The auto circle during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday is very busy, and the speech given by Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, at the 2021 China Automobile Chongqing Forum has once again aroused the attention of the industry to Xiaomi car manufacturing.
"Xiaomi Lei General (Lei Jun) and we have a very good cooperative relationship, we contract a large number of Xiaomi mobile phones, is a strategic cooperative relationship." On June 13, after clarifying his report of "dissuading Xiaomi from building cars," Wang Chuanfu revealed the current cooperation between BYD and Xiaomi. "BYD supports the development of Xiaomi cars in the future auto business, and not only. BYD's cooperation with Xiaomi in the automotive field is discussing some projects."
At the same time, the head of BYD confirmed to the Financial Associated Press that "BYD and Xiaomi are indeed discussing cooperation", but the other side "did not comment" on the rumors of contract manufacturing.
In his speech at the China Entrepreneur Forum in Abuli on June 9, Wang Chuanfu worried that Xiaomi would "waste three years" in building cars. "for example, like Lei Zong (Lei Jun) 100 billion (building cars), the key is to waste three years. How much is it worth these three years? You can't buy it with money. "
On March 30th this year, Xiaomi announced a high-profile investment of $10 billion over the next 10 years to enter the vehicle business. In the following two months, Lei Jun successively appeared in Ningde era, Changan Automobile, SAIC General Motors Wuling, Great Wall Automobile and other mainframe factories and leading spare parts enterprises, but there was no follow-up until Wang Chuanfu clarified the cooperative relationship between the two sides through the ongoing Chongqing auto show.
In fact, BYD and Xiaomi have not only cooperated for many years in business, but also have a close personal relationship between Wang Chuanfu and Lei Jun. It is understood that Wang Chuanfu and Lei Jun are both members of the "Huaxia Alumni Association." In April this year, a group photo of Zhang Lei Jun, Wang Chuanfu, Weilai Automobile founder Li Bin, Xiaopeng Automobile founder he Xiaopeng and ideal Automobile founder Li Xiang attended a class reunion, which was also interpreted by the industry as "Lei Jun is building cars for Xiaomi."
"in addition to OEM, there are many other projects that the two sides can cooperate with." Some industry analysts believe that for BYD and Xiaomi, if the two sides can achieve cooperation, it will be a win-win situation.
From BYD's point of view, BYD's battery business is carried out through Fudi batteries, and its external suppliers include FAW Red Flag, Ford Mustang and so on. However, most of the battery business is still produced and sold by itself. According to Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's brand and public relations department, "Fudi battery plans to apply for IPO in the next one to two years." then Fudi battery is bound to continue to expand external supply and reduce the proportion of related transactions, and Xiaomi is also one of the options.
In addition, BYD launched e-platform 3.0 at the Shanghai Auto Show in April. One of the features of this platform is highly integrated-the electric drive system is upgraded to an 8-in-1 module, and the heat pump becomes "standard". Based on this, the electric vehicle born from this platform can accelerate as fast as 2.9s, the comprehensive mileage can exceed 1000km, and the "flash charge" technology can charge for 5 minutes and drive 150 kilometers.
"in addition to the cooperation that has been reached with Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Didi, many friends are already discussing the application of the new generation e-platform with BYD." Wang Chuanfu once said. Thus it can be seen that this platform full of "cool techs" is one of the technologies promoted by BYD recently.
"from Xiaomi's point of view, BYD is currently a leading enterprise in the field of new energy vehicles. For Xiaomi, which starts almost from scratch, choosing BYD is undoubtedly a shortcut on the way to building cars. " The above industry analysis said.
