Xiaomi To Have Electric Car HQ In Beijing

Xiaomi has earmarked the Beijing region and its suburb of Yizhuang as the headquarters for its electric car project. Its automotive division has signed a contract with the Beijing Economic Technological Development Area to establish its entire automotive business. It has a goal of delivering its first EV in 2024 for which it needs to establish a headquarters, an R&D facility, and manufacturing lines - and this will be constructed in two phases. 

Xiaomi Automotive was formed recently as a subsidiary of Xiaomi communications which is now the third-largest smartphone maker in the world behind only Samsung and Apple. Its entry into the EV market was announced by its billionaire founder CEO, Lei Jun only a couple of months ago. It already has a team of 300 employees dedicated to making its first electric car with the unit having an investment of $1.55 billion. 

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Xiaomi hasn't closed a production partner for EVs. It leverages Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer for the production of its gadgets. The Yizhuang area which is a suburb of Beijing is already a hotbed for EV startups and also is home to SMIC, the biggest semiconductor company in China. The Chinese government has already announced the deal with Xiaomi via the social chat service WeChat. 

As a part of the deal, Xiaomi will be creating facilities in two phases with a production output of 150,000 per year. Xiaomi, like many other tech majors, is looking at the EV segment as their next foray for growth with sales of smartphones and PCs plateauing across the world.