Source: Securities Times
Author: An Yufei

On the afternoon of April 18th,$XIAOMI-W (01810.HK)$Founder, Chairman and CEO Lei Jun started a live broadcast at the Xiaomi Auto Beijing Delivery Center. During the live broadcast, Lei Jun said, “A lot of people are urging us to deliver faster, and they also told me if Mr. Lei can go to the factory to get the screws. I'm also here to take this opportunity to talk to you. Today, our factory is a modern factory, and the main processes are all fully automated. In fact, screwing is not as fast as machine production; it just adds chaos.”

Lei Jun revealed during the live broadcast that Xiaomi's sales volume was 3 to 5 times higher than expected. According to a research report related to Shanghai Securities, the Xiaomi SU7, as Xiaomi's first automobile product, has achieved good order results.

Lei Jun also connected with Wei Jianjun, chairman and executive director of Great Wall Motor during the live broadcast. By the end of the live broadcast, Lei Jun's live broadcast had a total of 190 million likes and an online audience of over 100,000.

Talking about technology while telling stories, Lei Jun became a “gold medal seller”

In this live broadcast, Lei Jun told quite a few passages. Some people said he was wearing “imitation Jobs” as a mobile phone, while others said he was wearing “imitation of Musk” when making cars. Lei Jun said that this was an “unwhite mistake.” Lei Jun said that the blue suit was very similar, but the previous phone press conference was wearing engineer clothes, jeans, and shirts. “If I imitate, I can imitate more like it.”

In addition, Lei Jun also responded online to the “President Lei Shuangwen” that everyone is currently seeing on the internet: the winner of the college entrance examination, when his life was at a low point, he only had a cold 4 billion on his card...

Lei Jun smiled and said, “I hope my online friends will help me refute the rumor. First, I'm not the champion in the college entrance examination. I didn't get 700 points, and I didn't have a cold 4 billion in my card when my life was low. Like everyone else, I was born in a rural area. I relied on hard work, hard work, and the opportunities of this era to reach the present day step by step. In fact, I think success in life is definitely not a triumph; it still depends on dreams, hard work, and the help of noble people. Without the support of so many rice noodle friends today, I don't believe the Xiaomi SU7 would have been so successful.”

Lei Jun also told a passage on the scene: “I saw a very interesting story on the internet. It said that you were caught by the traffic police for speeding, and then you didn't admit it. The traffic police asked Xiao Ai how many kilometers (per hour) did we drive just now? Classmate Xiao Ai said 266 (km/h), the car owner was stupid. The traffic police then asked Xiao Ai how to punish her for speeding up to 266 kilometers? Classmate Xiao Ai said, “I know, a fine of 2,000 yuan, 12 points deducted.” This is a joke made up by a netizen. We really don't have this feature, but I hope everyone doesn't speed too fast.”

The “speeding” section is to reflect the “speed” of Xiaomi cars. Lei Jun said that looking back at the three-year car building process, he thought the most powerful thing was that Xiaomi built the entire Modena chassis architecture from scratch. Starting from scratch, this architecture was all self-developed. With such an excellent chassis architecture, the Xiaomi SU7 can be proud to say that it is “the fastest car within 500,000.”

According to Xiaomi Auto's official Weibo account, the Xiaomi SU7 is a C-class high-performance eco-technology sedan with 2.78s 100 acceleration and a top speed of 265 km/h. It is equipped with a Xiaomi smart chassis that is deeply integrated with software and hardware.

“Over the past 20 days, to be honest, the Xiaomi SU7 has been so popular that I am fearful every day, because after it was too hot, the public beta began. There were no dead spots in 360 degrees, almost every little detail (was) zoomed in, and many didn't really know the car, so all kinds of interpretations and all kinds of analyses made me really nervous. These 20 days have passed, and I have let go of my nervousness a little bit. Under such a high-intensity 'horrible, 'public inspection of the Xiaomi car, I think the Xiaomi SU7 can handle it.” Lei Jun believes that it withstood these tests because the Xiaomi SU7's “strong iron frame” is really strong.

According to information, the Xiaomi SU7 uses an armor-cage steel-aluminum hybrid body design. Among them, the proportion of high-strength steel and aluminum alloy reached 90.1%, the maximum body strength reached 2,000 MPa, and the torsional rigidity of the vehicle reached 51,000 nm/deg.

Sales volume was 3 to 5 times higher than expected. Lei Jun said “it's too early to talk about success”

In this live broadcast, Lei Jun said, “As of today, it's only been 20 days since (Xiaomi SU7) was released. We have been able to deliver when released, delivered and increased, and as soon as the quantity was increased, it was a huge scale. Today's core problem is that sales are 3 to 5 times higher than we expected, so this is also a 'very pain' point for us.”

Lei Jun said that because the car is very large, its manufacturing process is particularly complex, with more than 20,000 parts, involving a very large number of suppliers, and the entire factory is operating according to a very advanced production model, that is, JIT (based on the basic principle of producing the perfect quality products required by customers only when needed), that is, how many pieces are produced in one hour after receiving an order. All surrounding suppliers produce at the same time, and those large parts are all supplied within 50 kilometers, so the process of increasing production capacity may be more complicated than you might think.

Having reaped sales that have surpassed expectations, can Xiaomi cars be considered “already successful”?

Lei Jun shared a story. He said, “I had a meeting with engineers at the R&D center this morning. One engineer was very proud to tell me that his son is 8 years old and in the second year of elementary school. His son told him that every student in their class knows the Xiaomi SU7 and knows that he is the developer of the Xiaomi SU7. His son is particularly proud. In the 20 days since the release of the Xiaomi SU7, his status at home has improved a lot, and his speech is very useful.”

Lei Jun said that it is a bit too early to talk about success, but the first stage is definitely a success. “I think we also need to seriously grasp the quality of manufacturing, deliver cars well, and serve users well before we can truly succeed. Of course, building a car is a long journey. Xiaomi's goal is to reach the top 5 in the world in 15 to 20 years. I think the cycle of building cars is very long. Xiaomi is an enterprise with a long-term spirit.” he said.

In response to some netizens' opinion that the Xiaomi SU7 is not cost-effective enough, Lei Jun responded that pure electric car companies basically don't make money; outrageously, another one lost 100,000 yuan. “In an industry with huge losses, don't talk about cost performance. In pure electric cars, basically everything is a loss.”

In response to a netizens' question about whether Xiaomi NIO will launch an off-road vehicle, Lei Jun said that there is no such plan yet, and “the Great Wall off-road vehicle is doing a good job.” Lei Jun reiterated during the live broadcast that future model plans are kept secret within the company.

According to a research report related to Shanghai Securities, the Xiaomi SU7, as Xiaomi's first automobile product, has achieved good order results. In the long run, Xiaomi has a customer base, with 641 million monthly active users worldwide, and Xiaomi auto products have a large potential customer base. Judging from its financial strength, Xiaomi has prepared a large amount of reserve capital for the car building business. In 2023, the Xiaomi Group invested 19.1 billion yuan in R&D, and is expected to invest 24 billion yuan in 2024. Capital reserves guarantee the continuous development of product technology, and can also help Xiaomi to seize market share in the fierce price war.

Editor/jayden