Emir Bardakçı
rIn the “Lei Jun’s Co-pilot” Pearl River Delta Cruise live broadcast today, Lei Jun, one of Xiaomi’s founders, chairman, and CEO, expressed a clear attitude toward the construction of charging facilities. Xiaomi has constructed a portion of the professionally operated charging stations, but according to Lei Jun, it does not have a plan for large-scale construction in the near future. So instead, the company would have to refocus on the core mission—manufacturing electric vehicles.
In this regard, focus on the compatibility of Xiaomi SU7 and public charging
According to Lei Jun, Xiaomi is currently engaged in developing Xiaomi SU7, making it the most compatible and user-friendly electric car that has access to public charging stations. Xiaomi has run its vehicles via more than 70,000 public charging piles, solving and improving hundreds of problems related to compatibility and ease of use. This greatly enhanced the charging experience for users and ensured that the Xiaomi SU7 worked well with previously installed public charging infrastructure.
Large-Scale Charging Station Construction
Now, pertaining to large-scale charging stations that are self-built by Xiaomi, Lei Jun has given clear responses: “Let’s make the car first.” In his opinion, there are enough public piles to meet the demand of electric vehicle users. Xiaomi would focus on perfecting its vehicle technology before considering further investment in charging infrastructure.
Xiaomi’s Charging Initiative
Although there won’t be massive charging station construction planned, Xiaomi will not be entirely out of the game when it comes to charging. The company announced at the Xiaomi Auto launch conference earlier this year that it is building a supercharging network with the first batch of stations ready to roll out in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. They have a 600 kW liquid-cooled supercharging solution, which represents Xiaomi’s pledge for top-of-the-line technologies in charging.
Besides the public ones, Xiaomi also launched its house charging solution. The home charging piles are user-friendly with features such as “one click to open the cover, plug and charge,” and they also support OTA upgrades. For the home type of charging piles, there will be two versions: 7 kW at 3,999 yuan and 11 kW at 5,999 yuan.
Continuous Improvement and Future Prospects
The fact is a testimony to the efforts taken by Xiaomi toward charging compatibility enhancement, with more than 70,000 charging sessions in Pilgrimage road tests and more than 500 compatibility issues solved. Xiaomi has cooperate with a large number of manufacturers to test more than 200 different models for a total of 18,900 tests on charging piles, achieving over 99 percent compatibility with third-party charging piles. While Xiaomi is perfecting its EV technology, it has to zero in on the user experience of seamless and reliable charging. Large-scale charging station construction might not be within the immediate plans, but its strategic approach makes its vehicles quite ready to thrive within the existing public infrastructure of charging stations.
