China’sXiaomiwilllaunchits highly-anticipatedYU7electric sports utility vehicle onThursday, as well as other products, such as a mobile chip developed by the company, it said.
Analysts have touted theYU7as a challenger to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y in China, the world’s largest auto market, andXiaomihad disappointed fans last month by not showcasing the car at the Shanghai autoshow.
Lei Jun,Xiaomi’s founder and CEO, said on his Weibo account on Monday that theYU7will belaunched at the event alongside other products, such as the Xring O1 mobile chip and newXiaomi15S Pro smartphone.
Xiaomibegan manufacturing EVs last year with thelaunchof the SU7 sedan after selling smartphones, household appliances and smart gadgets for most of its 15-year history. Since December, the SU7 sedan has outsold Tesla’s Model 3 on a monthly basis.
Analysts say it is still outselling, but the company’s orders for its SU7 sedan have fallen following a fatal accident in March involving an SU7.
Apart from EV rivalry, China’s smartphone market has intensified as competitors, including Huawei and Apple, leverage their own custom-designed chips to create tightly integrated ecosystems and enhance user experience.
In a separate Weibo post, Lei saidXiaomihad invested JPY 13.5 billion ($1.87 billion or roughly Rs. 15,984 crore) to self-develop its advanced mobile chip Xring O1 and that it planned to invest at least JPY 50 billion (roughly Rs.4,27,354 crore) more in chip design over at least 10 years.
AXiaomirepresentative told Reuters the JPY 50 billion (roughly Rs.2,946 crore) investment timeline starts from 2025.
Xiaomibegan designing chips in 2014 andlaunched its first mobile processor, the 28-nm Pengpai S1, in 2017, which debuted in theXiaomi5C smartphone.
The company later shifted its focus to less complex chips, including battery management and image chips because of “various setbacks,” Lei said. In 2021, however, the year it decided to start making cars, it also decided to start developing mobile phone chips again.
“Xiaomihas always had a chip dream because in order to become a great hard technology company, chips are a peak that must be climbed,” he said. “We will definitely go all out.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
