This is my fifth annual speech. Welcome, everyone.
On March 28, Xiaomi SU7 was officially launched, and the response far exceeded our expectations. It became a phenomenal hit overnight. For the past three months or so, every day has felt like a dream to me.
Looking back on the more than one thousand days and nights that have passed, Xiaomi EV has been through far too many twists and turns.
Many people may know that Xiaomi's decision to build cars actually began with an unexpected event. A little after seven in the morning on January 15, 2021, while I was on my way to work, a friend called me and said, “Mr. Lei, the United States has sanctioned you!”
The news struck like a bolt from the blue. I was stunned. We quickly convened an emergency board meeting to discuss how to respond.
At the meeting, one director asked, “If you can no longer make phones, what will happen to your thirty or forty thousand employees?”
That was true. If we could no longer make phones, what would happen to our thirty or forty thousand employees? One director suggested, “Should you seriously consider building cars?”
That afternoon, we had our first serious discussion about making cars. Almost every executive supported the idea. But I felt the risks were too great, so I proposed that we first conduct a thorough study.
We formed a six-person research team. Over more than seventy days, we traveled nonstop to over ten cities, conducted eighty-five research sessions, interviewed more than two hundred people face to face, and held four executive meetings.
During this research, two good friends strongly urged me to build cars: Li Bin and He Xiaopeng. To be honest, I wondered what they stood to gain by persuading me. Were they not worried about adding another competitor to the auto industry? I kept thinking that perhaps they simply wanted what was best for me and for Xiaomi.
As our research deepened, I became increasingly convinced that the rise of smart electric vehicles was unstoppable.
In my report to the board, I said: Smart electric vehicles are the future, and the automotive and consumer electronics industries are converging. I believe Xiaomi has to do this.
At the same time, I voiced my concerns: Would the auto industry become winner-takes-all, like the smartphone industry? Might only five to eight companies survive worldwide? If we could not become one of the global top five, we might not survive.
If we were going to build cars, we first needed to take a long-term view, and second, we had to aim for the global top five. That meant being prepared to spend a great deal of money. At the time, we estimated that we would need at least US$10 billion.
After an intense discussion, the directors gave me a clear answer: They supported building cars. But because the investment was so large, Lei Jun himself would have to lead the effort.
Honestly, I had never expected the board to make that demand. For the next several days, I lived in constant anxiety.
Xiaomi was already going through a turbulent period. Two and a half years after going public, the company was painfully transforming from a guerrilla force into a professional army. Our push into the premium smartphone market had just begun, with countless issues demanding attention. At that very moment, a promising young executive whom we had cultivated for years, Shou Zi Chew, resigned. It was a heavy blow. Although I was deeply reluctant to see him go, I still gave him my very best wishes.
With all these events colliding at once, my mind was in knots. I had to decide whether Xiaomi should build cars and whether I should personally lead the effort.
It was not easy at all.
Late each night, I would finally summon the courage to commit myself fully. Then the next morning, when the sun rose, I would feel lost again.
I repeatedly asked myself: Starting a business is so hard. Do I really want to begin all over again? The risk is enormous. If I lose, will my life and career end in disgrace? Do I truly have enough strength and energy to enter a completely new industry?
Those questions circled in my mind for an entire week. It was agonizing.
On March 30, I formally replied to the board: If Xiaomi must do this, and if everyone believes I am the right person, then for Xiaomi, I am willing to step forward.
This was not an impulse or a temporary expedient. It was the result of more than seventy days of careful thought. At the time, I had only one line in mind: “Though millions stand in my way, I shall go forward.”
Even if millions questioned or tried to stop me, I would press ahead without hesitation.
No matter how severe the crisis, we must never be intimidated.
That evening, we held a launch event and formally announced that Xiaomi was entering the auto industry, with Lei Jun leading the effort and the company committing US$10 billion of wholly owned investment over ten years. The news that “Xiaomi is building cars” and investing “US$10 billion” shook the entire industry.
In fact, I was in very poor condition that day. I had a severe cold and could barely speak. Onstage, I left myself no way back. I said decisively: This is the final major entrepreneurial project of my life. I am willing to stake all the reputation and achievements of my life and fight for Xiaomi EV.
