Secret meetings with Tesla bosses and Xiaomi’s continued drive (get it) to enter new markets have led analysts to believe the Beijing tech company could launch their own car in China.
For anyone who has visited China, you will have seen just how much the Chinese love their cars. The love of the car is driven by low-cost local brands, government subsidies, and astronomical real-estate costs (if you can’t buy a house may as well have a car!).
Over the past 12 months there have been rumours on and off about the chance of a Xiaomi car. The rumours began after Tesla bosses and cars were sighted outside the Xiaomi offices in Beijing, leading fans to believe either Xiaomi were hoping to buy the car mark or produce their own cars.
Gizchina News of the week
Chinese news reports today state that Xiaomi are now in fact working with an existing Chinese auto maker to produce their own A0 class car codenamed the “Mistla”. A0 class cars are what we call Super Minis, so expect something small and cute that seats up to 4 like the Toyota Aygo (featured above with a Xiaomi logo).
Obviously the car is meant to come with a built-in Android entertainment system with MIUI, and in true Xiaomi tradition come at an attractive price! 39,999 Yuan is the suggest cost of the car once on the market (around $6400), not the cheapest Chinese car on the roads, but possibly one of the coolest.
No details about CPU, RAM or windshield size?
For sure memory Card is not supported by xiaomi
Unless it’s a Redmi.
nice thought !!!
Wonder if it will get an OGS windscreen? 2K maybe :p
Gorilla Glass?
Gorilla Glass 4! Better have some thin bezels too.
Cost $6400 in China!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All-electric as tesla?
I can’t imagine so at that price.
Yea at that price it will probably be a 1.0 liter 3 cylinder similar to what other city cars in Asia/Europe use.
Actually thinking about it, it could be all electric as the Chinese govt do subsidise E cars. I think they knock about 100k of the real price of the electric QQ to make it affordable.
Pretty hard to imagine for me too. But maybe it’s made from ultra cheap materials and then the relation with tesla…
why not, probably cheap fake chinese batteries you can get on aliexpress with enough power to let you drive out of the garage
No details about CPU, RAM or windshield size?
For sure memory Card is not supported by xiaomi
nice thought !!!
Wonder if it will get an OGS windscreen? 2K maybe :p
Unless it’s a Redmi.
Gorilla Glass?
Gorilla Glass 4! Better have some thin bezels too.
This car looks is a genuine copy of a Toyota Aygo. So in a way, nothing has really changed with Xiaomi’s designs strategy.
That’s just an “artist impression” ie an Aygo with a mi badge on the front. We have no idea what the car will look like
Someone didn’t read the article.
Cost $6400 in China!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All-electric as tesla?
I can’t imagine so at that price.
Yea at that price it will probably be a 1.0 liter 3 cylinder similar to what other city cars in Asia/Europe use.
Pretty hard to imagine for me too. But maybe it’s made from ultra cheap materials and then the relation with tesla…
Actually thinking about it, it could be all electric as the Chinese govt do subsidise E cars. I think they knock about 100k of the real price of the electric QQ to make it affordable.
why not, probably cheap fake chinese batteries you can get on aliexpress with enough power to let you drive out of the garage
Any rumors on which Chinese car maker they are working with? As a fan of Volvo I would love if it was Geely. Then maybe I can get MIUI in my next s60!
working with this company – http://goo.gl/hsYHBf
It was actually a friend of mine from Geely who spoke to me about this today, he also told me Lei Jun and Geely’s CEO are good friends. Couldn’t confirm it was them though.
This car looks is a genuine copy of a Toyota Aygo. So in a way, nothing has really changed with Xiaomi’s designs strategy.
That’s just an “artist impression” ie an Aygo with a mi badge on the front. We have no idea what the car will look like
Someone didn’t read the article.
Well said and nice from everyone.
Any rumors on which Chinese car maker they are working with? As a fan of Volvo I would love if it was Geely. Then maybe I can get MIUI in my next s60!
working with this company – http://goo.gl/hsYHBf
It was actually a friend of mine from Geely who spoke to me about this today, he also told me Lei Jun and Geely’s CEO are good friends. Couldn’t confirm it was them though.
