Financial News Agency, December 7 (Reporter Tang Zhixiao) Recently, it was reported that Xiaomi will hold another press conference in the near future. Currently, it is only a few days until the Redmi Redmi K70 series phone, a sub-brand of Xiaomi, is released.

Outsiders speculate that the main character appearing at this press conference is likely to be Xiaomi. The reporter visited the Xiaomi car factory located in Beijing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, as well as the Xiaomi Home offline stores in the Beijing area.

The first phase of the Xiaomi car factory has now been completed. At the time of the reporter's visit, construction and expansion within the park is ongoing. Nearby merchants said that the village has already begun mobilizing, and the Fangxindian village area where they are located will be vacated to build the second phase of the Xiaomi factory.

A store clerk at Xiaomi House told reporters that at present they have not been notified about new products at the press conference, and even if a new product is released, it will not be a mobile phone. Some industry insiders said that with the current floor area of most Xiaomi homes, it is not enough to carry the business of displaying and selling cars, so expanding existing stores or opening new stores would be a more reasonable choice.

This also coincides with the previous statement made by Lu Weibing, the president of Xiaomi Group. He once said that due to car building considerations, Xiaomi's new store covers an area of 600 square meters, and in the future, Xiaomi cars will be sold in Xiaomi's home.

Plant construction, external recruitment

When the reporter came to the vicinity of the Xiaomi car factory, he discovered that the inside of the factory was in the expansion phase.

The planned address for the Xiaomi car factory is located on the west side of Fangxindian Village, Majuqiao Town. The “MI” logo originally hanging from the outside of the factory has been covered in a layer. In addition, many entrances and exits have been blocked by masonry and iron.

Meanwhile, large-scale construction is being carried out inside the park. A number of engineering trucks and sand trucks are entering and leaving during this period, and internal excavators are also under construction. Construction workers told reporters that currently only the northern entrance to the park remains.

A nearby merchant told reporters, “The opposite side is the Xiaomi factory. There was a sign there before, but I don't know when. They covered the Xiaomi logo with a cloth. If you ask for recruitment information, you have to go to the northern entrance.”

As early as September, the Xiaomi car factory began entrusting third-party human resources companies to recruit a large number of workers. The reporter learned from an outsourced recruitment company that in addition to general workers, jobs including testing, quality inspection, and equipment maintenance are being expanded.

According to the reporter's observation, on the west side of Fangxindian Village in Majuqiao Town, where the Xiaomi car factory is located, most of the merchants have now moved out, leaving only a few auto repair shops and grocery stores.

Area to be demolished in Fangxindian

The merchant told reporters: “(Xiaomi Factory Phase I) The recent movement is really not small; it is probably due to expansion. The nearby merchants are all transferring their stores because the village has recently begun mobilizing work. Including our region, as well as farmland on the east side, will have to be demolished and retreated. It should be to make room for the expansion of the Xiaomi factory, but I don't know the exact timing.”

According to the plan, the Xiaomi car project will build a Xiaomi automobile headquarters base, sales headquarters, and R&D headquarters, and 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 began in April 2022 and was completed in June 2023.

The vacated area in the merchant account will be used to carry the second phase of the Xiaomi vehicle factory project. The planned area of the project is 6.06 square kilometers. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024 and be completed in 2025. Each has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. It is expected that the first vehicle will go offline and be mass-produced in 2024.

Earlier, an insider close to the Xiaomi auto supply chain told reporters: “In the long run, the R&D and production of Xiaomi cars will be carried out by Xiaomi's own factories, but it will also reuse parts suppliers owned by BAIC.”

Xiaomi Home may become a new car showroom

The reporter visited a number of Xiaomi homes in the Beijing area and discovered that some of the Xiaomi homes are actually being renovated and are being renovated in an expansionary manner.

Earlier, Lu Weibing, CEO of Xiaomi Group, revealed that Xiaomi's new store covers an area of 600 square meters due to car building considerations. In the future, Xiaomi cars will be sold at Xiaomi's home.

A Xiaomi Home store clerk told reporters, “Recently, the Redmi Redmi K70 has just held a press conference. The K70 Ultra will not be on the market for a short time, so no new phone products will be released. As for what products, we have not been notified.”

Previously, several design drawings of the Xiaomi Home retail store were published on social platforms. As can be seen from the pictures, the new Xiaomi Home design has set aside two special areas to display Xiaomi cars.

According to information previously posted by Lei Jun on social media platforms, as of the end of October 2021, there were more than 10,000 offline Xiaomi Home stores nationwide, and the 10,000th Xiaomi Home store covered an area of 600 square meters. It was one of the first stores to adopt the image of Xiaomi Home 4.0. It is also an integrated service and sales store.

Like Huawei offline stores, Xiaomi cars will also become in-store exhibits. This is also the best way for Xiaomi to quickly expand its sales network, but in terms of channel construction, the two are slightly different.

According to the division of labor between Huawei and Celis, Huawei is responsible for sales, while Celis is responsible for delivery and after-sales. Specifically, when it comes to the terminal, Huawei is responsible for the sales showroom of the experience center and user center, and Cyrus is responsible for after-sales, logistics, warehousing, and delivery of the user center.

Some industry insiders said that Xiaomi's auto retail business will also use the channel format 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 phones, some core cities adopt a direct management model, while others adopt a direct hosting or licensing model. Omni-channel planning brings more unified and efficient services.

The reporter discovered from the recruitment app that Xiaomi recently opened up recruitment for the position of manager of Xiaomi auto stores, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xi'an and other places. The recruiter told reporters, “You need (candidates) to have both sales and management experience, and preferably experience in building a team from scratch. We prefer candidates with first-line sales experience in the NEV industry.”

Previously, Xiaomi Auto had already begun screening for delivery centers in July of this year. The first batch of cities included Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xi'an. The candidate site required at least 120 parking spaces, and the construction should not be less than 3,000 square meters.

A Xiaomi insider revealed to reporters: “The current Xiaomi channel will only be one of the sales channels for Xiaomi cars.”

The two Xiaomi cars “SU7 Max” and “SU7 Pro” previously registered on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website are all pure electric, yet Xiaomi has not abandoned the extended-range technology route. Industry insiders believe that this move is a pragmatic strategy made by Xiaomi to increase sales.

On the recruitment platform, Xiaomi also opens up recruitment for R&D positions related to Zengcheng, including Zengcheng 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 volume of new energy vehicles in the first 10 months of this year was 7.28 million units, with a year-on-year growth rate of 37.8%. Among them, the sales volume of pure electric models from January to October was 5.16 million units, a year-on-year growth rate of 25.2%, which was less than that of general plug-in hybrid vehicles, which included 82.6% year-on-year growth.

At the recent Xiaomi 2023 Q3 performance conference, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group, said in an interview with a reporter from New Consumer Daily: “Mr. Lei himself did not state that the initial sales volume of Xiaomi cars could reach 100,000 units, but the goal of building Xiaomi cars is 15-20 years to enter the top five in the world.”

Editor/jayden