The livestream comments were filled with calls to “beat Tesla.” At that moment, I was overwhelmed with emotion.
That was a sleepless night for Xiaomi and for the entire auto industry.
I received many messages. The one that moved me most arrived at five in the morning from a colleague named Liu Anyu. He had been obsessed with cars since childhood but thought he would never have a career in the industry. In his spare time, he had even built a large recreational vehicle for himself just to satisfy that passion.
That day, he happened to be on a business trip in Guangzhou. After watching Xiaomi's livestream, he was so excited that he immediately took several colleagues out for drinks by the Pearl River. Even after they finished, he still could not settle down, so he walked along the river for the entire night.
At five in the morning, he finally made up his mind that he could not miss this opportunity. He sent me a message saying that as long as he could participate, he was willing to do anything.
Many, many people were unable to sleep that night.
Li Tianyuan was then responsible for designing the BMW iX at BMW's headquarters in Germany. Xiaomi's announcement shook him deeply and made him want to join us.
Giving up a job at BMW headquarters, leaving a comfortable life in Europe, and persuading his family to return to China were not easy choices for anyone. Yet he resigned decisively, packed his bags, brought his family home, and joined Xiaomi's automotive venture.
One evening after Xiaomi's announcement, Hu Zhengnan called me. He said he had worked at a state-owned company and a private company and had also started his own business. His contract with his former employer had expired, and he very much wanted to see how an internet company would build cars. He later joined Shunwei Capital and subsequently served concurrently as my adviser.
That was how a group of people who loved cars came together from all over the country. In just six months, we assembled a team of more than one thousand people.
Over the past three-plus years, our automotive division has grown to more than seven thousand people. Even more remarkably, we have brought together over one thousand technical experts.
That announcement played a major role in building the team. Over three years, we received 380,000 résumés. As a carmaker committed to becoming one of the global top five, we still need more outstanding people. Xiaomi will always welcome excellent engineers to join the Xiaomi EV team.
Xiaomi's entry into the auto industry drew an enormous public response. A group of my entrepreneur friends were also very concerned, and on April 5 they came to Xiaomi together. They asked many questions, but two stood out.
The first question was: Are you entering the market too late?
Indeed, more than three years ago, we were already six or seven years behind the new EV makers. My answer was this: Intelligence is the soul of the automobile, and in the era of electric vehicles, automotive intelligence has only just begun.
Automobiles are a century-long field. As long as you truly love it and sincerely want to do it, any time is the best time to begin.
The second question was: Why not raise separate financing for Xiaomi EV and list it independently?
Many people become excited as soon as they hear the words “go public.” The EV sector was booming at the time, and the share prices of new-energy vehicle companies were soaring.
I said that several venture capital firms had indeed made offers for Xiaomi EV. Because the market was so hot, they valued it at US$10 billion.
Think about it: The project had nothing yet, but it was already valued at US$10 billion. We could have used other people's money to build cars with almost no financial risk. Who could refuse such an attractive proposition?
To be honest, we were tempted. But after thinking it through carefully, we declined.
Why? Because building cars is a very long process. If we took outside money, it would be almost impossible for everyone to remain aligned over such a long period. And by developing cars within Xiaomi, we could directly draw on a vast pool of talent and technology from across the group.
I knew very clearly that building cars would be extremely difficult and that I could never do it alone. I needed every person in Xiaomi Group to support the effort without reservation. I wanted everyone to give it their all and build the car together. Only then would we have a chance to win.
In the end, we decided to do everything ourselves: We would provide all the money and bear all the risk. We would spare no cost as long as we could build a great car.
That day, Wang Chuanfu came, as did Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng, and Li Bin. I still remember Wang later telling me that he greatly admired our courage, though he was also rather worried for us.
That was the starting point of Xiaomi's automotive journey. Without the enormous shock of an unexpected event like the US sanctions, we would not have ventured into an industry as complex as automobiles, and there would be no Xiaomi SU7 today.
So, no matter how severe the crisis, we must never be intimidated. The courage to burn our boats and fight with everything we have is the key to breaking through.
Take no shortcuts.
After deciding to build cars, we still faced countless challenges. The auto industry launches two or three hundred new models every year and is fiercely competitive.
