Xiaomi bets big on ‘smartphone with four doors’ despite huge challenges in electric vehicle market
- Founder Lei Jun is hoping to turn cars into yet another connected device in Xiaomi’s IoT system
- The move from traditional cars to electric vehicles mirrors the transition from feature handsets to smartphones, analysts say
Calling the initiative his “final major entrepreneurial project”, he struck a confident tone, describing EVs as a “natural choice” for the Chinese gadget maker to expand its so-called artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) ecosystem, a vision that Lei has been trying to sell to investors for years.
Lei has long touted Xiaomi as an internet company that also makes hardware.
“I call [Xiaomi] the triathlete of the new economy, where Xiaomi makes hardware and devices, sells its products through e-commerce and offers services on the internet,” he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in 2018.
While investors may have been sceptical at the time, Xiaomi’s latest financial results speak for themselves.
The Beijing-based company doubled its profits in 2020 from the year before, raking in more than 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion). Revenue from internet services rose nearly 20 per cent; revenue from IoT and lifestyle products increased 8.6 per cent.
