Lei Jun took the young people back from Musk again. After
officially announced the starting price of the standard version of Xiaomi su7 at 215,900 yuan on the evening of March 28, compared with the starting price of 245,900 yuan for the standard version of Tesla model 3, Xiaomi su7 is 30,000 yuan cheaper.
In the price war between car companies last year, Musk once lowered the starting price of the model 3 standard version to 229,900 yuan, setting a record low price for domestically produced Tesla . During the same period, "Late Auto" broke the news that the starting price of Xiaomi's first car, which is about to be mass-produced, was set in the range of 260,000-300,000 yuan, and the starting price of the high-end version reached more than 350,000 yuan. The young man "abandoned" by Lei Jun was praised by Musk.
One year later, Xiaomi su7 proved with practical actions that Lei Jun still cannot let go of young people. Although Lei Jun has emphasized on many occasions that Xiaomi su7 will not be priced at 199,000 yuan. But in order to remain friends with young people to the end, Lei Jun still found ways to break through the bottom line he had set.
If users rush to order the Xiaomi su7 standard version before the end of April, in addition to enjoying the xiaomi pilot pro smart driving subscription service worth 18,000 yuan, they can also get a car smart refrigerator worth 2,000 yuan and 25 speakers worth 6,000 yuan for free for a limited time. Luxurious audio and nappa leather seats worth 8,000 yuan.
minus the above-mentioned free benefits, the starting price of Xiaomi su7 standard version can be reduced to 181,900 yuan in disguise.
At Xiaomi's first annual meeting in January 2011, Lei Jun told all his colleagues and family members: "Xiaomi wants to make the best mobile phone in the world, but the price is not 6,800 yuan, but 1,800 yuan, or even 800 yuan."
Since then, Xiaomi has become the first mobile phone for young people with its excellent price/performance ratio. Later, Xiaomi successively called "young people's first TV", "first refrigerator" and "first bracelet"... Now, Xiaomi also doesn't want to let go of "young people's first car".
"We started discussing at 7 pm (March 27). I said whether it would be 30,000 cheaper than Tesla." Tesla model 3 has become the price anchor for Lei Jun's pricing of Xiaomi su7. refers to the profit and loss point of model 3 of 223,000 yuan. Xiaomi originally set a starting price of 239,000 yuan for the standard version of Xiaomi su7.
In the face of increasing competition from car companies, the initiative to lower prices does not only occur on the Xiaomi su7 standard version. "(Xiaomi su7 top version) was originally going to be priced at 350,000 yuan, but now it's too expensive, and everyone's expectations for Xiaomi are too high." Lei Jun explained that the starting price of Xiaomi su7 max version was finally lowered to 299,900 yuan. Yuan.
It is worth mentioning that Lei Jun also rarely invited the founder of "Wei Xiaoli" to the press conference. Yu Chengdong, who did not show up, was inevitably mentioned by Lei Jun. When talking about the top-end version of Xiaomi su7 achieving 800 kilometers of four-wheel drive range, Lei Jun blurted out "far ahead", which caused the audience to laugh. Lei Jun quickly changed the word - "a generation ahead" and said: "I think Lao Yu has firmly cemented his lead in our minds." In addition to the standard version priced at 215,900,
, the pro version priced at 245,900, and the max version priced at 299,900, Lei Jun also specially launched two new The founding commemorative editions, namely Xiaomi su7 founding edition and Xiaomi su7 max founding edition, are priced in line with the standard edition and max, and are limited to 5,000 units.
In addition to the limited edition, the deposit for Xiaomi su7 Founder Edition is also more expensive, rising from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, and there is no refundable deposit policy for other versions of models within 7 days. The benefit of
’s mandatory order lock is that the Founder Edition will be the fastest delivery model in the Xiaomi su7 series and will be delivered on April 3, followed by the standard version and the max version, which will start delivery at the end of April, at the latest The pro version will not be delivered until the end of May.
However, in the face of a large number of orders coming in, whether the above-mentioned delivery plan can be carried out smoothly has become a new challenge left to Lei Jun.
According to Xiaomi Auto’s official WeChat account, within nearly half an hour after the official opening of pre-orders at 10 pm on March 28, the number of Xiaomi Su7 units exceeded 50,000 units.
The last company that fell into "capacity hell" due to the popularity of large orders was Zhijie s7 under the leadership of Yu Chengdong. After being launched in December last year, the waiting period for picking up the Zhijie S7 reached 12-14 weeks, and its production capacity problem has not yet been effectively resolved.
Now, it depends on how Lei Jun can avoid making the same mistake as Yu Chengdong.
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“Talk about price without configuration, it’s like being a hooligan.” After an hour and a half, Lei Jun began to reveal the price of Xiaomi su7, setting up a price anchor for reference in advance for the outside world.
Xiaomi su7 max chose the Porsche taycan turbo with a starting price of 1.5 million yuan, surpassing the latter with a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 2.78 seconds.
