By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Feb 14 -- Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi's R&D team for its EV has grown to over 2,300 people, and schedules mass production in Q1 of 2024, said its CEO Lei Jun at a recent Xiaomi Investor Day.

Xiaomi's prototype car was completed last September. Meanwhile, its winter testing started at the end of December 2022. The company will test more than 140 vehicles across the country in the first phase of the autonomous driving plan, said Lei.

On November 27, 2021, Xiaomi signed with Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area in southeastern Beijing to locate Xiaomi's automobile base there. The company plans to build a plant that can produce 300,000 vehicles annually in two phases, with a capacity of 150,000 units in phase I and phase II, respectively, according to Xiaomi.

In terms of profitability, Lei said that Xiaomi prioritizes its software profits in addition to hardware profits, similar to their approach with their mobile phones. The future cars can integrate various services to go beyond just sales, after-sales service and charging piles, he added.

Xiaomi announced entering new energy vehicle business in 2021.