Xiaomi officially launches itself in the electric car segment: the Xiaomi EV division was born, the share capital exceeds one billion euros
The possible entry of Xiaomi in the electric car segment has been talked about for a long time, but the rumors never materialized as they do now. The Chinese giant's commitment to zero-emission mobility is now concrete, and will be manifested through the company Xiaomi EV Inc, which has a share capital of 10 billion yuan, about 1.3 billion euros at today's exchange rate.
The business of electric cars is booming, and is expected to be just the beginning of a rise that will have to be constant. The climate emergency that manifests itself with increasingly violent meteorological events imposes a radical change in habits, and the regulatory bodies, especially those in Europe, are trying to accelerate as much as possible this transition that will necessarily decline to the past the use of thermal engines, polluting and no longer sustainable for the planet. So it's not surprising that companies like Xiaomi, with its vast experience in electronics and technology, are interested in having their say even in a segment very different from their chosen one, such as electric cars.
Xiaomi EV already has 300 employees
The aims of Xiaomi, and it's certainly not discovered today, are very ambitious, and the company has every intention of establishing itself in the electrification of vehicles. So here is the debut of a new division, Xiaomi EV Inc, which will deal with electric cars and plans to invest large sums of money in addition to the already paid-up capital, as mentioned above, of over 1 billion euros.
Xiaomi, in short, is serious, and it could not be otherwise with an investment already announced in March of the equivalent of eight and a half billion euros spread over ten years. Xiaomi EV is headed by the "usual" Lei Jun, founder and current CEO of Xiaomi, and can already count on a workforce of 300 employees, naturally destined to increase over time when the projects will be numerous.
At present there is nothing in the pipeline, or at least nothing beyond the assumptions, circulated in the past, according to which Xiaomi would start from an SUV or a zero-emission sedan.
Xiaomi EV: acquisitions and market research
Officially, there is research conducted over the past five months, which has served the company well in sounding out the market and consequently forging the relationships with suppliers needed to make electric cars, a field Xiaomi has never ventured into before.
After all, the realization of scooters has little to do with that of much more complex systems such as cars, despite the fact that in recent years the Mi Scooters have shown excellent qualities that have led them to stand out in the segment of micro electric mobility.
Making cars, however, is a very different task that requires a greater commitment, and that's why the company has recently acquired Deepmotion, a company focused on autonomous driving that will allow Xiaomi to acquire its expertise appropriate to the sector, for an outlay equivalent to over 60 million euros.
To have more concrete news about Xiaomi's electric cars we will have to wait, but in the meantime the first, necessary, step is already taken.