After being sanctioned by the United States, Lei Jun decided to build a car

High beams

2024-07-19 22:38Posted on the official account of Beijing Tencent Automobile's "High Beam" column

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01 Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Auto, said that in the past three years, they have faced five major challenges in the process of building cars, including understanding cars, integrating car-making teams, building cars well without knowing cars, production capacity and pricing problems.

02 In order to build a car, Lei Jun decided to personally lead the team, invest 10 billion US dollars, adhere to the core technology, and do not take shortcuts.

03 Lei Jun said that in the past three years, the Xiaomi car team has learned to race cars through test drives of more than 200,000 words, and finally achieved success.

04 At present, the cumulative delivery of Xiaomi cars has exceeded 30,000 units, and Lei Jun revealed that the annual delivery target of 100,000 units will be completed ahead of schedule in November this year.

05In addition, Xiaomi Auto officially released the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype, equipped with Xiaomi super motor V8s, and plans to challenge the New North Africa mass production lap list next year.

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Tencent Auto "High Beam"

Written by Auden

Edited by Yang Hao

"Xiaomi has faced countless challenges after deciding to build a car, the automotive industry releases two or three hundred new cars every year, it is an industry that is very rolled, as a newcomer, the first car is very important, how should we build a car?" Lei Jun recalled that today, the Xiaomi SU7 won the first battle, which means that Xiaomi cars have finally squeezed the table, "but we are still far from real success, and our long march has just begun."

On the evening of July 19, in the three-hour annual speech with the theme of "Courage", Lei Jun talked about the five major challenges of Xiaomi's car manufacturing three years ago.

To build a car, you have to understand the car. After announcing the car, Lei Jun decided to drive his own car, and in the past three years, he has test-driven more than 170 cars, and his test drive notes have more than 200,000 words. At the same time, Lei Jun read the biographies of automobile giants, watched racing movies, and set himself a goal: to become one of the best drivers among the bosses of domestic car companies. He made up his mind to start learning racing, not only by himself, but also with the Xiaomi management team, and in the end, he got the racing license as he wished.

Due to the hot orders, Xiaomi's automobile production capacity has been attracting much attention. According to Xiaomi's official news, in June, the Xiaomi automobile factory adopted a double-shift system, and in July, the Xiaomi automobile factory carried out production line maintenance and optimization, and it is expected that the delivery volume in July will continue to exceed 10,000 vehicles. At present, the cumulative delivery of Xiaomi cars has exceeded 30,000 vehicles, and Lei Jun revealed that the annual delivery target of 100,000 vehicles will be completed ahead of schedule in November this year.

That night, Xiaomi also officially released the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype, equipped with Xiaomi super motor V8s, in October this year the prototype will challenge the New North Africa production lap list, and in 2025, the production car will officially challenge the New Zealand North production lap list. Lei Jun said that Xiaomi Auto learned from Porsche, and its goal is to become the fastest four-door tram in northern New Zealand within ten years.

Lei Jun said that the past three years have been a reborn experience for himself and Xiaomi, and behind the success of Xiaomi SU7, there is great courage, "This is not the courage of one person, this is the courage of more than 40,000 employees of our Xiaomi Group."

Challenge 1: Do I want to build a car, or do I want to lead the team myself?

On January 15, 2021, an unexpected crisis made Xiaomi officially consider building a car.

"At about 7 o'clock in the morning, I received a call from a friend on my way to work, and he said, 'Mr. Lei, you have been sanctioned by the United States.'" At that moment, it was like a thunderbolt from the sky, and I was immediately stunned. Lei Jun recalled that the board of directors urgently discussed how to respond, and everyone on the board of directors discussed, "If the mobile phone can't be built, what will happen to the company's 30,000 or 40,000 people?" In the afternoon of the same day, Xiaomi's board of directors seriously discussed car building for the first time.

Lei Jun said that almost all executives supported it at that time, but he himself felt that building a car was too risky, so he started a survey on building a car. "In the process of research, two good friends unanimously urged me to build a car, that is, Li Bin and He Xiaopeng." Lei Jun recalled that after deciding to build a car, he himself expressed his concern that in his opinion, in the end, the world may only survive five to eight, "if we can't do the top five in the world, we may not survive."

"If we want to build a car, we must first have a long-term plan, and secondly, we must go to the top five in the world, which means that we must be prepared to burn a lot of money." Lei Jun said that at that time, the industry believed that at least $10 billion was needed to build a car.

At that time, Xiaomi was in an eventful season, and these things were all mixed together, and Lei Jun's heart was in a mess. "And at this moment, I have to think about whether we want to build a car, whether I want to lead the team to build a car, in fact, it is not easy." Lei Jun admitted frankly that during that time, he finally mustered up the courage to do a big job late at night, and when he woke up the next morning and the sun rose, he began to be confused again.

