Mehul DasJul 18, 2022 17:32:36 IST
Xiaomi launched its first electric vehicle, an electric scooter in 2016. The scooter looked like one of those push-scooters that most of us played with as children, and was called the Xiaomi M365 or Mi Electric Scooter. Now, after almost half a decade, the Chinese tech giant is gearing up to unveil the prototype of its first EV car.
The Chinese giant made a big commitment to the electric car market last year, pledging to invest $10 billion over the next ten years.
Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, is expected to unveil the first EV prototype that Xiaomi has been working on, sometime in August. That car has been designed by HVST Automobile Design, who were responsible for the Maven concept car from WM Motor.
After the unveiling takes place, the prototype is destined for extensive road testing, and we can potentially expect a Xiaomi car PR campaign to kick off. There is a good chance that some version of the car may even come to India, given how the Indian market has veered towards EVs in the last couple of years.
India currently relies heavily on Chinese industries for its battery tech. It was only in March-April of 2022, that we started making our own battery cells, which, even under the best of circumstances isn’t enough to cater to the rapaciously growing demand of the EV ecosystem in India.
It will be interesting to see how China’s Xiaomi plays in the Indian EV market, and if at all they will set up a manufacturing unit in India. In any case, Xiaomi’s first EV car in India is still at least 5 years away.
Even in China, the actual production of these EVs is still some time off. The Xiaomi Auto manufacturing plant and R&D centre still need to be built in China’s Yizhuang province.
Experts and journalists believe that the plant and test centre would be completed by the end of the year and that Xiaomi’s first road-worthy cars that a consumer can buy, will leave its production line in sometime 2024-2025.
