Recently, there is news that Xiaomi will hold another press conference in the near future.It is only a few days away from the release of Xiaomi’s sub-brand Redmi K70 series mobile phones.It is speculated that the protagonist of this conference will most likely be Xiaomi Motors. The reporter visited Xiaomi’s automobile factory in Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, Beijing, and Xiaomi’s offline stores in Beijing.
The first phase of the Xiaomi automobile factory has been completed. When the reporter visited, construction and expansion were underway inside the park. Nearby merchants said that the village has begun mobilization and the Fangxindian Village area where they are located will be vacated for the construction of the second phase of the Xiaomi factory.
Xiaomi Home store clerks told reporters that they have not received any notification about a new product launch, and even if a new product is released, it will not be a mobile phone. Industry insiders said that the current floor area of most Xiaomi Homes is not enough to carry the business of car display and sales. Therefore, it would be more reasonable to expand existing stores or open new stores.
This is also consistent with the previous speech of Xiaomi Group President Lu Weibing. He once said that for the purpose of building cars, Xiaomi’s new store covers an area of 600 square meters, and Xiaomi’s cars will be sold in Xiaomi Home in the future.
Factory construction, external recruitment
When the reporter came near the Xiaomi automobile factory, he found that the factory was in the expansion stage.
The planned address of Xiaomi Automobile Factory is located on the west side of Fangxindian Village, Majuqiao Town. The "MI" sign that originally hung outside the factory has been covered with a layer of cloth, and multiple entrances and exits have been blocked with bricks and iron sheets.
At the same time, large-scale construction is underway inside the park. During this period, many construction trucks and sand trucks entered and exited, and internal excavators were also under construction. Construction workers told reporters that currently only the northern entrance to the park remains.
A nearby merchant told reporters: "There is a Xiaomi factory opposite. There was a sign hanging there before, but I don't know when they covered the Xiaomi logo with a cloth. If you want to ask for job recruitment information, you have to go to the north entrance."
Xiaomi Automobile Factory had earlier entrusted a third-party human resources company to recruit a large number of workers since September. The reporter learned from the outsourcing recruitment company that in addition to general workers, positions including testing, quality inspection, equipment maintenance and other positions are being expanded.
According to the reporter’s observation,On the west side of Fangxindian Village, Majuqiao Town, where the Xiaomi Automobile Factory is located, most of the businesses have moved away, leaving only a few auto repair shops and grocery stores.
Area to be demolished in Fangxindian
The merchant told reporters: "There has been quite a lot of movement recently (Phase 1 of the Xiaomi Factory), and it may be expanding. Neighboring merchants are transferring their stores, because the village has recently begun mobilization work. Our area, as well as the farmland to the east, will be demolished and vacated. It should be to make room for the expansion of the Xiaomi Factory, but I don't know the specific time."
According to the plan, the Xiaomi Auto project will build the Xiaomi Auto 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. The first phase covers an area of nearly 720,000 square meters. Construction will start in April 2022 and will be completed in June 2023.
The vacated area in the merchant's account will be used to host the second phase of the Xiaomi vehicle factory project. The project has a planned area of 6.06 square kilometers. It is planned to start construction in 2024 and be completed in 2025. Each has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. It is expected that the first vehicle will roll off the assembly line and achieve mass production in 2024.
An insider close to Xiaomi Auto's supply chain previously told reporters: "In the long term, Xiaomi's R&D and production will be carried out by Xiaomi's own factories, but BAIC's parts suppliers will also be reused."
Xiaomi Home may become a new car showroom
The reporter visited multiple Xiaomi Homes in Beijing and found that some Xiaomi Homes are indeed undergoing renovations, and they are expansionary renovations.
Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, has previously revealed that Xiaomi’s new store covers an area of 600 square meters and is for car manufacturing considerations. In the future, Xiaomi’s cars will be sold at Xiaomi Home.
A Xiaomi Home store clerk told reporters: "Redmi K70 has just held a press conference recently. K70 Ultra will not be launched in a short period of time, so there should be no new mobile phone products released. As for what products will be released, we have not received any notification."
Several design drawings of Mi Home retail stores have been published on social platforms. As can be seen from the pictures, the new design of Mi Home has specially set aside two areas to display Xiaomi cars.
According to information previously released by Lei Jun on social platforms, as of the end of October 2021, there are more than 10,000 Xiaomi Home offline stores nationwide, and the 10,000th Xiaomi Home store covers an area of 600 square meters. It is one of the first stores to adopt the Xiaomi Home 4.0 image, and is also an integrated service and sales store.
Like Huawei's offline stores, Xiaomi cars will also become in-store exhibits. This is also the best way for Xiaomi cars to quickly expand its sales network. However, the two are slightly different in terms of channel construction.
According to the division of labor between Huawei and Cyrus, Huawei is responsible for sales, while Cyrus is responsible for delivery and after-sales. Specific to the terminal: Huawei is responsible for the sales exhibition hall of the experience center and user center, and Thalys is responsible for the after-sales, logistics, warehousing, and delivery links of the user center.
Industry insiders said that Xiaomi's car retail business will also adopt the channel form of retail center + delivery center + service center, but unlike Huawei, Xiaomi will build its own direct sales and service system. Referring to the sales model of Xiaomi mobile phones, some core cities adopt a direct sales model, while other cities adopt a managed direct sales or authorization model. Omni-channel planning will lead to more unified and efficient services.
The reporter found from the recruitment application that Xiaomi has recently opened recruitment for Xiaomi Auto Store Manager positions, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xi'an and other places. The recruiter told reporters:"(Candidates) are required to have both sales and management experience, and preferably have experience in building a team from scratch. We prefer candidates with front-line sales experience in the new energy vehicle industry."
Xiaomi Motors has previously started the selection of delivery centers in July this year. The first batch of cities includes Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xi'an. Candidate sites are required to have at least 120 parking spaces and the building must not be less than 3,000 square meters.
A Xiaomi insider told reporters: "The existing Xiaomi channel will only be one of Xiaomi Auto's sales channels."
The two Xiaomi cars "SU7Max" and "SU7Pro" previously registered on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website are both pure electric vehicles, but Xiaomi has not given up on the extended-range technology route. Industry insiders believe that this move is a pragmatic strategy by Xiaomi to increase sales.
On the recruitment platform, Xiaomi is also recruiting for range-extended R&D positions, including range-extended system design and development engineers. In addition, hybrid-related positions include fuel system engineers, exhaust system engineers, etc.
According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the total sales of new energy vehicles in the first 10 months of this year was 7.28 million units, a year-on-year growth of 37.8%. Among them, pure electric models sold 5.16 million units from January to October, a year-on-year growth of 25.2%. The growth rate was not as high as that of general plug-in hybrid vehicles, which had a year-on-year growth rate of 82.6%, including extended range.
At the recent Xiaomi 2023 Q3 performance meeting, Xiaomi Group President Lu Weibing said in an interview with a reporter from New Consumer Daily: "Mr. Lei himself has not stated that Xiaomi's car sales can reach 100,000 units in the initial stage, but Xiaomi's car-making goal is to enter the top five in the world in 15-20 years."