Xiaomi has confirmed plans to enter the market for electric vehicles. The company said it will invest an initial CNY 10 billion, and expects this to grow to USD 10 billion over ten years. Xiaomi will set up a new subsidiary for the business, and CEO Lei Jun will also serve as CEO of the new company.
The announcement confirms earlier reports that Xiaomi was in talks with Great Wall Motor factory on producing smart cars. People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the vehicles would be aimed at the mass market, in line with Xiaomi’s strategy on electronic products. Great Wall would provide engineering consultancy.
Growth for the next decade
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the move into electric cars is one of the company's key growth initiatives for the next decade. It will allow Xiaomi to build on its understanding of a hardware-based internet service model and existing ecosystem of connected products and customers.
He also launched the Surge C1 Image Signal Processor, showing off Xiaomi's ability to develop processors internally. This is its first self-developed ISP, on which development started seven years ago. It's available in the new Mix Mix Fold, its first folding-screen smartphone in mass production.
Alive logo
Separately, Xiaomi unveiled a redesigned logo. Designed by Kenya Hara, president of the Nippon Design Center, the new logo adopts a softer, rounder contour on the corners of the previously square logo, along with a redesigned 'MI' typography. The corporate colour remains orange to underline the "liveliness and youthfulness" of Xiaomi, while black and silver will be used as supplemental colors for high-end products.
The redesigned logo comes also with a new branding around the concept of 'alive'. "'Alive' interprets Xiaomi’s philosophy from a visual perspective, giving the brand a visual image full of life: people are alive – technology is created by people – technology, thus, is also alive," the company said.
