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Lei Jun talks about Dong Mingzhu's criticism of Xiaomi air conditioners. Li Yaorui, editor of The Paper (00:35)

Lei Jun

“Don’t overturn the table before it’s even served.”

On July 23, in the "2024 Lei Jun Annual Speech Encore Live", Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun talked about Xiaomi's car manufacturing and said, "We will respect the rules of the industry, get on the table first, stick to the right path and be surprising. Maybe everyone wants to be surprising, but we want to stick to the right path, do it steadily, and then 'turn the table over'."

In this live broadcast, not only Xiaomi Motors but also Vancl CEO Chen Nian took the spotlight. He was crazy about hitting the charts during the live broadcast and always ranked first. He said in the live broadcast room: "Brother, what's wrong with taking advantage of the popularity?" According to Huitun data, Lei Jun's live broadcast that day was watched by more than 19 million people. Lei Jun's Douyin account fans have increased to 26.885 million, surpassing Dong Yuhui's 26.363 million.

The three people from Wei, Xiaopeng and Li Jing guessed the price of Xiaomi

Is Xiaomi considered a Fortune 500 company making cars, or a startup making cars?

Li Xiaoshuang, vice president of Xiaomi Auto, recalled that this was one of the important topics discussed when Xiaomi Auto was just starting out. On that occasion, the management of Xiaomi Auto's business held a meeting that lasted for 21 days.

"We have to admit that we are still a Fortune 500 company making cars, but we must have an entrepreneurial mindset." Lei Jun believes that the Fortune 500 companies have their own advantages. They have the resources and ability to start with core technologies, but many large companies have idol baggage when entering new industries, so they want to make a big splash right from the start, but fail if they don't do a good job.

When Xiaomi entered the automotive industry, it chose to regard itself as a startup. "In the automotive industry, we are a young player and a newcomer. We have nothing. It is unrealistic for us to innovate and subvert all at once," said Lei Jun. "I think the success of SU7 depends on our accurate understanding of our own capabilities. We have the courage to stick to the right path first."

In his annual speech on July 19, Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi Motors expects to complete its annual delivery target of 100,000 vehicles ahead of schedule in November, and strive to deliver 120,000 vehicles by the end of 2024. To achieve this goal, Xiaomi still needs to deliver an average of about 15,000 vehicles per month.

Currently, if you order the Xiaomi SU7 standard version on the Xiaomi Auto App, the estimated delivery time is 25 to 28 weeks, while the Max version requires a wait of more than 27 to 30 weeks, and the Pro version has a delivery cycle of at least 19 to 22 weeks.

Lei Jun revealed in the live broadcast that before the release of Xiaomi SU7, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Ideal Auto, and Li Bin, chairman and CEO of NIO, had guessed the price of Xiaomi SU7. "The lowest guess for the standard version was 209,900 yuan, and the Max version was guessed to be higher than 300,000 yuan."

Among them, He Xiaopeng guessed that the standard version and Max version would be priced at 229,900 yuan and 329,900 yuan respectively, Li Xiang guessed that the two models would be priced at 219,900 yuan and 309,900 yuan respectively, and Li Bin's answer was 209,900 yuan and 309,900 yuan. "In fact, the guesses of the three of them were all quite reliable, but Li Xiang guessed the most accurately."

In fact, the standard version of Xiaomi SU7 was priced at 215,900 yuan, "30,000 yuan cheaper than Tesla's Model 3 at the time", while the Max version was priced at 299,900 yuan. "After the price was announced, He Xiaopeng, Li Xiang, and Li Bin could not imagine that the configuration and experience of Max could be priced under 300,000 yuan," Lei Jun said, "and with the competitiveness of the standard version of Xiaomi SU7, I believe we would win even if the price was the same as Model 3."

Dong Mingzhu's criticism has boosted the popularity of Xiaomi air conditioners

Recently, Dong Mingzhu's remarks on Xiaomi air conditioners have attracted widespread attention. She questioned Xiaomi's lack of core technology, saying, "Xiaomi says it is the number one (air conditioner), but it relies on other manufacturers to make products. What is your technology?" She also pointed out that "consumers have their own scales in their hearts to judge who is number one."

"Once Sister Dong criticized us, Xiaomi Air Conditioner became even more popular." During the live broadcast, Lei Jun said that Xiaomi Air Conditioner "is really ranked fourth" and reiterated that he never said that Xiaomi Air Conditioner has the highest market share.

In the live broadcast on July 23, Lei Jun once again talked about the current Tiktok CEO Zhou Shouzi, saying that he "felt that everyone had misunderstood what I meant," and that "although Zhou Shouzi's departure had a great impact on me, I had no intention of complaining or blaming him, and I still sent him my best wishes."

In his speech on the evening of July 19, Lei Jun mentioned Zhou Shouzi when reviewing the early stages of Xiaomi's decision to build cars. He said that Xiaomi was in a turbulent period at the time and the entire company was transforming from a guerrilla force to a regular army. The young executive whom he had cultivated for many years and had high hopes for gave him a heavy blow.

Zhou Shouzi joined Xiaomi as CFO in 2015. In November 2019, Zhou Shouzi became the president of Xiaomi's international department. The following year, he became the youngest group partner of Xiaomi. In March 2021, Zhou Shouzi resigned from Xiaomi and joined ByteDance as CFO.

Lei Jun said in the live broadcast that he and Zhou Shouzi are still good friends to this day, "He has developed very smoothly and is very successful, and I would like to express my best wishes here."

The reason why we cannot solve the problem is because we lack courage.

BYD Chairman and CEO Wang Chuanfu once cited the example of Xiaomi's plan to invest 100 billion yuan to build cars, saying that if the strategy is wrong, three years will be wasted, and these three years cannot be bought with money.

However, Wang Chuanfu later publicly clarified the rumors that he was not optimistic about Xiaomi Auto. Lei Jun revealed that at this year's Beijing Auto Show, Wang Chuanfu specifically told him that he was really worried about Xiaomi at the beginning, but now it seems that he was indeed worrying too much.

In Lei Jun's view, Wang Chuanfu not only did not advise Xiaomi not to build cars as misunderstood, but instead gave him "great courage" with an unintentional remark.

Lei Jun recalled that when Wang Chuanfu first started making cars, he said that many companies, because they did not understand the technology, would imagine it to be at a terrifying level. This fear is exactly the kind of industrial intimidation that competitors create for latecomers - they keep telling you that it cannot be done, that the investment is huge, and that research and development is difficult until you give up.

"In fact, the reason why we cannot solve the problem is not because we don't have the ability, but because we lack the courage." Lei Jun's personal speech theme this year is named "Courage". "I think the success of SU7 depends on our accurate understanding of our own abilities and our courage to stick to the right path first."