Xiaomi‘s automotive plant in Beijing has “600 to 700” robots, allowing it to achieve an “extremely high” automation in assembly and inspection across all production stages, the company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun announced.
In a livestream on Chinese social media, Xiaomi‘s chief executive described the Yizhuang Factory’s “high level of intelligence” as its “first defining feature,” highlighting its “extremely high” automation.
Jun added that the plant’s roof is “covered with self-generating photovoltaic solar panels,” which generate all the electricity required by the factory’s production.
The brand also stated on its website that those create “16.4M kWh of clean energy annually and 99% efficiency in exhaust gas treatment.”
According to the report, Xiaomi‘s EV plant attracted 130,000 visitors for tours last year.
Factory Construction
After announcing that it would venture into the EV industry in March 2021, Xiaomi began construction of its inaugural plant in April 2022.
The first phase of the Beijing factory was completed in June 2023, spanning 718,000 square meters (7.7 million square feet).
Trial production started in August 2023, followed by mass manufacturing of the company’s first model — the fully electric SU7 sedan — four months later.
After acquiring a new area of 531,000 square meters for approximately 842 million yuan ($122 million), the Chinese tech giant began the second phase of the plant in August 2024 and completed it in two months.
Factory Expansion
Last June, Xiaomi expanded its EV manufacturing footprint by purchasing a plot spanning over 485,000 square metres (580,055 square yards) in Beijing for 635 million yuan — approximately $92 million.
Currently, the plant, with a 2.5-kilometer — or 1.6-mile — test track, has six workshops: “die casting, stamping, body, painting, final assembly, and battery”, according to the Chinese media outlet ITHome.
The site also houses a dedicated store and testing building with 29 laboratories, forming an integrated R&D, manufacturing, and sales ecosystem.
SU7 Model
The first EV produced in Xiaomi‘s Yizhuang Factory was its SU7 sedan, which debuted in March 2024.
The brand’s co-founder and CEO Lei Jun said on Tuesday that it has stopped manufacturing the first-generation of its first model after 370,000 units, ahead of the second one’s scheduled launch for April.
Apart from the new iteration — which new specifications were filed in China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) latest catalogue —, the company is also set to debut the executive versions of its EV sedan, SU7L, and the YU8 and YU9 extended-range electric SUVs this year.
The last three upcoming vehicles were spotted in China last month.
