Xiaomi, which produces smartphones and consumer electronics, delivered 135,000 E.V.s last year after tapping China’s robust manufacturing supply chain.
After nearly a decade of trying, Apple finally gave up its effort to produce an electric car last year, canceling a project that soaked up $10 billion.
But last year in China, the electronics maker Xiaomi launched its first electric car after just three years of development and delivered 135,000 vehicles. It has vowed to double that number in 2025.
Xiaomi’s ability to succeed where Apple could not shows how thoroughly China has come to dominate the supply chain for electric vehicles. Chinese companies have mastered electric vehicle manufacturing. By tapping that infrastructure, Xiaomi was able to get components quickly and cheaply.
More Chinese electric vehicle companies — including Leapmotor, Li Auto and Seres Group — are starting to turn a profit after burning cash for years in their intense competition for the world’s largest auto market.
And Xiaomi is not the only Chinese consumer electronics company that has branched out to electric vehicles. The telecommunications giant Huawei, which the U.S. government has targeted with sanctions and legal action for years, is making autonomous driving software. Huawei has teamed up with multiple Chinese automakers, including Seres Group and the state-owned firms SAIC Motor, BAIC and Chery.
Xiaomi has long been compared to Apple. It made bets that its rivals rushed to imitate, like selling its low-cost, high-design phones mainly online. Its chief executive, Lei Jun, even dressed like the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black shirt, for Xiaomi’s first phone launch in 2011.