"Starting a business is so hard, do you really have to do it all over again? And the risk is so great, what if you lose? Is this how my life ends? Also, do I really have enough physical strength and energy to enter a new industry? These questions have been going back and forth in my mind for a whole week, and it is very tormenting. Lei Jun said that at that time, he was asking himself these questions repeatedly.

On March 30, 2021, Lei Jun officially replied to the board of directors: "If this matter Xiaomi must do, if everyone thinks I am suitable, I am willing to stand up for Xiaomi!" Lei Jun said that this was not an impulse or an expedient measure, but the result of careful consideration.

On the same day, Xiaomi officially announced that it would build a car, led by Lei Jun, and invested 10 billion US dollars in ten years. That night, Xiaomi held a press conference, Lei Jun was not in good condition and had a serious cold, but he still announced on the stage: "This is the last entrepreneurial project in my life, and I am willing to bet all my life on all my reputation and achievements to fight for Xiaomi cars!" ”

Lei Jun recalled that three years ago, Li Bin and He Xiaopeng persuaded Xiaomi to build a car, and after deciding to build a car, on April 5, 2021, Wang Chuanfu, Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng and other friends in the industry organized a delegation to visit Xiaomi, "Wang Chuanfu told me that he admired our courage very much, but he still sweated for us."

Challenge 2: As a newcomer, what kind of car should Xiaomi build?

After deciding to build a car, Lei Jun faced countless challenges, and the automotive industry releases two to three hundred new cars every year, which is the most volatile industry at the moment.

"As a newcomer, the first car is very important, how do we build a car? What kind of car should we build? Lei Jun recalled that at the beginning, the team found a lot of reports to study and research, but he couldn't help but pour cold water. Lei Jun's first question was: Can we build a car that Xiaomi engineers want to buy? In his opinion, if he didn't want to buy it, it would be useless to build a car.

In order to understand what kind of car Xiaomi engineers want to buy, Lei Jun mobilized the team to talk to Xiaomi engineers one by one, about more than 300 people in the past three weeks, and the preliminary conclusion is to start with SUVs, "From the perspective of research and development, it is easy to get a high car, it is difficult to get a low car, it is relatively easy to make an SUV, and it is more difficult to make a sedan."

But Lei Jun decided not to take the usual path, starting with a pure electric car, and starting with the difficult one. "When the car is done, it will be much easier to do other models, so we are determined to do pure electric cars."

Lei Jun recalled that three years ago, many friends persuaded him that Xiaomi was "late", so he should find an OEM factory to get out of the car quickly, and never do everything by himself. "At the beginning, we also thought about it, both looking for OEM and buying, but it didn't take long for us to make up our minds, starting from the core technology, and definitely not thinking about taking shortcuts."

Talking about the reasons for deciding to let Xiaomi go down in person, Lei Jun recalled the entrepreneurial period of Xiaomi 14 years ago, when it started with light mode, the initial speed was very fast, but the foundation was not solid, and later encountered a lot of setbacks. "To this day, I feel that we are still making up for the lessons, so when we started our business again, we decided not to take shortcuts, not to acquire, not to OEM, to start from the core technology, ten times the investment, and seriously build a good car."

After making up its mind, Xiaomi Auto has resolutely invested, and has launched the third-generation motor, two sets of large die-casting, intelligent driving, and battery packs have chosen to end up in person.

Lei Jun especially mentioned the experience of making battery packs, he said, Xiaomi made more than a dozen battery packs in order to understand the battery pack technology, and chose to build its own battery pack factory, "not only tossed our own team enough, but also tossed the supplier enough, I was a little embarrassed, I called the general manager of CATL Zeng Yuqun to explain." Lei Jun said that Xiaomi started from the core technology, invested tenfold, and worked for more than half a year, and before the Spring Festival at the end of 2021, the review meeting of the first project of Xiaomi Auto officially began.

Challenge 3: How to integrate and condense the "grass platform team" into an iron army?

Lei Jun didn't expect that the first formal project review meeting was particularly depressing, everyone had huge disagreements, and the product was almost overturned.

"Everyone's Spring Festival is not good, they are all very anxious, what about the progress of our project?" On the first day of work after the Spring Festival in 2022, Lei Jun canceled all schedules and organized a meeting of more than a dozen people at the core of the automotive department to discuss how to solve the problem, "It was such a temporary meeting, no one thought that it would be held for 21 days and become a marathon meeting."

