The mass production of Xiaomi automobile is just around the corner. Who are the suppliers and potential suppliers？

On March 30, 2021, at the spring new product launch conference of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, solemnly announced that Xiaomi had officially entered the smart electric vehicle industry, and Lei Jun was also the CEO of the smart electric vehicle business; In the next ten years, Xiaomi will invest 10 billion US dollars, with the first investment of 10 billion RMB.

On September 1st of the same year, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was formally established with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan and the registered address of Beijing Economic Development Zone. The legal representative was Lei Jun. At the beginning of its establishment, the core technical backbones included Hong Feng, Liu De, Wei Bing, Zhang Feng, Li Tian and others. Later, Li Xiao and Liu Anyu, R&D engineers of MIX series, also joined the team.

According to Lei Jun’s plan, Xiaomi’s first car is positioned in the middle and high-end car. By October 2021, it was confirmed by Lei Jun that it would be mass-produced in the first half of 2024.

Xiaomi wants to build a car, and the production base is an unavoidable part. In January 2022, it was confirmed that the first factory of Xiaomi Automobile settled in Yizhuang, Beijing. By April, Xiaomi Automobile disclosed its first automobile patent, and the production base started smoothly. It is planned to build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases.

By the end of 2022, the R&D team of Xiaomi Automobile has exceeded 2,300 people, with over 700 patent applications and over 360 authorized patents; The first car was also mass-produced in Q1, 2024, and the development goal of striving to enter the top five in the world in 15-20 years was set.

At his fourth annual speech on August 14th this year, Lei Jun didn’t disclose any progress of Xiaomi Automobile, but the progress of making cars was frequently exposed by the supply chain. Prior to the 19th, Lei Jun and Lu Weibing were blasted to attend the road test of Xiaomi Automobile in Xinjiang. On the 22 nd, the supply chain reported that Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited have become suppliers of power batteries for Xiaomi Automobile at the same time, and the two companies will compete for one supply; On the 23 rd, the market broke the news that the qualification of Xiaomi’s car-making has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, and the biggest suspense dust of Xiaomi’s car-making has been settled; On the 24th, the supply chain broke the news that Xiaomi Automobile has been recruiting general workers in large quantities.

Obviously, Xiaomi Automobile has collected all the conditions for building a car, and mass production is expected to advance smoothly as planned. As the "young people’s first car" is approaching, the biggest suspense of Xiaomi Automobile is only the supply chain. So, which suppliers have confirmed the shortlist? What potential suppliers are there?

Cooperative suppliers appear one after another.

Due to the restriction of confidentiality agreement, among the A-share listed companies, there are not many companies that have disclosed that they have reached a product supply relationship with Xiaomi Automobile, only a few companies such as FAW Fuwei, Aolian Electronics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Eston, Yachuang Electronics, Sanan Optoelectronics, Huayang Group, Guangting Information, Fute Technology and so on.

Power batteries account for 50% of the cost of new energy vehicles, so the power battery suppliers of Xiaomi have attracted much attention. The latest news shows that among A-share listed companies, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited will become the secondary power battery supplier of Xiaomi, while BYD will be replaced by Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines (Hong Kong stock) and become the primary power battery supplier.

In addition to the above listed companies, Continental Core Smart Drive, a joint venture between Geometry Partners, Continental Group and Horizon, is also a supplier of Xiaomi Automobile.

In addition to the confirmed cooperative companies, more companies are still actively promoting cooperation with Xiaomi Automobile, such as Bojun Technology, Meili Technology, Pulutong, Sanfeng Intelligent, Sanhua Intelligent Control, Ruihu Mould, Zhiyun, Kaizhong, Fenghua, Zhejiang Shibao, Hexing, Jinfu Technology, Sanlian Forging and other companies, and are still actively entering the supply chain of Xiaomi Automobile.

The automobile ecological chain is gradually forming.

Long before the official announcement, Xiaomi was already laying out automobile-related industrial chains, such as Sitway, Xinlai Technology, BYD Semiconductor, Biyiwei, Angruiwei, Lingxiwei, Diowei, Jingchen, Nanxin Semiconductor, Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines, Yidong Electronics, Zhuhai Guanyu, Weimar Automobile, Energy Chain Group, Aoyix, Xpeng Motors, Xinan Digital and other industrial chain enterprises, which involved in vehicle manufacturing. Moreover, Xiaomi Automobile has also invested extensively in pan-automobile industry ecological companies such as Kaisi Auto Parts, Renren Auto, Mucang Technology and other auto parts, used cars, travel and driving test training.

After determining to build a car, Xiaomi will continue to complete the industrial chain links such as automobile semiconductors, power batteries, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, chassis and molds through Xiaomi Group, Xiaomi Changjiang Industrial Fund and Lei Jun’s personal angel investment institutions.

The inventory found that automotive semiconductors are a link with the largest number of layout enterprises in Xiaomi’s automotive ecology, including many well-known enterprises such as BYD Semiconductor, Black Sesame Intelligent, Mingqi Sensor, Yutaiwei and Changjing Technology. The field of power batteries also covers mainstream suppliers such as Honeycomb Energy, Ganfeng Lithium Industry, Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines and Zhuhai Guanyu, and has invested in solid-state battery enterprises such as Weilan New Energy in advance.

In addition to electrification, the intelligent layout of Xiaomi Automobile has also achieved remarkable results, covering both intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, such as Thain Leading in the field of intelligent driving, Zongmu Technology, Momenta, and ecological companies such as Chasing Front Automobile in the field of intelligent cockpit. It is worth noting that Xiaomi’s investment layout has included two laser radar companies, namely, Hesai Technology and Sagitar Juchuang, which have the largest sales volume in the world, and will facilitate the creation of a large-scale integrated intelligent driving scheme.