After almost a decade of making an attempt, Apple lastly gave up its effort to provide an electrical automobile final yr, canceling a venture that soaked up $10 billion.
However final yr in China, the electronics maker Xiaomi launched its first electrical automobile after simply three years of growth and delivered 135,000 automobiles. It has vowed to double that quantity in 2025.
Xiaomi’s capability to succeed the place Apple couldn’t reveals how completely China has come to dominate the supply chain for electrical automobiles. Chinese language corporations have mastered electric vehicle manufacturing. By tapping that infrastructure, Xiaomi was in a position to get parts rapidly and cheaply.
Extra Chinese language electrical car corporations — together with Leapmotor, Li Auto and Seres Group — are beginning to flip a revenue after burning money for years of their intense competitors for the world’s largest auto market.
And Xiaomi isn’t the one Chinese language client electronics firm that has branched out to electrical automobiles. The telecommunications big Huawei, which the U.S. authorities has focused with sanctions and authorized motion for years, is making autonomous driving software program. Huawei has teamed up with a number of Chinese language automakers, together with Seres Group and the state-owned corporations SAIC Motor, BAIC and Chery.
Xiaomi has lengthy been in comparison with Apple. It made bets that its rivals rushed to imitate, like promoting its low-cost, high-design telephones primarily on-line. Its chief govt, Lei Jun, even dressed just like the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in denims and a black shirt, for Xiaomi’s first cellphone launch in 2011.
