Another home appliance giant to enter electric car market in 2024

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi begins mass production of electric cars in the first half of 2024, Director Lei Jun said Tuesday.

The company announced in March that it would start producing electric cars. A parent company has been set up for this purpose. The smartphone maker will invest around 8.5 billion euros in the project over the next ten years.

Xiaomi has not yet announced whether it will produce the cars entirely itself or whether the company will work with an existing car manufacturer to do so.

The Chinese company seems to follow its US branch counterpart Apple, who is also supposed to be working on a (self-driving) electric car. Telecom Group and smartphone maker Huawei would also want to enter the market for electric cars. Sony is currently testing its first electric car.

Companies are counting on cars being increasingly connected to each other and to other things such as traffic lights. They also expect the vehicles to drive more and more autonomously. This will allow the tech companies to compete with existing car manufacturers.