Chapter 823 Xiaomi Corporation

For the launch of this Jaguar TYPE electric coupe, the British Automotive Group has renovated one of Jaguar's production bases in England and will specifically use it to produce its electric sedan models.

For the transformation of this electric vehicle production center, they drew on the experience of Tesla's transformation of the Fremont factory in California, which will be transformed into a super factory full of automation.

In addition, British Automotive Group has also cooperated with Android Company and the University of Cambridge to set up a research center to develop vehicle engine systems for their electric vehicles. The external characteristics of electric motors are very different from those of internal combustion engines, the most obvious of which The best is torque output and response time.

The response time of electric vehicles can reach the millisecond level, while the internal combustion engine involves the processes of air intake, compression, and power production, plus an uneven torque curve. Even turbocharged models have a process of establishing boost pressure, and their response time is much longer. For electric vehicles, the torque of electric vehicles is established very quickly compared to fuel vehicles.

This also means that electric vehicles can build more intelligent and advanced vehicle-machine systems, allowing computers to have more involvement in the control of electric vehicles.

For example, in Barron's previous life, functions such as automatic driving and automatic parking have been widely used in many electric vehicles...

Of course, although the artificial intelligence research center founded by Barron has been researching and developing technologies such as autonomous driving, it has not yet reached the level of application. Therefore, the electric vehicles launched by British Automobile Group cannot yet provide such services. .

They are cooperating with Android Company and the University of Cambridge to develop British Automotive Group's own car-machine system - they will share the technical results in this area with Android Company, which also means that after Android Company has accumulated technology in this area, it will also Ability to provide related software services to other car companies.

After the Jaguar brand under the British Automobile Group launched the TYPE electric coupe, their Land Rover brand will also successively launch pure electric and hybrid SUV models after improving battery performance.

In addition to Tesla and British Automobile Group, BYD is also a company that has entered the field of new energy vehicles very early.

As early as the acquisition of Qinchuan Automobile in 2003 and its entry into the automotive industry, BYD had already begun to establish relevant departments for electric vehicles.

They once launched China's first pure electric sedan F3DM. Of course, BYD's influence in the field of electric vehicles is still minimal at this time, but they are already the world's largest battery supplier, relying on their accumulation in the battery field, and will launch next Successful electric models such as the Tang and Song will also make BYD one of the largest electric vehicle manufacturers in the world.

Next, British Auto Group's joint venture in China, Trina Ying Auto, will also cooperate with BYD to use their batteries to launch China's local electric vehicle models.

…

"Hello, Mr. Lei, congratulations on the successful launch of Xiaomi's mobile phone."

In a coffee shop in Yanjing, Zhang Junning said to the somewhat elegant man who had just sat down in front of her.

"Thank you, Miss Zhang. I wonder what's going on today?"

At the same time, Lei Jun was also looking at the young and beautiful woman opposite him without any trace.

Although he is young, Lei Jun will not neglect her at all. After all, he knows the identity of this woman. She is the president of Rich23 Capital, and this investment company headquartered in Lijiapo is the major shareholder of BAT, the three giants in China's Internet industry.

At the same time, Rich23 Capital is also one of the shareholders of Xiaomi, the company he started again.

It can be said that in China's IT industry, Lei Jun is older than the current founders of the three BAT companies.

He started his business when he was a senior in college. In 1992, Lei Jun joined Kingsoft Corporation. In the following 16 years, Lei Jun held many important positions in Kingsoft Corporation.

It was not until he led Kingsoft Company to successfully go public that he finally decided to leave there and start a new business.

In April 2010, Lei Jun and several team members founded Xiaomi, targeting the mobile phone industry.

In Xiaomi's Series A financing at the end of June this year, Zhang Junning participated in their financing on behalf of Rich23 Capital. At that time, Xiaomi's valuation was US$250 million. Rich23 Capital invested US$25 million and obtained 10% of the company's equity. shares.

The reason why Rich23 Capital can participate is because this investment company can provide Xiaomi with the resources it needs - not only is it a major shareholder of many Internet companies such as Alibaba, Penguin and Baidu, but Rich23 Capital can also help Xiaomi. Provide assistance in the upstream supply chain.

On August 16 this year, Xiaomi officially released their first mobile phone MI 1.

On September 5, Xiaomi mobile phones began to accept online reservations.

This is why when meeting Lei Jun today, Zhang Junning congratulated Xiaomi on the launch of its mobile phone.

This time, Xiaomi also relied on continuous publicity in their mobile phone community and adopted a thirsty marketing approach. They shipped the first batch of 100,000 mobile phones, and the pre-orders were completed in just one and a half hours.

It can be said that this is a very good result for a new company that has no previous experience in mobile phone manufacturing.

Although Barron currently owns two mobile phone brands, Honor Electronics and Motorola, it is still worth investing in Xiaomi's potential.

After all, after Xiaomi entered the market, it began to lower the price of smartphones. Before that, even the "low-end" touch-screen smartphones of Dopod, which are owned by Honor Electronics, were priced at nearly 3,000 yuan in China.

And the first mobile phone launched by Xiaomi, MI 1, was priced at only 1,999 yuan!

In fact, Dopod's smartphones are not impossible to sell at this price - after all, with the support of Honor Electronics, except for a few parts such as chips and screens, most of the smartphone components have been able to be localized.

In addition, Honor Electronics' procurement scale enables them to get the goods at a relatively low cost.

But the problem is that since it can maintain a relatively high profit, Honor Electronics has no need to actively reduce prices.

However, after the appearance of Xiaomi mobile phones, it is different. The new mobile phones launched by Dopod in the fourth quarter of this year will also be greatly reduced.

Only their high-end Mate series of mobile phones will still maintain a pricing level slightly lower than the iPhone.

"Xiaomi's products can be said to be a hit, but your current production capacity still restricts the company's development..."

Hearing Zhang Junning's words, Lei Jun smiled and said:

"There is no way. After all, this is the first time we make mobile phones. We must ensure quality, and we have to take our time in the supply chain."

"This is as it should be. We are very optimistic about the development of Xiaomi. I wonder when you will start the next round of financing? We will give a satisfactory valuation."