At first, everyone was more reserved, but the next day the argument became more and more intense, and sometimes a question could be argued from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. "In the course of this argument, I made up my mind that when our team got into a fight, we would break up the meeting, and we would keep meeting until the argument was clear." Lei Jun recalled that at that time, more than 1,000 people in the car team were waiting for the results of the meeting.

"It's important for us to think back on this meeting today, because we come from different backgrounds from all over the world, and for the first time, we had such a long, high-intensity, face-to-face discussion, which helped everyone understand each other and integrate with each other." Lei Jun said that the discussion lasted 21 days, and the most important consensus was formed: Xiaomi, as a newcomer, as long as it can successfully play the table, is a huge success.

Many people ask Lei Jun, why can Xiaomi build a car in three years? He believes that Xiaomi should respect the laws of the industry when making cars, be upright and surprising, first keep upright, and then be surprising, don't subvert as soon as it comes up, and flip the table as soon as it comes up.

No one expected that just after the 21-day meeting, Xiaomi Auto ushered in another test - the outbreak of the epidemic in Shanghai.

"We have a lot of engineers in Shanghai, what about R&D? Everyone carried the equipment that could be carried back home and did research and development at home. One of my classmates moved the equipment home and set up a working environment at home. For the first time, our super motor control software actually worked in his living room. Recalling the test of the epidemic, Lei Jun said that this was a very unforgettable and peculiar experience, we were so far apart, but we felt so close.

Lei Jun said that many product decisions of the Xiaomi SU7 model were made in various video conferences. In order to celebrate every small achievement, Xiaomi Auto also held several online celebration parties, "sending red wine to every student's home, and everyone drinks online to the cloud".

Challenge 4: How can I build a car if I don't know how to drive a car?

On August 16, 2023, the first trial production car of Xiaomi Auto slowly drove out of the production line, and everyone at the scene was excited.

"After so many peaks and turns, the Xiaomi SU7 was delivered on schedule, which is really a miracle. I believe that this miracle is the result of the joint efforts of the six or seven thousand people in our automotive department, and I think the team is really amazing, and every team is performing at a super level. Lei Jun recalled that after the off-line ceremony, everyone dispersed, and he circled around the trial production car alone, and finally opened the door and sat in it for a long, long time, "I really can't believe that our car is really built." At that moment, it was really mixed feelings."

Since you are leading the team yourself, how can you do a good job of the car? In the past three years, this is the question that Lei Jun has pondered the most.

Later, I found out that the answer is actually very simple, that is, to know and love a line, in order to do a good job. If I want to make a car, I must understand the car and love the car to have the opportunity to do it well. So my first step in building a car, you may not believe it, my first step is to drive myself. Lei Jun recalled that in the past ten years, due to his busy work, he rarely drove himself, but from the day he decided to build a car, he was determined to start driving again.

At the beginning, Lei Jun was like a novice on the road, in a hurry, and it took several days to slowly get used to it. "There are a lot of experienced students from Xiaomi Auto, they have all been doing cars all their lives, they are well-informed, they have driven a lot of cars, they are very experienced, and they talk about every car." Lei Jun said that when he worked with them, he was under tremendous pressure, so he decided to make up for this lesson as soon as possible, test drive enough cars, and quickly smooth out the information gap.

In the past three years, Lei Jun and his colleagues borrowed cars and went to 4S stores for test drives, and a total of more than 170 cars were test-driven, with more than 200,000 words of test drive notes. He set himself a goal: to become one of the best car company owners in China. So he began to learn racing, not only by himself, but also with the Xiaomi management team to learn together, and finally Lei Jun got the racing license as he wished, and more than 100 people from the Xiaomi management team and engineers obtained the racing license.

"I think my understanding of cars has improved a lot after playing racing. Because I drove myself before, I had never driven the floor oil or floor brake, that is, I stepped on the accelerator to death, and when I encountered the brakes, I also stepped on the brakes. And I don't know what it means to be precise in steering, what it means to control, what it means to point where to hit, and I understand everything after driving the car. Later, I felt that the gap between cars was very large, and the gap between cars was very large, so I had a deeper understanding of what is the integration of people and vehicles. Lei Jun believes that learning racing has helped him a lot, and since then he has also tried to personally participate in every key node of car development.

At the end of 2022, in Heihe, where minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius, Lei Jun personally participated in the first winter test of Xiaomi SU7, and the next year, Lei Jun participated in the summer test in Turpan, which was more than 40 degrees. "The first time Xiaomi made a car, I think quality is very, very important to us." Lei Jun said that in January this year, Xiaomi Auto carried out the largest real vehicle road test in the entire industry, investing 576 prototype cars, testing the streets and alleys of more than 300 cities and all the surrounding roads, with a total test mileage of 5.4 million kilometers.