Well said and nice from everyone.
Still less expensive than 7 iphone6+
Still less expensive than 7 iphone6+
Wow this totally compliments their air purifier business; their cars will pollute and their air purifiers clean it up. I’m sure Xiaomi will toss in a free air purifier with every car sale and call it social responsibility.
Seriously though, the last thing China needs is more cars on the road. A billion+ population has to learn they all can’t own cars like in the west, it’s just not environmentally sustainable. I have a feeling China is going to get a lot dirtier before it starts to get cleaner, if ever. What’s happening in Beijing (regarding air quality) is just the beginning, one by one this will start happening in other cities, too. Unfortunately most Chinese are too selfish to care.
They’re working with Tesla, so it’s completely possible that it’s an electric car.
Oh so if it’s electric that makes it clean? Over 70% of China’s energy is from coal. Gee I wonder how many more coal plants they’re going to need so everyone can recharge their Xiaomi car. Anyone in China (like myself) would agree there are already too many cars on the roads here and definitely not enough parking available. The last thing they need is a super cheap car for the masses.
Think before you reply next time.
There’s no “I’d rather have no cars” choice here. An electric car is as good as it gets, be grateful about it. Things aren’t going to always work in your favour, so make the best out of your situation.
There is a choice; Xiaomi should be seriously considering the environmental impact a super cheap car will have on the environment before developing/launching it. The only way this car could be a good thing would be if it reduced/replaced the sales of larger gasoline cars, however it looks like they’ll not only be targeting budget first time buyers, but even people who before probably weren’t even considering buying a car anytime soon.
You also have to consider the industry impact such a car will have; will other car companies develop and sell competing super cheap cars?
The government also has a choice to further regulate car sales in effort of sustainability (like Singapore). There’s always a choice, unfortunately here in China they practice feed-back control so they’ll wait until there is significant environment impact first or the next time they want to host the Olympics before responding, whichever comes first.
Wow this totally compliments their air purifier business; their cars will pollute and their air purifiers clean it up. I’m sure Xiaomi will toss in a free air purifier with every car sale and call it social responsibility.
Seriously though, the last thing China needs is more cars on the road. A billion+ population has to learn they all can’t own cars like in the west, it’s just not environmentally sustainable. I have a feeling China is going to get a lot dirtier before it starts to get cleaner, if ever. What’s happening in Beijing (regarding air quality) is just the beginning, one by one this will start happening in other cities, too. Unfortunately most Chinese are too selfish to care.
They’re working with Tesla, so it’s completely possible that it’s an electric car.
Oh so if it’s electric that makes it clean? Over 70% of China’s energy is from coal. Gee I wonder how many more coal plants they’re going to need so everyone can recharge their Xiaomi car. Anyone in China (like myself) would agree there are already too many cars on the roads here and definitely not enough parking available. The last thing they need is a super cheap car for the masses.
Think before you reply next time.
There’s no “I’d rather have no cars” choice here. An electric car is as good as it gets, be grateful about it. Things aren’t going to always work in your favour, so make the best out of your situation.
There is a choice; Xiaomi should be seriously considering the environmental impact a super cheap car will have on the environment before developing/launching it. The only way this car could be a good thing would be if it reduced/replaced the sales of larger gasoline cars, however it looks like they’ll not only be targeting budget first time buyers, but even people who before probably weren’t even considering buying a car anytime soon.
You also have to consider the industry impact such a car will have; will other car companies develop and sell competing super cheap cars?
The government also has a choice to further regulate car sales in effort of sustainability (like Singapore). There’s always a choice, unfortunately here in China they practice feed-back control so they’ll wait until there is significant environment impact first or the next time they want to host the Olympics before responding, whichever comes first.
So is Foxcon going to assemble them? And those moronic Flipkart commenters would still complain of over-heating.
So is Foxcon going to assemble them? And those moronic Flipkart commenters would still complain of over-heating.