New Energy News Roundup

SHANGHAI, Apr 7 (SMM) – A weekly update on the trending stories from the New Energy sector. 

Xiaomi’s EV business venture: Will it be able to compete with Tesla and BYD?

Xiaomi Group has officially established its smart car business, according to an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A wholly-owned subsidiary will be formed and co-founder/ CEO Lei Jun will take charge of the business unit. Xiaomi plans to invest 10 billion yuan in the first phase and $10 billion over the next decade. 

On March 26, international newswires reported that Xiaomi was in close contact with Great Wall Motors and planned to use Great Wall Motor’s factory to produce electric cars and that they may sign a joint car-making plan. However, Xiaomi has yet to respond on this, nor provide details about the car manufacturing business. 

There are several models for Internet companies to set foot in the field of new energy vehicles. One model is that Alibaba and Tencent and auto companies set up joint ventures for joint manufacturing. The other model is that Didi gives car companies the full authority to produce automobiles. The third model is not involved in vehicle manufacturing, such as Huawei, who serves as upstream supplier of car companies and only provides key components such as operating systems and chips. The fourth model is directly manufacturing vehicles on its own. SMM understands that Xiaomi’s announcement should refer to the fourth model. 

However, as car manufacturing is a long process and it takes about 1-2 years for the optimisation of battery, it will be interesting to find out if Xiaomi will be able to compete with existing car makers such as Tesla, BYD and NIO.

Shenzhen’s NEV ownership will reach about 1 million units by 2025

The Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission issued the "Shenzhen Work Plan for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles (2021-2025)". The plan proposes that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the proportion of NEVs in the city's newly registered vehicles (excluding replacement and renewal) will reach about 60%. By 2025, the city's NEV ownership will reach about 1 million units, about 43,000 fast charging piles with public and dedicated networks will be built, about 790,000 slow charging piles with basic networks will also be built, and a standardised and normalised NEV management system will be established.

Shenzhen plans to increase NEV ownership through efforts in the public and private sectors and infrastructure construction during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Shenzhen strives to achieve production of 181,000 vehicles, including online car-hailing vehicles, logistics vehicles and administrative vehicles by 2025. In the private sector, the city will expand its publicity efforts and encourage consumers to purchase NEV through economic, administrative, legal and other methods. 

It is estimated that Shenzhen’s NEV ownership will reach 780,000 units by 2025. On the downstream infrastructure end, Shenzhen will focus on creating sufficient parking in the public service area, charging integrated guarantee system, and charging service for private car in less than 0.9 km.

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