China’s Xiaomi is said to be launching its much-anticipated YU7 electric sports utility vehicle on Thursday, along with other products such as mobile chips developed by the company.
Analysts touted the YU7 as a challenger to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y in China, the world’s largest car market, and Xiaomi disappointed fans by not showing off the car at the Shanghai auto show last month.
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said on his Weibo account on Monday that the YU7 will be launched at the event along with other products such as the Xring O1 mobile chip and the new Xiaomi 15S Pro smartphone.
After selling smartphones, home appliances and smart products for most of its 15-year history, Xiaomi began making electric vehicles with the launch of the SU7 sedan last year. Since December, monthly sales of the SU7 sedan have surpassed those of the Tesla Model 3.
Analysts said the company’s sales were still beating expectations, but orders for the company’s SU7 sedan fell after a fatal accident involving the SU7 in March.
In addition to the competition for electric vehicles, China’s smartphone market is also intensifying as rivals such as Huawei and Apple use their own custom-designed chips to create tightly integrated ecosystems and enhance user experiences.
Lei Jun said in another Weibo post that Xiaomi has invested 13.5 billion yen (about 1.87 billion US dollars, about 159.84 billion rupees) to independently develop the advanced mobile chip Xring O1, and plans to invest at least 50 billion yen (about 4,273.54 billion rupees) in chip design over at least 10 years.
A Xiaomi representative told Reuters that the 50 billion yen (roughly Rs. 2,946 crore) investment timeline starts in 2025.
Xiaomi began designing chips in 2014 and launched its first mobile processor, the 28nm Surging S1, in 2017, which was first used in the Xiaomi 5C smartphone.
Lei Jun said that due to “various setbacks,” the company later shifted its focus to less complex chips, including battery management and imaging chips. However, in 2021, the year it decided to start building cars, it also decided to start developing mobile phone chips again.
“Xiaomi has always had a chip dream, because to become a great hard technology company, chips are the peak that must be climbed,” he said. “We will definitely do our best.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
