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With the electric vehicle revolution quite far along and clear leaders in the industry establishing themselves more and more, I figured it would be very hard now for a new entrant to break through and rise up into significant territory. However, big established tech brands have a leg up — they have massive customer bases, vast retail networks, and enormous teams of varied tech experts and engineers. For a long time, there was expectation and hope that Apple would enter the market. But that didn’t happen — two or three times. Dyson was supposed to get into EVs. That one was a bit more left field, and it got dropped too. Sony, Samsung, and others have poked their noses into the market as well. But it’s finally Xiaomi that is doing what we all expected tech companies could do and stormed the market with high-quality, high-tech, high-volume, competitive electric cars.
But it’s one thing to get sales going in China, where the EV market is so hot and broad that hundreds of companies sell electric cars there and the market is as big as the rest of the world EV market combined. It’s still a big achievement to break into that highly competitive market, but there’s always the question of how well Chinese EV companies can grow their EV brand and sales outside of China — whether that be in Europe, in Australia, in South America, in Africa, elsewhere in Asia, or even in the big protectionist market of the USA. I’ve written about Xiaomi’s truly tremendous start in the EV market, and its big plans for 2025, but we haven’t yet discussed its potential market beyond China … until now.
Reportedly, Xiaomi is now preparing to begin exports. With the second largest smartphone brand in the world and plenty of presence beyond China, how far could this go? How many sales could Xiaomi achieve outside of China in 2025? How many could it achieve long term in various export markets?
“Xiaomi Motors is accelerating its overseas expansion and will launch automotive sales business in multiple regions,” 36Kr writes. “36Kr has learned from multiple sources that Xiaomi is setting up an automotive overseas business. Under the international department of the group, Xiaomi has added a preparation team for overseas sales business, and positions such as market research, project management, and electric vehicle after-sales engineers are being recruited.”
Furthermore, the company is even establishing autonomous driving teams abroad. “Under the automotive department, Xiaomi’s autonomous driving department has added several positions targeting the overseas market to address the regulatory verification and functional implementation of autonomous driving functions overseas. It can be predicted that autonomous driving will be one of the focuses of Xiaomi Auto’s overseas expansion.” I’m not sure how much this is about fully autonomous driving for now. My hunch would be that it’s more about ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) and making sure they match regulations in Europe. However, maybe I’m wrong, and it’s certainly got to be on Xiaomi’s mind long term.
“Insiders told 36Kr that after the team is formed, Xiaomi will conduct small-scale vehicle sales in multiple overseas regions to test the market response and prepare for the large-scale expansion of the overseas business.” Well, 36Kr clearly got some good information from its sources!
“From the perspective of business layout, the overseas sales of Xiaomi Auto will mainly be carried out through the Mi Home stores under the international department. Currently, Xiaomi has more than 100 directly operated stores overseas.” Again, there’s the benefit of having a very large and well established smartphone company plan. “In response to this system, Xiaomi President Lu Weibing recently announced a significant goal to the outside world — planning to open 10,000 Mi Homes overseas in 5 years to bring the ‘Full Ecology of Human, Vehicle, and Home’ and Xiaomi’s new retail model to the international market.”
More than 50% of Xiaomi’s revenue currently comes from independent retailers around the world. In Europe, Xiaomi has 18% of the smartphone market, placing it in 3rd place there.
Other Chinese EV producers have been selling their cars in Europe — XPENG, NIO, BYD, Zeekr, and others — but haven’t had the most success growing their brands there like they have in China or even some other markets around the world. Xiaomi may be in a different boat thanks to its huge brand, retail presence, and reach. We’ll see.
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