Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, is probably best known for its mobile phones. However, Xiaomi is much more than just mobile phones. The company is involved in the manufacturing of several tech products ranging from refrigerators to vacuum cleaners. Since last year, there have been several reports about the Xiaomi Car Project. This will be Xiaomi’s first car thus the company is taking its time. However, the Xiaomi Car appears to be in its final stages and we now have leaks of its exterior. Recently, some images of the exterior parts of the first model of the Xiaomi Car appeared online. The images mainly reveal the design details of the front face and the rear of the car.
Judging from the pictures, the front face of the new car adopts a trapezoidal front grille. Also, the fog lamp areas on both sides are also designed in a shape similar to the air diversion groove. In addition, the shape of the headlights is relatively round.
Xiaomi official comments
In this regard, Wang Hua, general manager of the public relations department of Xiaomi Group, just responded on Weibo. He claims that this is indeed a leak of the confidential design documents of the second-tier supplier. However, he also reveals that the supplier is only a supplier for mould proofing. The document is a design draft very early in the bidding process and is not final. Thus, this means that what we see in these images may be very far from what the final design of the Xiaomi Car will look like. These exterior cladding images do not show the final design of the car.
The news also reveals that the automobile welding air duct, side air duct decorative cover, rear bumper lower trim strip, lower air intake grille, etc. are all from BAIC Molding. BAIC Mold & Plastic was jointly established by BAIC subsidiary, Hainachuan and Jiangnan Mold & Plastic. Jiangnan Mold & Plastic is one of the largest production bases for automotive bumper assemblies and other exterior products in China.
Gizchina News of the week
According to a previous report by LatePost, Xiaomi’s first car is positioned as a medium-sized fastback sedan, and its internal code name is Modena. From Xiaomi’s official car-making schedule, its first model should enter mass production in the first half of 2024.
Xiaomi Car snow test exposure
In a recent post on Weibo by tech blogger @NotZhengXiaokang, Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun personally tested a Xiaomi Car and posted two images. Judging from the images, this should be the Xiaomi car doing extreme cold testing and calibration. It is worth mentioning that one of the pictures shows that the driver of the vehicle seems to be Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, and the blogger also said that Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi, personally took part in the test. The images also reveal the Xiaomi test car is a coupe with a slip-back design. There is a lidar on the roof, implying that the car has a higher level of driver assistance capabilities.
According to the late Auto report, Xiaomi’s first car is a medium-sized fastback sedan (internal codename Modena), which is divided into two versions. At the moment, the company has not decided on the price of the car. However, internal discussions on the price are already on and one version may be in the range of 260,000 ($38,325) – 300,000 yuan ($42,222) while the other version should sell for more than 350,000 yuan ($51,591). The new car is expected to be released within the year at the earliest and go on sale in 2024. In addition, the news also said that Xiaomi is still developing a second mass-produced car (internally code-named Lemans Le Mans), which is planned to be launched in 2025.
