Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi Corp (小米) unveiled its first four-wheeled electric vehicle (EV) yesterday, with company founder and chief executive officer Lei Jun (雷軍) saying it has ambitions to become a global automotive powerhouse, despite fierce competition at home.
Beijing-based Xiaomi, which is the world’s fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer, is also a leading provider of tablets, smartwatches, headphones and electric scooters.
The company in 2021 announced its intended foray into EVs, joining a trend that has seen several major Chinese tech companies pivot toward the highly competitive sector.
Photo: REUTERS/Florence Lo
Lei took to the stage in Beijing yesterday to unveil the SU7, a sedan that is scheduled to enter the market in 2025.
The model is integrated with Xiaomi software to enable functionality across the firm’s range of devices and would be produced by local manufacturer BAIC Group (北汽集團), the company said.
“The goal is to become one of the world’s top five automotive manufacturers through 15 to 20 years of hard work,” Lei said.
The SU7’s batteries are to be supplied by China’s largest electric automaker, BYD Co (比亞迪), as well as domestic battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (寧德時代).
Many top tech firms in China — which is the world’s largest automotive market — have invested recently in the country’s EV sector.
BYD was the undisputed leader of China’s EV market last month with more than 300,000 models sold, ahead of Tesla Inc’s more than 80,000, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers data showed.
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has achieved rapid growth through its strategy of marketing high-end devices at affordable prices, which were initially sold directly through online channels.
The firm was placed on a blacklist by the US in 2021 due to alleged links to the Chinese military.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS