Tech Wire Asia reported in April this year that the company had placed a US$10 billion stake in the electric vehicles market, on top of its highly diversified electronics portfolio. 

Building a Xiaomi car might sound odd to those who are used to its offerings, but it is a testament to the company’s growth-oriented mindset.

Starting with US$1.5 billion, the company had set up a wholly-owned subsidiary to run its EV arm, with plans to pump in around US$10 billion over 10 years to achieve its EV dreams.

The company had successfully registered its EV unit in late August this year and installed its CEO Lei Jun as chief.

This week, the smartphone giant announced plans to build a plant in Beijing capable of producing 300,000 electric vehicles annually. 

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The construction of the plant will take place in two phases, and its headquarters, sales, and research offices will be in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, said the government-backed economic development agency Beijing E-Town.

Beijing E-Town expects the plant to reach mass production by 2024, in line with the announcement by Xiaomi’s chief executive in October.

China vs the World

Not to be outdone by their Western and even Asian counterparts, Chinese Big Tech players are increasingly diversifying their portfolios to grasp a bigger foothold in the global tech markets.

Xiaomi is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of technology and marrying it with strong business plans for continuity and sales. They may not exactly pursue cutting-edge research and development, preferring others to do the heavy lifting, but they have invested in tech with potential, and often scaling production up for mass-market adoption.

One example is that, from as early as 2016, the once fledgling tech maker ventured into VR-wearable production. Banking on the cheap labor and production costs in China, they priced them immensely competitively, at a mind-boggling US$0.20 for their VR headset — back then anyway.

Today, their VR headset offerings have improved, but still remain lower-priced as compared to their Western competitors, as are most of their other electronics.

Aside from smartphones, Xiaomi dabbles in a variety of consumer tech, such as wearables, computers, home, and personal appliances — and even musical appliances.

Will a Xiaomi car change the EV market in Asia?

Although nascent, this move by Xiaomi to enter the competitive EV market would put it in direct competition with other domestic electric vehicle makers in China, such as Nio and XPeng.

Xpeng, considered an EV market leader in China, is widely considered on par with global giants such as Tesla.

Earlier this year, Tech Wire Asia reported that XPeng’s venture into the advanced territory of long-distance autonomous driving saw them setting a record for the longest driverless distance of 3,670 kilometres (from Guangzhou to Beijing), in one week.

Eventually, Xiaomi would eventually also aim to fight with global competitors such as Tesla, and other Asian automakers such as Toyota and Nissan, all of whom are highly established EV makers in their own right.

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Xiaomi is a global household brand, and its name is nigh synonymous with affordability, even for its flagship phones. 

Reuters reported that Xiaomi’s physical stores that number the thousands have been used to spur domestic smartphone sales. However, the company eventually aims to utilize these stores as another channel to market and sell their cars.

Will the Xiaomi car live up to consumers’ expectations of affordability?

It’s hard to tell for now, given how much investment is needed in EV production, coupled with supply chain setbacks due to the ongoing global chip shortage.

However, with Xiaomi’s prominent and established branding and consumer loyalty in the electronics sphere, it is likely the phone maker would be able to leverage its assets to be a strong and prominent player, despite its lack of experience in the EV market. 

We’re willing to bet that an affordable Xiaomi car may be a reality for consumers in the Asia Pacific this decade — at least, once the semiconductor crisis eases up a little.

The post The Chinese might be driving a Xiaomi car very soon appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Volkswagen’s truck business The Traton Group took a minority stake in automated vehicle company TuSimple last week, in a bid to bring the firm’s level 4 autonomy technology into its Scania trucks.

The investment is just another milestone in what’s becoming a race to make autonomous trucking a reality. Since 2013, venture capital investment in trucking and logistics-related technologies have soared from just over US$100 million to what, in 2020, seems to set surpass US$2 billion. The innovation associated with autonomy has attracted the most interest. Their proponents point to perks around delivery times, costs, and the counteracting of a truck driver shortage.

A report by McKinsey & Company said autonomous trucks would change the cost structure and utilization of trucking. This is compounded by ever-greater pressure from e-commerce. Automation at every point in the supply chain is proving vital to cope with demand— autonomous trucks are estimated to save close to 50% in operating costs.

Given the potential, the fledgling industry is attracting the keen interest and convergence of a strange combination of cutting-edge start-ups and age-old, well-oiled stalwarts.

Back in 2017, Elon Musk rolled out Tesla’s fully electric semi-truck, capable of 500 miles between charges and 80,000 pounds in carrying capacity. Every step of the way, its Autopilot technology has been developed, nudged, and rivaled by a smorgasbord of competitors, one of which – Nikola – has claimed Tesla’s creation infringes its own patents.