Challenge 5: Xiaomi SU7 is considered to be "unsellable", how much is the production capacity and pricing appropriate?

In December last year, Xiaomi cars made their debut, but within a few days, all kinds of doubts and criticisms came to the face.

"Apple can't do it in ten years, why can you do it in three years?" Lei Jun said that everyone felt very sudden when Xiaomi cars debuted, but in his opinion, the automobile industry is already very mature, and three years of achievements is the standard time. Recalling when Xiaomi SU7 was just unveiled, Lei Jun said that at that time, the black manuscript hit like a tide, coupled with the promotion of several friends and businessmen, ridicule and ridicule all over the mountain, he also joked, "There is a sentence that everyone has heard, 'Jun'er, stop it, it's all XX outside'." ”

However, in Lei Jun's view, external doubts are trivial, and the real difficulty is that two months before the listing, everyone thinks that Xiaomi has poured 7,000 people into countless efforts to make SU7 "can't sell".

"I can't do this urgently, I told them that our configuration and experience are much better than the Model 3, and people told me that the people who buy the Model 3 are Tesla, and they are all Musk's fans, and they will definitely not buy your SU7." Lei Jun recalled that in the face of all kinds of doubts, several departments of Xiaomi Auto sorted out three reports for him, and in the end Lei Jun was choked by one sentence: BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz "34C" users buy all brands, why did he buy SU7?

"I worked for more than three years, spent one or two tens of billions, and finally finished selling it. I asked the marketing department to ask some media friends to help with ideas, and a total of 23 people were invited. I never expected that the vast majority of people were not optimistic. They thought that if they could sell 3,000 cars, they would have to burn high incense. Faced with this conclusion, Lei Jun was a little unconvinced, he personally tried to persuade them, and after talking for two or three hours, it was completely useless to talk about dry mouth, and he couldn't change everyone's opinion.

After a period of time, Lei Jun fell into extreme despair, and the entire team of Xiaomi Auto was shrouded in anxiety, and the real test of confidence was in February this year when the production capacity was determined.

"Car production is complex, and the supply chain is long. We want to determine the annual production capacity in February, how many goods do we want to order? Many people suggest ordering 30,000 vehicles, which is better to be stable. I am very conflicted in my heart, I am worried that I will not be able to sell if I order too much, and I am worried that I will not sell enough if I order less, and everyone scolds me for hungry marketing. In a CCTV interview, Lei Jun said that he was afraid that he would not be able to sell, and he was afraid that he would not sell enough, which was an extremely contradictory problem.

In the end, Lei Jun set a production capacity of 76,000 vehicles, which means that after deducting the ramp-up time, the monthly sales will reach 10,000 units, and at this time, only Tesla's Model 3 will sell 10,000 pure electric cars per month.

"My goal from day one was to be one of the best. What does it mean if you can't sell? If you can't sell 10,000 cars, how many football fields do you have to rent? Anyway, the car was all over the mountains at first, so it was a catastrophe for us. 76,000 vehicles, I know that this is a risky target, but I also know very well that there is no way back, like a pawn crossing the river, I can only rush forward desperately. "In mid-March, Lei Jun and Xiaomi Auto held the only pre-launch media test drive in great anxiety, and after the first real contact with the Xiaomi SU7, some people's opinions in the media began to change.

"They said that it is impossible to imagine that this is the first car made by Xiaomi, its degree of completion is very high, and the driving quality is particularly high-end, they say that Xiaomi does have masters. My hanging heart was only a little more steady. Approaching the listing, Lei Jun faced a pricing problem again, "The price is wrong, the consequences are unimaginable, and the loss of tens of billions of dollars and three years of time are in vain." ”

Regarding the Xiaomi SU7 pricing, there were many versions on the Internet at that time, 149,000 yuan, and some people even said that the price was 99,000 yuan. But Mr. Lei said the pressure was on the inside. "The sales classmates are very experienced, they are seriously lacking in the confidence of the pure electric car, the day before the press conference, our final price decision will not be long, but the debate is very fierce, I think our SU7 configuration experience far exceeds the Model 3, I think we have the courage to set to 215,900 yuan, which is already 30,000 cheaper than the Model 3, I think the competitiveness has been very strong." Lei Jun's decision made his sales colleagues very worried, and the whole venue was silent, Lei Jun recalled, "Until an executive at the scene said, just set this price, no matter how many cars are sold, we Xiaomi will admit it."

On March 28, Xiaomi cars were officially launched, and Lei Jun said that he was extremely nervous and hoarse that day, like a student who had studied hard for ten years and finally took the college entrance examination. Until the pricing was announced, the audience cheered, and Lei Jun's hanging heart finally let go, "Xiaomi SU7 should become".

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