For a newcomer, the first car is crucial. How should we build it? What kind of car should it be?
At first, the team gathered a large pile of reports and began studying and researching. They produced more than a hundred pages of analysis. I could not resist pouring cold water on the exercise: “Let's not make this so complicated. Can we first build a car that Xiaomi's own engineers would want to buy?”
If we did not want to buy it ourselves, there would be no point in building it. I said we should simplify the problem first.
Then came the second question: What kind of car did Xiaomi's engineers actually want to buy?
Everyone's first reaction was to hire a research firm and spend several months producing a report.
During the discussion, I again reminded them not to waste time. A hundred reports cannot replace a face-to-face conversation with one real user.
I said we should start immediately. So we mobilized everyone and spoke individually with Xiaomi engineers. In two or three weeks, we interviewed more than three hundred people.
Even after that, the team wanted more. They went through the parking lots at every Xiaomi office and looked at the cars people actually drove, one by one. The method may have seemed unsophisticated, but it was simple, direct, and effective.
We quickly learned which brands, models, and price ranges people chose. For example, sedans and SUVs each accounted for about half.
From an engineering perspective, premium cars are easier to build than inexpensive ones, and SUVs are relatively easier than sedans. That is why most automakers start with an SUV.
But I saw it differently. We decided to take an unconventional path and begin with a battery-electric sedan. Electric sedans are difficult, but once we could build one well, developing other types of vehicles would become much easier. So we resolved to start with a sedan.
- Take No Shortcuts—Do It Ourselves
China has a highly developed automotive supply chain, so assembling a car is relatively easy. More than three years ago, many friends urged me to move quickly because we were already late. They told us to outsource production and not try to do everything ourselves.
At first, we considered that approach too. We explored contract manufacturing and acquisitions. But before long, we made up our minds to start with core technologies and take no shortcuts.
Why? Because we had paid a heavy price before. When Xiaomi was founded fourteen years ago, we adopted an asset-light model. We moved quickly in the beginning, but our foundation was not solid, and we later suffered many setbacks.
Even today, I still feel that we are making up for those missing lessons.
So when we started a business again, we decided to take no shortcuts: no acquisition, no contract manufacturing. We would begin with core technologies, invest ten times as much, and build a good car with seriousness and care.
Once we made that decision, we invested with absolute resolve. Right from the start, we developed three generations of motors and two large die-casting systems. We took the same approach in many areas, including intelligent driving and lidar.
Take the battery pack. Most people may think it is simple, but it is actually extremely complex. Developing one battery pack can take more than ten months and cost tens of millions of yuan. That is why a new vehicle program in this industry usually develops two battery packs, or three at most.
Do you know how many we developed for SU7? More than ten. To fully understand battery-pack technology, we even built our own battery-pack factory. We put tremendous pressure not only on our own team but also on our suppliers.
I felt bad about it and personally called Robin Zeng of CATL to explain. He said he understood. Years ago, when his company developed batteries for Company A, a phone needed only one battery solution, yet they developed more than two hundred versions during the R&D process.
Only by working this way can you truly perfect a product.
Starting with core technologies, we invested ten times the usual resources and worked day and night for more than half a year. Before the Spring Festival at the end of 2021, we held the first formal project review. Everyone was excited, but the meeting turned out to be deeply frustrating because our differences were enormous.
After arguing back and forth, we finally decided to discard the entire product plan and start again.
On the first working day after the Spring Festival, I canceled my entire schedule and called together the dozen or so core members of our automotive division to discuss how to solve the problem.
No one expected that this hastily convened meeting would last twenty-one full days and turn into a marathon. At first, everyone was relatively restrained, but the debate grew increasingly intense. Sometimes we would argue over a single issue from nine in the morning until nine at night.
Our team of more than one thousand people was waiting for the outcome. I made up my mind to put everything else aside and keep meeting until we had argued every issue through.
Looking back today, that meeting was truly important. We had come from different places and backgrounds. For the first time, we spent such a long period in intensive face-to-face discussion, which helped us understand one another and come together as a team.
Those twenty-one days ultimately produced an important consensus: For Xiaomi as a newcomer, simply earning a seat at the table would be a tremendous success.