Last year, Daimler bought autonomous vehicle firm Torc Robotics, acquiring “advanced, road-ready technology” for level 4 autonomous driving, while last year, Plus.AI conducted the first real-world commercial freight delivery by a self-driving truck, carrying 40,000 pounds of Land O’Lakes butter in a three-day trip across the United States. 

What will change? 

For starters, as the race for autonomous trucking passes the finishing line, and all starters are joined by more and more competitors, daily operating times will increase.

This necessitates the surrounding supply chain to shift, expand, and mold to the new reality of operation. Such a shift will be incremental, and won’t be seamless. Companies working in logistics and dealing with goods across the supply chain will need to put a renewed onus on flexibility and around-the-clock operations, which is no mean feat.

Ultimately, capturing economic gains from autonomy requires mastering an (almost) entirely new set of processes and systems, designed to keep vehicles rolling in a manner that not only assures safety – for any inefficiency will be exposed and scrutinized – but also provides a positive return on investment. Over time, we would expect to see a more balanced utilization of routes, as well as a reduction in mixed traffic and commuter congestion. If the technology is nailed, then peak hours of travel can be circumnavigated to provide greater assurance on cargo arrival times, partnered with improved safety of fellow road-users.

Then there are the drivers. Though decreasing in popularity (and increasing in attrition), truck driving has historically proven a steady and widely viable job for blue-collar workers the world over. Losing these jobs – or even seeing them jeopardized – could hurt job prospects for relatively unskilled workers. Goldman Sachs economists predict that the growing trend of autonomous vehicles could cost up to 300,000 jobs a year across all driving industries.

As a promising inverse to the above, the slow diffusion of autonomous technology throughout countries – and the world – will leave ample time for operational optimization and monitoring of economic impact and job prospects. It won’t be a mass-job-loss overnight scenario, and new opportunities will inevitably arise across the supply chain as the traditional driving gig wanes.

The Tesla Semi. Source: Tesla

Amongst governments and policy-makers, there are a multitude of opinions and takes on the future of autonomous vehicles. Debate across this spectrum of acceptance will likely consume considerable time, and place blocks in the road for autonomous vehicle firms.

And despite the competition in the market, the need for data sharing will only increase, as will common analytical tools. Being insular with information may serve the host company well, but doubtlessly plays fast and loose with the human lives around these autonomous machines. Time-series, machine learning, and AI will all contribute to a perpetual drive in efficiency. The race to get autonomous trucks on the road will soon play second fiddle to the race to maintain their forward motion through continuously optimized analytics.

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This is why the car and truck manufacturers leading the self-driving vehicle “revolution” – including the newly formed Traton and TuSimple partnership –have significant R&D and analytics departments. Autonomous technology, operations, and policies are on an upward trajectory, and we will soon see more vividly how their application impacts supply chains and human factors.

The post Why there’s a race to make autonomous trucks a reality appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The project, called Cartivator, conducted in partnership with Cartivator Resource Management, has a specific mission in mind – the flying car will be the automaker’s contribution to the 2020 Tokyo Games and is tasked with lighting the Olympic flame. It’s a wonderfully odd and distinctly Japanese twist on the decades-old tradition, and could very well outshadow Barcelona’s 1992 arrow-lit cauldron.

Despite the fact the project is largely powered by volunteers, Toyota has invested JPY40 million (around US$350,000) for the project, which some critics have pointed out is a laughably small amount for one of the biggest companies in the world. In comparison, Cartivator’s contributions have come from donors and through crowdfunding campaigns.

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From what can be gleaned from the video footage, the car appears to be just a basic square scaffold now, attached to rotors and an engine. Overall, the lack of resources for the project is evident – the bare-bones effort can barely lift itself off the ground, and even then for only a few seconds at a time.

According to Cartivator, the short-term view of the project includes plans to refine the basic design and load a pilot into the vehicle by 2019. Whether or not the team will be able to achieve their goal remains to be seen. The project has been in the works for several years now, and the team will be working on a tight schedule – after all, 2020 is not far off.

The project might be particularly significant for Toyota though, signalling why the company took an interest in the first place. Toyota has been working on expanding its offerings of transportation options to include alternative vehicles powered by renewable energy, as well as more off-the-beaten-track takes on luxury yachts.

Who knows, maybe we’ll all be zooming around in flying cars in the next few years.

The post WATCH: Toyota on track to develop first ever Olympics-bound flying car appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.