A few days ago, it was reported that Xiaomi would hold a press conference again in the near future, but it was only a few days before Xiaomi’s sub-brand Redmi Redmi K70 series mobile phone was released.
It is speculated that the protagonist of this conference is most likely Xiaomi Automobile. The reporter visited the Xiaomi Automobile Factory in Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone and the offline store of Xiaomi Home in Beijing.
At present, the first phase of Xiaomi Automobile Factory has been completed. When the reporter visited, the construction expansion was going on inside the park. Nearby merchants said that the village had begun to mobilize, and their Fangxindian village area would be vacated to build the second phase of Xiaomi Factory.
The clerk of Xiaomi House told reporters that at present, they have not received any notice about the new products of the conference. Even if the new products are released, they will not be mobile phones.
Some insiders said that the floor space of most Xiaomi homes is not enough to carry the business of automobile display and sales, so it is a reasonable choice to expand the decoration of existing stores or open new ones.
This is also consistent with the previous speech by Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group. He once said that for the sake of building a car, Xiaomi’s new store covers an area of 600 square meters, and Xiaomi’s car will be sold in Xiaomi’s home in the future.
Factory construction, external enrollment expansion
When the reporter came to the vicinity of Xiaomi Automobile Factory, he found that the interior of 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 original "MI" logo hanging outside the factory has been covered with a layer of cloth, and many entrances and exits have been blocked by bricks and iron sheets.
At the same time, there is a large-scale construction in the park, during which many engineering trucks and sand trucks come in and out, and internal excavators are also under construction. The construction workers told reporters that there is only a northern entrance in the park at present.
Nearby merchants told reporters: "The opposite side is the Xiaomi factory. There was a sign before, but I don’t know when they covered the logo of Xiaomi with cloth. If you ask for job information, you have to go to the north entrance."
Xiaomi Automobile Factory has commissioned 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 and equipment maintenance are being expanded.
According to the reporter’s observation, on the west side of Fangxindian Village, Majuqiao Town, where Xiaomi Automobile Factory is located, most of the merchants have moved away, leaving only some auto repair shops and grocery stores.
Fangxindian area to be demolished
The merchant told reporters: "(Xiaomi Factory Phase I)There has been a lot of movement recently, and it may be expanding. Nearby merchants are transferring stores, because the village has started to mobilize recently. Including our area, as well as the farmland in the east, it should be demolished to make room for the expansion of Xiaomi factory, but I don’t know the exact time. "
According to the plan, Xiaomi Automobile Project will build Xiaomi Automobile Headquarters Base, Sales Headquarters and R&D Headquarters, and will build a complete vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, the first phase of which covers an area of nearly 720,000 square meters. It started in April 2022 and was completed in June 2023.
The vacated area in the business account will be used to carry the second phase project of Xiaomi Vehicle Factory.It is planned to start construction in 2024 and complete construction in 2025, each with a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. It is expected that the first car will be off the assembly line and mass production will be realized in 2024.
Earlier, an insider close to the supply chain of Xiaomi Automobile told reporters: "In the long run, the R&D and production of Xiaomi Automobile will be carried by Xiaomi’s own factory, but it will also reuse the parts suppliers under BAIC."
Xiaomi home may become a new car exhibition hall
The reporter visited a number of millet houses in Beijing and found that some millet houses are indeed being renovated and are expansionary.
Previously, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, has revealed that Xiaomi’s new store covers an area of 600 square meters, which is due to the consideration of making cars. In the future, Xiaomi’s cars will be sold in Xiaomi House.
A clerk of Xiaomi House told reporters: "Recently, Redmi Redmi K70 has just held a press conference, and K70 Ultra will not be listed in a short time, so it should not release new mobile phone products. As for what products are released, we have not received the notice."
Previously, several design drawings of Xiaomi Home Retail Store were published on social platforms. As can be seen from the pictures, the new design of Xiaomi Home has specially set aside two areas to display Xiaomi cars.
According to the information previously released by Lei Jun on social platforms, by the end of October 2021, there were more than 10,000 offline stores of Xiaomi Home nationwide, and the 10,000-th Xiaomi Home Store covered an area of 600 square meters, which was one of the first stores to adopt the image of Xiaomi Home 4.0, and it was also a service and sales integrated store.
Like Huawei’s offline stores, Xiaomi Auto will also become an in-store exhibit, which is also the best way for Xiaomi Auto to quickly spread its sales network, but in terms of channel construction, the two are slightly different.
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 the user center, and Cyrus is responsible for the after-sales and logistics, warehousing and delivery links of the user center.
Some insiders said that,Xiaomi’s auto 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 phone, some core cities adopt direct sales model, while other cities adopt managed direct sales or authorization model. Omni-channel planning will bring more unified and efficient services.
The reporter found from the recruitment application that Xiaomi recently opened the recruitment of the store manager position of Xiaomi Automobile Store, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xi ‘an and other places. The recruiter told reporters: "Need(candidate)Both sales and management experience, and it is best to have the experience of building a team from scratch. We prefer candidates with first-line sales experience in the new energy automobile industry. "
Previously, Xiaomi Automobile has started the screening of delivery centers since July this year. The first batch of cities include Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xi ‘an, etc., and the candidate venues are required to have at least 120 parking spaces and the buildings should not be less than 3,000 square meters.
Some insiders of Xiaomi revealed to reporters: "The existing Xiaomi channel will only be one of the sales channels of Xiaomi Automobile."
The two Xiaomi cars "SU7 Max" and "SU7 Pro" previously filed on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are all pure electric, but Xiaomi has not given up the extended program technical route.The industry believes that this move is a pragmatic strategy made by Xiaomi to increase sales.
On the recruitment platform, Xiaomi is also open to recruitment for R&D positions related to extended range, including extended range system design and development engineers. In addition, hybrid-related positions include fuel system engineers and exhaust system engineers.
According to the statistics of China Automobile Industry Association, the total sales volume of new energy vehicles in the first 10 months of this year was 7.28 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 37.8%, of which the sales volume of pure electric vehicles from January to October was 5.16 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 25.2%, which was lower than that of generalized plug-in hybrid vehicles including extended range, with a year-on-year growth rate of 82.6%.
At the recent Q3 performance meeting of Xiaomi in 2023, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, said in an interview with the reporter of New Consumer Daily: "Mr. Lei himself did not say that the initial sales of Xiaomi cars could reach 100,000, but the goal of Xiaomi’s car building is to spend 15-20 years. Enter the top five in the world."
This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:New Consumer Daily (ID: CLS-xxfribao-01), Author: Tang Zhixiao, Editor: Liang Youyun
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