Xiaomi's new move in car manufacturing: investing in Tongyu Auto, a developer of smart driving systems

       Recently, Qichacha showed that Shanghai Tongyu Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes, adding Hainan Jimu Venture Capital Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of Xiaomi Group, as a shareholder. At the same time, the company's registered capital increased from 30.0778 million yuan to 32.2653 million yuan.

       Shanghai Tongyu Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. was established in September 2016 and is located in Anting International Automobile City, Shanghai, China. It is a high-tech company initiated and established by the research team of Tongji University and is a key incubation enterprise of Tongji University's "Technology Achievement Transformation". Tongyu Automotive is committed to becoming a leading domestic first-tier supplier of automotive intelligent driving systems, focusing on the research and development and industrialization of "next-generation key technologies for wire-controlled chassis", and its product layout includes wire-controlled brake systems, wire-controlled steering systems, brake energy recovery systems and advanced driver assistance systems.

       Hainan Jimu Venture Capital Co., Ltd.'s shareholder is Xiaomi Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., which holds 100% of the former's shares. Through Qichacha, it can be seen that Hainan Jimu Venture Capital Co., Ltd.'s business scope is: venture capital (limited to investment in unlisted companies); investment activities with own funds (general business projects are operated independently, and licensed business projects are operated with relevant licenses or approval documents) (projects that require approval according to law can only carry out business activities after approval by relevant departments).

       In addition to Tongyu Auto, we also see from the list of invested companies of Hainan Jimu Venture Capital Co., Ltd. that there are ten companies: Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd., Atech Automotive Electronics (Wuhu) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiangyan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Qixin Micro Semiconductor Co., Ltd., etc., covering power batteries, smart vehicle-mounted equipment, electronic components, integrated circuit design, automotive chip design, etc., and all of them are strategic investments.

       Since Lei Jun announced at Xiaomi's spring new product launch conference in March last year that he would enter the smart electric vehicle industry, there has been little information about Xiaomi Auto except for some technical patents. However, judging from the list of companies invested by Hainan Jimu Venture Capital Co., Ltd. and the time of investment, Xiaomi Auto has been quietly making plans.

       In March this year, according to Mobile China, Luo Baojun, general manager of Xiaomi's Beijing-Tianjin branch, revealed that the engineering prototype can be seen in the third quarter of this year, and said that "it will definitely exceed everyone's imagination."

       At the same time, September of each year is Xiaomi’s flagship launch conference. Let us wait and see whether Xiaomi Auto can be unveiled during this period.