[Aika Auto Aika One-Corner SHOW Original]
"Xiaomi Auto will be the last major entrepreneurial project in my life."
At the spring conference of Xiaomi at the end of March 2021, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, announced that Xiaomi had officially entered the smart electric vehicle industry. From the official announcement of building a car to the official login to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in November 2023, many practitioners in the circle are like chasing a series, and now the mysterious curtain has finally reached the moment of announcement. However, looking back, compared with competitors in the industry, Xiaomi has obviously been "late" in the tide of electric vehicles. In this issue of "Aika One-Corner SHOW", let’s talk about this Xiaomi car that has all the reputation of Lei Jun, and what are the killers that he personally led, and whether it can become the "first car for young people".
Does Xiaomi SU7 really appear in the face or touch porcelain?
Judging from the photos of this appearance in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Xiaomi SU7 adopts coupe design style, and its body posture is very low. Judging from the front face and side shape, it has the charm of Porsche Taycan (parameter | inquiry), which has been dubbed by many netizens as "Mi Shijie", and some netizens said that they saw the shadows of brands such as McLaren, Porsche, Tesla, Lincoln and Weilai. In fact, Xiaomi car is similar to some luxury car brands in appearance, and there are also team reasons. In September, 2021, Lei Jun announced the official registration of Xiaomi Automobile in Weibo, and attached a group photo of 17 people. Among them, Li Tianyuan, who has relevant work experience in automobile design, is considered to be the designer of Xiaomi automobile design.
Li Tianyuan worked in PSA China Design Center from 2011 to 2012; From 2012 to 2016, he worked in BMW Designworks, and since 2016, he has worked in BMW i/M department. BMW’s BMW iX model was designed by Li Tianyuan. However, BMW and Porsche have not spoken yet, and domestic brands such as Zero Run Car and Extreme Yue Car have claimed that Xiaomi Car collided with its own products.
After the appearance of Xiaomi Auto, the topic # Xiaomi New Car Crashes Tail and Zero Run C01 (Parameter | Inquiry) # appeared in Weibo, which said that "Xiaomi SU7 tail is not exactly the same as zero run C01, but it is similar in style. Xiaomi, is this a zero run as a benchmarking friend? " Extreme Yue also released the appearance picture of Extreme Yue 02 for comparison with Xiaomi Automobile, but the car has not been officially released yet. Zero-run cars and extremely fast cars are also considered to be suspected of rubbing the heat of Xiaomi cars.
On November 16th, Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Automobile, also talked about this matter in Weibo. He said: "Several new cars released recently are familiar at first glance, and the originality is not enough. The wind in the southeast and northwest of Rener is as deep as the sea when it enters the industry. You have to go through the pits and ridges, and there is nothing new. " However, this matter of beauty and ugliness varies from person to person. After the release of the pictures of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are many praises for the design of this car around me. Of course, compared with the photos, we are still more looking forward to the visual impression of the real car after its appearance.
How did the "late" millet break the game? We summarized some information.
Another new member of the dual-motor 495kW 3 second club
In terms of power, Xiaomi has two versions, namely single-motor and dual-motor models. The single motor version is equipped with a driving motor with a power of 220kW and a top speed of 210 km/h. It is equipped with a lithium iron phosphate battery, which is provided by Xiangyang Foday, which is BYD’s blade battery. The dual-motor version is equipped with two motors, the front motor is 220kW, the rear motor is 275kW, and the top speed is 265 km/h. The total output power of the system is close to 500kW, and it is expected that the zero-hundred-speed acceleration can reach the level of 3 seconds.
The dual-motor version is equipped with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited ternary lithium battery, so it’s probably Kirin battery. After all, it’s mass-produced in 2024 and positioned at a high end, so it’s a bit unreasonable not to use Kirin battery. If equipped with Kirin battery, it can be compatible with 800V high-voltage architecture, and charging for 5 minutes and increasing battery life by 200km will also become standard. But at present, we don’t know if this part of Xiaomi in fast charging technology can give us a surprise.
In the choice of driving motor, Xiaomi chose Suzhou Huichuan United Power. This company was established in 2016. Ideality, Tucki and Guangzhou Automobile are all his customers. At present, it is the brand with the largest motor installed capacity of new energy logistics vehicles. The powertrain developed by this company has reached the fourth generation, and Xiaomi may use this latest motor. The highest power version of the fourth-generation powertrain can support the highest voltage to 900V, equipped with a brand-new SiC power module, and supports high frequency and high speed. Compared with the previous generation, the cruising range of CLTC is increased by more than 5%, and the loss is extremely low. The oil-cooled design can also increase the power density by 15%. It can be seen from the extremely fast performance of 265km/h that the motor performance of Xiaomi SU7 is extraordinary.
Intelligent assisted driving is expected to be among the best.
Intelligent assisted driving is not only a symbol of the strength of car companies, but also an important function configuration for users to buy cars at present. From the public information, Xiaomi invested 3.3 billion yuan in research and development expenses in the field of intelligent assisted driving in the first phase, and set up a research and development team with more than 500 people. The goal is to enter the first camp of autonomous driving in 2024.
Lei Jun has always believed that lidar will become an indispensable part of autonomous driving, but in order to lower the price, it can only be compromised on Xiaomi. According to the official map, the low-profile vehicle adopts Continental Group’s 5R1V multi-sensor fusion system solution, that is, five millimeter-wave radars and one camera. This scheme without lidar can only be said to be reactive, but its potential is limited and it is not expected to support NOA in the city.
The high-end models are equipped with lidar (the number is unknown), which is matched with NVIDIA chip and Xiaomi’s self-developed algorithm. In theory, Xiaomi is not a novice in autonomous driving. As early as Xiaomi launched the first sweeping robot, he was already pre-researching the autonomous driving scheme. Because there is a strong connection between the sweeping robot and the car, for example, both use laser radar, and both have the need of route planning and obstacle avoidance, which can be regarded as a certain technical accumulation.
Last year, Xiaomi also showed off the intelligent calling function of a Xiaomi car. Judging from Lei Jun’s demonstration at that time, after the one-button calling function was turned on, the vehicle could automatically drive out of the garage, even connect two floors, and drive out of the garage from the B2 floor to pick up people. This is one of the few manifestations of Xiaomi in the field of intelligent assisted driving. However, in the field of intelligent assisted driving, whether Xiaomi’s technical ability can surpass the star enterprises such as Tesla, Huawei and Tucki remains to be tested by users after the product is launched.
Relying on ecological synergy to create a better intelligent cockpit experience
In October, Xiaomi released a self-developed operating system-澎湃 OS. A major feature of this operating system is that it has the ability of cross-end Zhilian, which can realize the integration of multiple devices and the cross-end call of hardware capabilities; At the same time, it also has the ability of active intelligence, which can unify thinking, multi-dimensional perception and take the initiative to serve others. As for Xiaomi’s surging OS, Lei Jun said in Weibo that this operating system has made a public base for the future tens of billions of devices and tens of billions of connections, and built a "human-car-home ecosystem" for Xiaomi.
The appearance of Xiaomi car means that it has filled the last piece of puzzle in the ecology of Xiaomi people’s cars. With the blessing of 澎湃 OS, Xiaomi’s smart cockpit experience may become a big bargaining chip in its competition with other products. After all, it is adjusted based on its own operating system, which brings better cockpit experience. There have been successful precedents in the market, such as many models equipped with Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system, whose smart cockpit experience has certain advantages compared with other models on the market, and it has also become an important reason for many users to choose Zhilian models.