More highlights were placed by Lei Jun on the showdown between Xiaomi su7 standard version and Tesla model 3. In terms of size, the length, width and height of Xiaomi Su7 are 4997mm x 1963mm x 1455mm, which exceeds the 4720mm x 1858mm x 1442mm of Model 3 in all data. In terms of performance, Xiaomi Su7 accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in 5.28 seconds, while Model 3 is 6.1s. In terms of battery life, Xiaomi Mi Su7 is equipped with 73.6 kwh battery pack, reaching 700 kilometers, and model 3 equipped with a 60kwh battery pack, reaching 567 kilometers.
It is worth mentioning that in the relevant configuration disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in November last year, the Xiaomi su7 standard version, which is also equipped with a 73.6kwh battery pack, has a maximum battery life of only 668 kilometers. The explanation given by Lei Jun is that Xiaomi Mi Su7 uses Michelin low rolling resistance tires to replace the original Bridgestone comfort tires, thus increasing the entry-level driving range from 668 kilometers to 700 kilometers.
In terms of smart driving, the high-speed piloting and city piloting services provided by Xiaomi su7 for a limited time, model 3 requires money to activate, and the prices are 32,000 yuan and 64,000 yuan respectively.
In order to achieve Lei Jun’s goal of entering the industry’s first camp in 2024, Xiaomi’s intelligent driving R&D team, which currently has more than 1,000 people, will exceed 1,500 people by the end of the year. In the urban NOA field where many car companies compete, Xiaomi also provides He has set his own timetable: starting internal user testing in April, opening it in 10 cities in May, and launching it nationwide in August.
However, the above-mentioned urban noa functions of can only be experienced on the high-end versions of Xiaomi su7 pro and Xiaomi su7 max. The standard version of Xiaomi su7 only provides high-speed pilot assisted driving.
But even based on the lower-cost Xiaomi su7 standard version, Lei Jun’s current comprehensive net profit margin of 5% on mobile phone products is a fantasy. The reason why
model 3 can achieve breakeven at a price of 223,000 yuan is inseparable from the scale effect of its annual sales of nearly 2 million units.
Based on Lei Jun’s previous expectation to enter the top three pure electric luxury cars, Autohome data shows that in February, the top three domestic pure electric cars with a price of more than 200,000 yuan were model 3 (7604 units), BYD Han (5970 units), and 007 (4204 units).
In 2023, Jikrypton, which sold 118,000 cars, had a net loss of 1.135 billion yuan. Lei Jun, who has just joined the automotive war, will most likely not be able to escape the losses in the early stage of impact.
"I know our own profit and loss point. We will definitely lose money when we start, but we are not from Xiamen University (to be scared), I am from Wuhan University." Lei Jun, joking, has already prepared to sell cars at a loss plan. According to Xiaomi's internal accounting, even if it were sold at the previous peak price of 350,000 yuan, it would not be able to cover the cost. "But everyone said that the production capacity in the first year is limited, so we will reduce it first."
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Between profit and scale, Lei Jun chose the latter.
For Xiaomi Motors, compared with making profits, Xiaomi’s first battle is more urgent to increase scale. Alphabet was once featured in "No matter how high the price is, will Xiaomi Motors still have to sell cars at a loss?" Two reasons are given in the article: On the one hand, Xiaomi focuses on the concept of "full ecology for people, cars, and homes", which means that it does not make money by selling cars, but makes money by relying on software and ecosystem; on the other hand, Xiaomi For a new car brand, the most important thing is "visibility" on the road. It has long been everyone's habit to buy a car based on the sales list.
In today's electric vehicle industry, where everyone is competing, Li Shufu was once asked what strategy Geely should adhere to and replied, "I think the basic law of the automobile industry will not change, that is scale. Ultimately, global automobiles The number of industrial enterprises that will survive will not be too many, and only large-scale enterprises can survive."
Compared with traditional car companies' road to scale with first-hand fuel and new energy, new car-making forces often only have to deal with low prices or even losses. Sales volume is one way.
When Zhijie S7 was unveiled in November last year, Yu Chengdong said that the pre-sale price of 258,000 yuan was still a loss after multiple rounds of internal cost accounting. The team's plan was to "turn losses into profits as the scale later increases."
Yu Chengdong
Lei Jun even announced his goal early on to become one of the top five car players in the world in the next 15 to 20 years. In 2022, Lei Jun even detailed the specific indicators to achieve this goal on social media, that is, when the electric vehicle industry matures, the world's top five brands will occupy more than 80% of the market share. "The only way for us to succeed is to become one of the top five and ship more than 10 million units every year."
Like Huawei, Lei Jun and Xiaomi also have a car sales path that is difficult for other new car-making forces to imitate, that is, through Xiaomi Mobile phone diversion, so that as many existing users of Xiaomi mobile phones as possible can buy Xiaomi cars.