Many people ask how we managed to build a car in three years. The key was this principle:
Xiaomi must respect the laws of the auto industry, build on sound fundamentals, and then innovate in unexpected ways. We must get the fundamentals right before seeking breakthroughs, rather than trying to overturn the industry or flip the table from day one.
Through those twenty-one days, the dozen or so of us became true comrades in arms. Only by trusting one another completely could we face the countless trials ahead.
But no one expected the first trial to arrive so quickly. Soon after the meeting ended, the COVID outbreak began in Shanghai. Many of our engineers were there. How could development continue?
One colleague set up a complete working environment at home. The control software for our HyperEngine motor first ran successfully in his living room.
It was an unforgettable and unusual experience. Although we were so far apart, we also felt remarkably close. I remember that many product decisions for SU7 were made through all kinds of video meetings.
We even held several online celebration parties during that period. Whenever we reached a project milestone, we sent a bottle of wine to every colleague's home and raised our glasses together online.
It was this fearless and romantic revolutionary spirit that helped us overcome one difficulty after another. The project was not delayed and continued according to plan.
On August 16, 2023, the first validation vehicle slowly rolled off the production line. Everyone present was overwhelmed with excitement. After so many twists and turns, Xiaomi SU7 was delivered on schedule.
This achievement was the result of the combined efforts of the six or seven thousand people in our automotive division. I still remember that after the roll-off ceremony ended and everyone had left, I walked around the car again and again by myself. Finally, I opened the door and sat inside for a long time.
I could hardly believe that we had truly built our car. At that moment, I was overwhelmed with emotion.
Looking back, choosing the hardest route by building a battery-electric sedan, starting with core technologies, and pausing at the moment of greatest pressure to hold a twenty-one-day meeting all required tremendous courage and determination.
We firmly believed that only by persisting in doing difficult but right things could we go farther and give Xiaomi EV a real chance to succeed.
You must understand an industry and love it before you can excel in it.
Over the past three years, the question I have pondered most is this: Since I am leading the team, how can I make sure we build a great car?
I thought about it for a long time and eventually found that the answer was simple: You must understand an industry and love it before you can excel in it.
So, if I wanted to build a great car, I had to understand cars and genuinely love them.
You may find this hard to believe, but the first step I took in building cars was to drive one myself. To be honest, because work had become so demanding, the company assigned me a full-time driver more than ten years ago. Since then, I had rarely driven. But on the day I decided to build cars, I also resolved to start driving myself again.
Getting behind the wheel again felt a little like being a beginner. I was flustered at first and needed several days to adjust.
I then realized I had to make up for lost time as quickly as possible. I needed to test-drive enough cars to close the information gap. I began by borrowing cars from friends and then from colleagues. Within a month or two, I had borrowed every model available to me. Why? Because they tended to own similar cars.
I then decided to visit dealerships for every brand. Each time, I wore a hat and sunglasses and tried to disguise myself completely. It did not seem to help. People recognized me almost immediately, which was extremely awkward.
Later, I found a better method. I walked through Xiaomi's underground parking garage, and whenever I saw a car I had never driven, I asked my assistant to borrow it.
After borrowing a car, I loved talking with its owner. I generally asked three sets of questions: What is good about this car, and what is not? Why did you choose it? If you replaced it, what would you buy next?
I would drive it carefully for a day or two, then search online for every piece of information and every kind of review I could find. That gave me a complete understanding of the car. Before returning it, I filled the tank and had it washed.
- Become a Racing Driver
Over three years, I test-drove more than 170 cars and accumulated over 200,000 Chinese characters of notes and reference material. To catch up further, I made time to read biographies of major figures in the auto industry. I even found and rewatched every racing film I had seen before.
In the past, I mainly watched the stars, followed the plot, and enjoyed the spectacle. This time, I watched the cars. It left me with many thoughts. Why are Ferrari and Porsche so successful? Look at their leaders: Their founders were racing drivers.
Seriously, if you do not understand cars, how can you build a good one? I began thinking about a modest goal: Could I become one of the best drivers among the heads of Chinese automakers? Could I drive a racing car?
