiaomi cars, there is no turning back, so we can only be careful, careful, and more careful.

On the one hand, under pressure from regulators, despite strong support from local governments, the "right to issue" car-making qualifications is still in the hands of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission; on the other hand, Xiaomi Auto has invested real money. Whether it is factory construction or the accumulation of human resources, these are costs that are “never coming back”.

In such a general environment, Xiaomi Motors cannot be aggressive in its marketing and publicity; on the other hand, if Xiaomi Motors starts to promote it in a big way, it may mean that the problem of its car-making qualifications has been solved. , whether it is acquisition or self-application.

02

In the second half, who is in charge?

Generally speaking, whether it is marketing or supply chain system construction, given the size of Xiaomi Auto, there will not be too many problems. But the important point is how Xiaomi Automobile can make a good start, and more importantly, how it can tell the story of Xiaomi's car manufacturing as a car company.

To take a step back, it is understandable that Xiaomi Motors was "obscenely underdeveloped" in the first half; but in the second half, it really can't be "shrinking its neck".

There has always been a saying in the automobile industry that "the first half of the competition is electrification, and the second half is intelligence." What is certain is that in the previous electrification competition, BYD and Tesla have taken priority. Top spot.

Therefore, most of today's car brands, including new car-making forces such as Wei Xiaoli, are actively preparing for the intelligent competition in the second half.

There is no doubt that for the automobile industry, technology will always be the core competitiveness, and the upper limit of intelligent technology will not form a so-called bottleneck in the short term. It is precisely because of this that Xiaomi Motors has taken autonomous driving as its first breakthrough point and expressed its determination to "enter the first echelon in 2024."

But for Xiaomi Motors, the second half is not just about intelligence. As the saying goes, Jianghu is not only about fighting and killing, but also about human relationships.

Tesla was founded in 2003 and has been in development for 19 years; Weilai, Xpeng, and Ideal were all founded in 2015 and have just passed the 7-year itch. Compared with them, Xiaomi Auto is a latecomer and needs to spend more energy on market adaptation, consumer recognition, and brand accumulation.

Since this year, the entire domestic new energy vehicle market has embarked on a new "reform", adding many variables. The occurrence of various events such as price wars, the roller coaster price of lithium carbonate, and commercial mutual lawsuits all point to the same problem - the market needs more practical products, and car companies are determined to get involved.

Obviously, the first batch of leeks that were willing to try new energy sources have been harvested. Now, major car companies are facing those people who are in very stable mood and are in urgent need of new energy vehicles. They don't have those wild and radical ideas, they just want stability, cost-effectiveness, and standard features.

So, facing this series of demands, what can latecomer Xiaomi Auto do? In other words, is it true that, as industry media have revealed, Xiaomi Motors wants to take the luxury and high-end route, regardless of Xiaomi's natural label of "cost-effectiveness"?

Based on the current actual situation, car-making qualifications, product positioning, development pace, etc., seem to be issues that Xiaomi Auto needs to solve urgently. And in terms of time, time waits for no one. The launch of Xiaomi cars next year is already within reach.

But there is another bright future, and there is good news: after the former head of marketing Zhou Lu resigned, it was rumored that "Great Wall General" Wen Fei was about to join Xiaomi Motors and be responsible for the marketing department. And what is particularly worth mentioning is that the spy photos belonging to Xiaomi cars have been updated again.

"This is the last major entrepreneurial project in my life. I will personally lead the team. I believe that Xiaomi Auto will succeed one day. I am willing to risk all my reputation in life to build the first smart car for young people."