Xiaomi has raised its electric vehicle (EV) delivery target for the third time this year, now aiming for 130,000 units. CEO Lei Jun announced the new goal after the company posted a 30.5 per cent revenue increase for Q3. The target has been revised upwards from 120,000 units for the SU7 sedan, which debuted in March, reflecting growing demand. The car, styled similarly to Porsche models and priced competitively under USD 30,000, has garnered attention in the highly competitive Chinese EV market, offering a more affordable alternative to Tesla’s Model 3.
EV and plug-in hybrid sales in China have grown to account for over half of overall sales in the world’s largest automaker. In October they grew by 56.7 per cent from the prior year (2023), marking the fourth consecutive month battery-powered autos including plug-ins outsold gasoline cars in the country.
To keep up with demand, Xiaomi has doubled production shifts since June and launched the premium SU7 Ultra model priced at more than USD 110,000.
Xiaomi’s President Lu Weibing told a post-earnings call that its factory now could make 20,000 cars each month and that he still saw scope for that to grow.
“Our investment is still very substantial and we continue to improve our hardware and software. And basically, it doesn’t matter what the ultimate delivery level is, we are still investing very heavily. We are working on R&D (research and development) for new models,” he said.
One of the areas Xiaomi was working on was developing autonomous driving technology, he added.
AUTO BUSINESS STILL OPERATING AT A LOSS
Revenue was 92.5 billion yuan (USD 12.77 billion) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, beating an LSEG consensus estimate from 15 analysts of 91.1 billion yuan.
Huatai Securities has forecast Xiaomi will deliver 400,000 EVs in 2025 when electric cars will grow to account for roughly a fifth of revenue compared with 8 per cent for this year.
Xiaomi’s auto business though is still operating at a loss. The unit reported an adjusted loss of 1.5 billion yuan for the quarter, with a gross profit margin of 17.1 per cent.
During the quarter, Xiaomi maintained its position as the world’s third-largest smartphone maker with shipments of 42.8 million units, up 3 per cent and capturing 14 per cent of the market, according to research firm Canalys.
Lu said the company planned to increase the number of offline retail stores in mainland China from 13,000 to 15,000 by the end of the year and 20,000 to next year, and was investing heavily in technology to grow its market share.
Xiaomi reported adjusted net profit up 4.4 per cent to 6.25 billion yuan, versus a consensus estimate of 5.92 billion yuan.
(USD 1 = 7.2438 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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Inputs from Reuters