Once the idea occurred to me, my first reaction was to wonder whether racing was too dangerous. And was it perhaps a little unrealistic for a “young man” like me to take it up?
I thought about it for a long time and finally decided to try. To race, I first needed a competition license. I trained on the circuit during the summer. Because racing is about handling a car at its limits, everything that could be removed from the race car had been stripped out.
Think about a Beijing summer: On hot days, it can reach forty degrees Celsius outside and sixty inside the car. After several full runs, I would be soaked through as if I had spent time in a sauna.
Beginners can easily run off the track and just as easily crash into a safety barrier.
Experienced drivers call that “hitting the wall.” They joke that you need to hit every wall several times before you can drive a race car well. And race cars are not insured, so if you crash one, you bear the loss yourself.
Everyone drives carefully and conscientiously on public roads, but incidents occur frequently on a racetrack. Racing looks dangerous, and in reality it is not exactly safe either.
To learn properly, I bought an advanced seven-axis simulator and practiced secretly at home. After enduring plenty of hardship, I finally earned my racing license.
I did not train alone. I pushed the Xiaomi team to train as well. More than one hundred members of our management and engineering teams obtained racing licenses.
I believe that only a team that sincerely loves cars can truly build a great one.
After completing this training, my understanding of cars advanced another step. In ordinary driving, I had never used full throttle or maximum braking. I did not really understand precise steering, handling, or what it meant for a car to go exactly where you pointed it. Racing made all of this clear and gave me a deeper understanding of what it means for driver and car to become one.
- Personally Test the Engineering Vehicles
At the end of 2022, we conducted our first winter test of the engineering vehicles in Heihe, at temperatures of minus thirty to minus forty degrees Celsius. This was Xiaomi EV's first major examination. I took it very seriously, and both my management team and I went to the site in person.
The second time, I joined the summer testing in Turpan, where temperatures can reach fifty degrees Celsius. Think about it: If your car sits in fifty-degree sunlight for an entire afternoon, how hot does it become inside? In some benchmark vehicles, I saw cabin temperatures reach ninety degrees. At that moment, I truly understood how important it was to give SU7 excellent sun protection.
Because this was Xiaomi's first car, quality was extraordinarily important to us.
This January, we also conducted the largest road-testing program in the industry. We deployed 576 prototype vehicles on real roads, tested them throughout the streets of more than three hundred cities, and covered a total of 5.4 million kilometers.
At the beginning of this year, our test fleet had an exceptionally broad reach. One internet user commented that the real test of Xiaomi EV was whether our own executives dared to drive the cars themselves.
The vehicles were still prototypes at the time. One engineer saw the comment, forwarded it to a group chat, and tagged me specifically. I understood what he meant, so I quietly forwarded it to our executive group and tagged everyone.
Xiaomi's executives responded immediately. Every one of them joined the testing. They wanted to use their own experience to prove that SU7 was dependable.
Before SU7 launched, all our executives together tested it for more than 100,000 kilometers. I personally took part more than ten times and drove roughly 5,000 kilometers.
The most memorable test was a drive from Beijing to Shanghai this January. From six in the morning until nine at night, I drove 1,276 kilometers alone over fifteen hours.
At first, our public relations colleagues did not want me to do it. They were not worried about SU7. They worried that I might scrape or dent it and accidentally create a public relations crisis.
While I drove, they watched me the whole way and were many times more nervous than I was. In the end, the entire trip went very smoothly. With today's expressways and intelligent driving technology, I found the overall experience quite relaxed.
Driving again, learning to race, and personally taking part in winter, summer, and long-distance tests may all sound like small matters. But what did they teach me?
Courage is not a slogan. It is the practical action behind every step.
I am grateful for the unexpected event three years ago that brought me into such a fascinating industry.
No one believed in Xiaomi EV.
We worked intensely with our heads down for more than three years. Throughout development, we kept an extremely low profile and did no publicity at all.
Xiaomi EV made its first public appearance in December 2023. Many people felt it had arrived suddenly, almost out of nowhere. Interest was exceptionally high at first, but within days we were met by a wave of doubt, criticism, and attacks.
The most common question was: Apple could not do it in ten years, so what makes you think you can do it in three?
