Lei Jun has bigger ambitions

Author | Yu Yan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Stirring up the "spring river" of new energy vehicles, after the live broadcast of many big shots in the automotive industry, Lei Jun has bigger ambitions.

Xiaomi Group President Lu Weibing revealed on May 23 that the management recently set a new target for deliveries this year during a meeting. The new target is to ensure delivery of 100,000 vehicles this year, challenging the annual target of 120,000 deliveries. "Although there is pressure, the management should still challenge this target."

So far, among the new forces in car manufacturing, Aito was the fastest to achieve the goal of delivering 100,000 vehicles, taking 15 months. Xiaomi not only aims to surpass this record, but also to further advance on this basis.

Undoubtedly, Xiaomi, which has gone from small to large, is once again showing the attitude it had when entering the mobile phone industry and disrupting the industry landscape. As the new energy vehicle industry enters the elimination round, it is accelerating industry transformation.

One of the reasons Xiaomi has raised its delivery target for this year is to address the issue of delivery cycles. This is currently the biggest obstacle for many consumers hesitating between ordering Xiaomi's SU7 and other models.

Some institutional investors also believe that after the release of Xiaomi's SU7, investors have shown great enthusiasm for Xiaomi. Currently, investors are focusing on Xiaomi's car orders, deliveries, and unit selling prices, which are important indicators for evaluating the valuation of the car business. From the current stock price perspective, the target of delivering 100,000 vehicles this year has already been reflected in the market value at a relatively high price-to-sales ratio.

Since Xiaomi announced the launch date of Xiaomi cars on March 12, Xiaomi Group's stock price has risen by over 36%, with a market value increase of over 112 billion yuan. Currently, investors' enthusiasm for investing in new energy vehicles has significantly waned compared to two to three years ago, and Xiaomi needs to tell a new story to win investors' favor.

From the current feedback on delivery cycles from users, even though the delivery time for models like Xiaomi SU7 Max has been slightly advanced, the general delivery cycle for current orders is still over 30 weeks.

As of May 15, the cumulative delivery of new cars in the Xiaomi SU7 series has reached 10,000 vehicles. Xiaomi plans to further accelerate.

Wall Street News has learned that Xiaomi plans to exceed 10,000 new car deliveries in a single month for Xiaomi SU7 in June this year. To achieve this goal, Lu Weibing stated that they are ready to start double shifts in June, with Xiaomi's car factory capacity fully speeding up, and they can basically deliver slightly ahead of the time given by the app when placing orders.

Of course, double shifts are just a temporary measure. Next, Xiaomi's car production capacity still needs the landing of the second-phase factory and the launch of more new models.

Xiaomi's factory in Beijing Yizhuang is divided into two phases, with the first phase already in operation, covering an area of approximately 720,000 square meters and an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles; the second phase officially started construction this year and is expected to be completed by 2025.

Lu Weibing also revealed that new Xiaomi cars are currently under development. All of this will help Xiaomi improve its capacity and delivery data in the future.

In addition to the expected improvement in capacity and delivery data, Xiaomi's management also revealed another key data point at the performance meeting, which is the current order structure, which is related to Xiaomi's current unit selling price data Lu Weibing revealed that currently, the MAX version accounts for over 40% of the market share, while the Standard version and Pro version both account for 30%.

As for achieving the top tier in the industry for intelligent driving, Xiaomi is also accelerating its layout. At the end of this month, Xiaomi's car will start pushing the City NOA function to the Pro and Max versions, with the first batch expected to be available in 10 cities, and more cities to be unlocked by August this year. Recently, Xiaomi also poached Wang Naiyan, former CTO of TuSimple China. Xiaomi also stated that it will continue to increase its budget for intelligent driving, with an investment of 1.5 billion just this year.

In order to make more consumers believe in Xiaomi's capabilities, on May 18th, Lei Jun conducted a live broadcast to test the City NOA and Highway NOA of Xiaomi SU7. From the final results, Xiaomi's intelligent driving performance was good, with only 1 takeover and 2 interventions in one hour.

Of course, as a new force in car manufacturing, with the rapid increase in the number of Xiaomi SU7 vehicles on the road and the massive traffic brought by Xiaomi itself, consumers and investors will scrutinize every detail of Xiaomi SU7. Topics about Xiaomi SU7's intelligent driving and post-road failure on social media always spark discussions.

In the past, Xiaomi's insights into consumers have created products that consumers love, and these capabilities have been continuously amplified by the multiplier effect of traffic, translating into concrete order volumes. However, the experiences of new forces like Li Auto, XPeng, etc., also indicate that the growth of new car manufacturers is not easy, and there are many difficulties to overcome on the road to becoming industry giants.

Fortunately, Xiaomi has also achieved good results in areas such as the high-end of smartphones and IoT. Financial data shows that Xiaomi Group's revenue in the first quarter was 75.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27%; adjusted net profit was 6.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 100.8%.

As a new force in car manufacturing, Xiaomi has financial and industrial strength that "Wei Xiao Li" does not possess, allowing it to run faster compared to other new forces. However, when Lei Jun decided to stake his entire reputation on building cars under the Xiaomi brand, he also decided that he must tread more carefully on the road of car manufacturing. Otherwise, it may also affect Xiaomi's other businesses.

Fortunately, Lei Jun has Lu Weibing, Xu Fei, and other management teams and teams who have been with him all the way, allowing him to remain stable in the rear while leading Xiaomi's car to fight tough battles. Next, Xiaomi will continue to break through sales barriers.

Lei Jun drives Xiaomi forward, accelerating towards becoming one of the top five global car manufacturers