Xiaomi to invest $10bn in Electric Vehicle Unit, Completes Business Registration of EV Unit
The new unit, to be called Xiaomi EV, opened with registered capital of CNY 10 billion (roughly Rs. 11,290 crores) and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun as its legal representative, Xiaomi said in a statement.
Some 300 staff have so far been employed to join the EV unit and it continues to recruit talent, it said.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi on Wednesday said it has completed the official business registration of its electric vehicle unit, the latest milestone in its push into the automotive sector.
Xiaomi said in a statement that the new entity, which will be called Xiaomi EV, has been opened with a registered capital of 10 billion CNY (about Rs 11,290 crore) and a legal representative of Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun.
The smartphone maker, which became the world’s second best-selling brand after Samsung in the second quarter, confirmed its foray into electric cars in March, with an investment of $10 billion (about Rs 73,020 crore) over the next 10 years. promised.
Lei said the push into electric vehicles would mark his “last major entrepreneurial project” at the time.
Xiaomi said on Wednesday that it has conducted over 2,000 interview surveys and visited more than 10 industry peers and partners. However, it has disclosed few details of its strategy for the automotive sector or the types of vehicle it intends to launch.
Last week, the company said it bought autonomous driving technology startup DeepMotion for more than $77 million in an effort to boost research and development.
Earlier in August, Reuters reported that Xiaomi was in talks with troubled real estate giant Evergrande Group to buy a stake in the latter’s automotive unit.
In response to the news, a Xiaomi spokesperson wrote on the company’s social media account that it is in touch with several automakers, but has not yet decided which ones to work with.
Xiaomi’s second-quarter earnings last week beat analysts’ estimates, with revenue and net profit rising 64 percent and 87.4 percent, respectively. The company’s share of the global smartphone market has soared after its main rival Huawei pulled out due to US government sanctions.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