I found that question very difficult to answer. How would I know why Apple could not do it in ten years? Why not ask how many years NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto needed?
The industry was already mature, and I believed three years was a normal development cycle. So I did not know how to answer. Critical articles came like a tidal wave, amplified by several competitors, and ridicule and mockery spread everywhere.
I considered all of that minor. The real difficulty was discovering, in conversations two or three months before launch, that everyone thought the SU7 we had poured everything into would not sell.
It made me desperately anxious. I told them that our specifications and experience were far better than those of Model 3. They replied that Model 3 buyers were devoted fans of Tesla and Elon Musk and would never buy our SU7.
I said, fine, but should users of the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class not upgrade to a smarter electric vehicle at a similar price with a better product?
Several departments produced three reports for me, each dozens of pages long. After reading them, I found that their core message came down to one sentence: “Customers buy those three cars for the brands.”
Why would they buy SU7? That single question left me speechless. We had also carefully designed sun protection and storage features for women drivers, and the car looked beautiful. Yet many people said women would never buy a performance car like this.
What could we do?
I asked the marketing department to invite some friends from the media to offer advice. We invited twenty-three people. I never expected that the overwhelming majority would be pessimistic. They believed selling three thousand units would already be a blessing. That was the prevailing view at the time.
I knew they were speaking honestly, but I was unconvinced and tried to persuade them. I spoke for two or three hours until my mouth was dry. It made no difference. I could not change their minds.
It was profoundly discouraging, and our entire team was shrouded in anxiety.
This was probably around March. Many people said I looked exhausted, and I was indeed deeply depressed. At my lowest point, I remembered a car I had test-driven. It belonged to a colleague who had lent it to me for several days: a Ford Mustang, a performance car costing more than 400,000 yuan.
That colleague told me he had saved for ten years to buy it as a reward for himself.
He said that every morning, the instant he sat in the car and pressed the accelerator on his way to work, his blood began to race. Every evening after arriving home, he would sit in the car for a while before going upstairs. Even now, I can recall exactly what he told me. I truly believe that life deserves to be rewarded. That is the meaning of a dream car.
Our Xiaomi SU7 was designed for hardworking people like him. So I believed in people's longing for a dream car. I believed in the wholehearted commitment of our entire team over more than three years, and I believed in Xiaomi SU7's appeal and formidable product strength.
No matter how many people doubted us, I always firmly believed that SU7 would be a major success.
- The Real Test Was Production Capacity
The true test of my confidence came in February, when we had to determine production capacity.
Automotive supply chains are long and production is complex. How were we supposed to set our capacity for the entire year?
Many people advised us to set capacity at 30,000 vehicles, which would be safer. But I was deeply conflicted: If we set it too high, I worried the cars would not sell; if we set it too low, I worried we could not meet demand and people would accuse us of creating artificial scarcity.
I still remember an interview with China Central Television in February or March. I said then that I was afraid both that the car would not sell and that we would not have enough to sell. I felt completely torn.
At that point, my confidence helped me make up my mind. Do you know what annual target we set at the beginning of the year?
Seventy-six thousand vehicles.
What did that mean? After allowing for the production ramp-up, we would need monthly sales of ten thousand vehicles.
At the time, only one comparable car sold ten thousand units a month: Tesla's Model 3. In other words, from day one, our target was to become one of the top one or two models. What would happen if the cars did not sell? Many people may not understand the consequences.
Our factory may look enormous, but in fact it can store only three days' production.
Do you know how large a parking area is needed for one thousand cars? If ten thousand vehicles went unsold, how many football fields would we need to park them?
Once inventory began to build, cars would cover the landscape. For us, that would be catastrophic.
So I knew very well that annual production of 76,000 vehicles was an audacious target.
But I also knew clearly that we had no way back. We could only charge forward with everything we had.
Amid tremendous anxiety, the launch date drew closer. In mid-March, before the launch, we held our one and only media briefing.
Members of the media experienced SU7 for the first time, and some opinions began to change. They said they could hardly believe this was Xiaomi's first car: It felt remarkably complete and had an exceptional sense of quality. They said Xiaomi clearly had outstanding experts behind it.
