A couple of months ago, in March this year, Xiaomi officially announced the commencement of its smart electric vehicle business which will be led by the company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun.

Since then, the smartphone maker has been in talks with several car manufacturers for a partnership but nothing has materialized so far. Lei Jun has been visiting automakers and the latest company added to the list is SAIC.

Xiaomi's Lei Jun visiting SAIC Headquarters

Lei Jun, founder, CEO, and chairman of the Xioami Group visited the SAIC headquarters and some users shared photos of the same online. So far, he has visited BYD, Great Wall, Wuling, and some other well-known automakers as the Chinese tech giant is gearing up for its Smart Electric Vehicles business.

For those who are unaware, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited is a multinational automotive design and manufacturing company headquartered in Shanghai.

Lei Jun said that in the past 75 days, Xiaomi’s management has had 85 industry visits, in-depth exchanges with more than 200 automotive industry veterans, four internal management discussions, and two formal board meetings.

Explaining the intention for Xiaomi to build cars, he emphasized the company aims to offer high-quality smart electric vehicles to allow users globally to enjoy ubiquitous smart life. He further added that “I am willing to bet on all the reputation and achievements of my life to fight for Xiaomi cars!”

For this new wholly-owned subsidiary to work on the electric vehicles and related business, it plans to invest around 10 billion yuan (~$1.5 billion) but over a period of 10 years. It’s likely that the upcoming smart car from the company will be a consumer product and will be targeted at the mass market.

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