China’s Xiaomi to Build EV Plant in Beijing

Chinese technology firm Xiaomi plans to build an electric vehicle (EV) production plant in the Daxing district of the country's capital Beijing.

Xiaomi signed a co-operation agreement with the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area in Daxing on 27 November. The EV plant will have a design capacity of 300,000 units/yr, which will be developed in two phases of 150,000 units/yr each. Commercial production is scheduled to begin in 2024.

The Beijing-headquartered firm in March announced that it entered the EV manufacturing industry, after investing 10bn yuan ($1.56bn) to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary to develop EVs with artificial intelligence. The firm will inject an additional $10bn in the next 10 years into its EV business. It acquired autonomous driving company Deepmotion in August this year for $77mn.

Xiaomi makes and invests in smartphones, mobile apps, laptops, home appliances, bags, shoes and consumer electronics, among other products. Xiaomi surpassed US technology firm Apple to become the third-largest smartphone producer globally by shipment volume in October 2020, shipping 46.2mn handsets in the third quarter of 2020.

More Chinese firms from various industries, such as Xiaomi, Baidu and Evergrande have entered the EV industry in recent years in response to Beijing's initiative of accelerating its transformation to a low-carbon society. Beijing has announced a development plan for the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry for 2021-35, targeting a 20pc share of NEVs in the country's total vehicle sales by 2025.

China's NEV output and sales during January-October reached 2.566mn and 2.542mn units, up by 175.3pc and 176.6pc from a year earlier, with the share of NEVs reaching 12.1pc of the country's total vehicle sales over the period, according to data from the China Automotive Manufacturers Association.

Global sales of NEVs are expected to exceed 5mn this year, up by over 50pc from last year, according to market participants.