Lu Weibing pointed out in a media interview in March: "We expect that the first batch of consumers to buy Xiaomi electric cars will have a high degree of overlap with existing smartphone users." This view is based on the trust that the Xiaomi brand has established among users. and loyalty, as well as the complementarity of smartphones and electric vehicles in the high-end consumer market. The support of
fans is also one of the important factors that pushed Lei Jun to make the decision to build a car. Before announcing the car-making in March 2021, Xiaomi officials conducted a sample survey on social media. Among the 20,000 people who participated, more than 95% supported Xiaomi's car-making. After seeing this result, Lei Jun finally decided to respond to the needs and enthusiasm of rice fans, "If you build it, it will definitely be sold."
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opened the pre-order and achieved a total of 50,000 yuan in nearly half an hour. It has been ruled out whether Lei Jun's car can be sold. worries about going out, but new problems also began to emerge.
Like Yu Chengdong, who was stimulated by the surge in orders last year and shouted "come back to life", Lei Jun is still one step away from leading Xiaomi Motors to gain a foothold in the industry.
Whether it is the Wenjie new m7, which was launched in September last year, or the Zhijie s7, which was launched in December last year, Huawei and its smart car selection partners have repeatedly fallen into production capacity crises in the face of the influx of orders. In order to alleviate users' anxiety about waiting and try to prevent the loss of potential car owners, Huawei began to proactively pay users in Dading. For every day of delay, prospective car owners will receive compensation of 200 yuan, with a cap of 10,000 yuan.
Before Huawei, almost all new car-making forces had encountered production capacity crises. Since
was released in March 2016, the model 3, which has not yet been officially mass-produced, has received orders for more than 500,000 units, and Musk has fallen into "production hell". After Model 3 started mass production in 2017, Musk once disclosed the production capacity plan of Model 3: production increased to 100 units in August, reached 1,500 units in September, and exceeded 20,000 units in December. By 2018, Model 3 weekly production Reached 10,000 units.
Tesla model 3 Source: Tesla official website
Musk’s above-mentioned production capacity plans have not been realized as scheduled. At the fourth quarter financial report meeting in 2017, Tesla executives made it clear, “Currently, hundreds of thousands of customers have already People paid a deposit of US$1,000 in advance, but if these customers want to pick up the car, they need to wait three months longer than the original time."
It was not until July 2018, after a year and a half, that Musk gradually Climbed out of the productivity hell of Model 3.
Domestic NIO and Xiaopeng are also suffering from the production capacity crisis. When Weilai released the electric coupe et5 in December 2021, the influx of orders paralyzed the Weilai app for as long as 10 minutes. However, the well-received and well-received Weilai et5 was stuck in the delivery process. By 2023, NIO's et5, which has solved the problem of production capacity ramping, has already missed the opportunity to sell well. Due to the backlog of inventory, NIO has to help clear up et5 inventory through successive subsidies and price reductions.
When the Xiaopeng g9 was launched in 2022, He Xiaopeng once hoped that the g9 could surpass the Audi q5, with monthly sales exceeding 10,000. But one year later, the cumulative total sales of Xpeng G9 are less than 10,000 units. When summarizing the major problems encountered when g9 was launched, He Xiaopeng singled out delivery, "delivery was not timely, and order chargebacks were serious."
Lei Jun, who already holds 50,000 yuan in orders, will also be shrouded in the shadow of the production capacity crisis. According to China Business News, according to the plan, the Xiaomi automobile factory will be constructed in two phases. The first phase will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 units and will be completed in June 2023; the second phase is planned to start construction in 2024 and be completed in 2025.
It is worth noting that Xiaomi has not yet maintained the first-phase factory at full production. According to predictions by Tianfeng International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Xiaomi's first-phase production capacity plan is less than 80,000 units, and shipments are estimated to be 50,000-60,000 units. After Xiaomi's sales of
exploded, screenshots posted online showed that Hu Zhengnan, senior consultant of Xiaomi Auto, posted: "How should I put it? I can't drink the celebration wine. I went back to the factory tonight without sleeping. This year's production capacity has been reduced. When we ran out, we held meetings all night to find a solution."
In an interview with CCTV's face-to-face program in December last year, Lei Jun had already anticipated the possible production capacity crisis, saying, "I'm particularly worried that it won't be popular at first and no one will buy it; I'm even more worried. What's more, if everyone comes to buy it, they will have to wait for one or two years, and they will definitely be scolded."
will be scolded second. Those potential car owners who can't wait are likely to switch to other camps. Lei Jun also has to think about how to avoid their loss.
Reference material:
"Interview with Lei Jun: "The price was reduced by 30,000 the day before the press conference"" Shenwang
"No matter how high the price is, Xiaomi Motors will still have to sell cars at a loss?" 》Alphabet list
"Lei Jun: I had a "face-to-face" interview on CCTV and talked about the fire of dreams" Lei Jun
"A real-life investigation into the Xiaomi automobile factory in Yizhuang, Beijing: construction has started and mass production is on the line" China Business News
"Xiaomi is developing two models at the same time car, the first model is expected to be sold for 260,000-300,000 yuan." Later auto