- The Greater Challenge Was Pricing
Only then did I feel slightly reassured. But the greater challenge was pricing. If we set the wrong price, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Many people do not realize that new-energy vehicles and battery-electric vehicles are not the same concept. New-energy vehicles also include range-extended and plug-in hybrid models. Range-extended vehicles combine fuel and electricity, and their cost structure is very different.
Apart from Tesla, almost every battery-electric vehicle business was losing money.
Only reasonable pricing would allow our business to grow sustainably. An extremely low price would merely be a temporary remedy with fatal consequences.
Online rumors claimed that SU7 would be priced at 149,000 yuan, and some even said 99,000 yuan. Those figures were simply absurd.
Even greater pressure came from within the company. Our experienced sales colleagues had always lacked confidence in battery-electric sedans.
The day before the launch, our final pricing meeting was not long, but the debate was intense. I believed our base configuration and overall experience far exceeded Model 3. We had to be courageous and set the price at 215,900 yuan, which was still 30,000 yuan below Model 3.
I believed SU7 was highly competitive, but the sales team remained worried about its prospects.
When I finished presenting SU7's price, the entire room fell silent. I felt truly helpless.
Finally, one executive in the room said, “At this price, however many units it sells, Xiaomi will accept the result.”
I was extremely nervous at the March 28 launch, and my voice was hoarse. I felt like a student who had studied for ten grueling years and was finally sitting the national college entrance examination.
I spoke for more than half an hour before I gradually began to relax.
When I explained whom SU7 was built for, many words that had been pent up inside me for three years came pouring out.
I said SU7 was made for people who refuse to settle for mediocrity and continue striving for their dreams; people who aspire to advanced technology and long for a happy life; people with fire in their hearts and light in their eyes, radiating optimism and confidence.
When I announced the price, the audience began to cheer. Xiaomi SU7 had made it.
After the launch, while I was being interviewed by the media, an excited colleague rushed in and told me that Xiaomi SU7 had received more than ten thousand orders in four minutes and more than fifty thousand in twenty-seven minutes.
At that instant, everything seemed wonderful. All the pain, frustration, and misunderstanding of the previous three years vanished into thin air.
At the same time, many users placed orders without ever test-driving SU7 or even seeing the car in person.
A friend told me the story of a Xiaomi fan that moved me deeply. His name is Shen Lili. He was thirty-nine years old and a professor in the School of Mathematics at Sichuan University.
He was a longtime Xiaomi fan who had quietly supported the company for many years.
When Xiaomi announced more than three years ago that it would build cars, he felt it was a critical moment for the company and that he had to show his support. He immediately bought a parking space in his residential complex and reserved it for a future Xiaomi car.
He placed his order at the first opportunity on the night of the launch. The parking space that had stood empty for more than three years finally welcomed an SU7.
That is the extraordinary trust Xiaomi fans have placed in us.
When I bent down to open the door for an owner, it was an expression of my heartfelt gratitude to Xiaomi fans.
That spontaneous gesture went viral online and became the joke about a “hundred-billion-yuan CEO opening car doors.” After that, many other auto executives also went to delivery sites to open doors for owners.
At the Beijing Auto Show, I became, in other people's eyes, a god of marketing and a walking source of online traffic.
All of that came from Xiaomi SU7's enormous success and its captivating appeal at first sight.
With SU7's great success and the joint efforts of all our partners, we announced a new delivery target in May: We would deliver at least 100,000 vehicles by year-end and aim for 120,000.
This would be an enormous challenge both for us and for every partner across the Xiaomi EV supply chain.
Xiaomi SU7 won its opening battle. That means Xiaomi EV has finally earned a seat at the table, but we are still far from true success. Our long march has only just begun.
I offer this thought as encouragement to you as well.
The past three years have been a transformative experience for me and for Xiaomi.
Behind Xiaomi SU7's success lies tremendous courage. It does not belong to any one person. It is the shared courage of more than forty thousand employees across Xiaomi Group.
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is remaining steadfast when facing fear.
Courage comes from firm conviction, an inexhaustible passion, and keeping both feet on the ground at every step. Courage is humanity's greatest anthem.
My friends, may you always possess the determination to forge ahead and the courage to cut through every obstacle.
