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China

Xiaomi’s Open Car Plant In Beijing To Produce 3 Lakh Electric Vehicles Every Year

iaomi’s open car plant in China will have the capacity to produce 300,000 electric vehicles every year, authorities in the capital said on Saturday. The new car plant will be constructed in Beijing in two phases. The smartphone maker will also build its auto unit’s headquarters, sales, and research offices in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, the government-backed economic development agency Beijing E-Town said on its official WeChat account.

Xiaomi announced its entry into the EV category earlier this year and its recent financial report suggested that the car maker is on track to achieve the goal. Beijing E-Town has also confirmed that Xiaomi’s plant will reach mass production in 2024, a goal announced by Xiaomi’s Chief Executive Lei Jun in October.

Xiaomi registered its new EV company in August with a capital of 10 billion Yuan or Rs 11,000 crore. Lei Jun was signed as the legal representative of the company. Jun, will also serve as the CEO of the new smart electric vehicle business. Jun said that the company has a total of 10,000 people working in research and development as of now. It will add another 5,000 to make its new idea work.

It also hired about 300 staff members to work on the EV project. the company had claimed that it was ready for an investment of $10 billion (roughly Rs 73,000 crores) in its EV unit, to be spent in the span of the next 10 years. Xiaomi is yet to share the details of this investment though.

Xiaomi said that it has conducted over 2,000 interview surveys and visited over 10 industry partners since the March announcement. The company also purchased autonomous driving technology startup Deepmotion for a sum of over $77 million (roughly Rs 562 crores). The acquisition is meant to help Xiaomi in its research and development efforts.

Xiaomi isn’t the only smartphone maker looking to make electric cars. Apple has been working on the idea for a while now but is apparently facing a lot of challenges because of which the project can be delayed. Oppo has also shown intentions of bringing an EV soon.