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Xiaomi has plans to make an electric car according to sources

You might know Xiaomi for its affordable smartphones packed with features, but smartphones are just one of the products the firm makes.

The firm also makes smart lightbulbs, scooters, vacuum cleaners and even electric scooters. There’s even a Xiaomi rice cooker if you want to make Uncle Roger proud.

Today, however, there is talk of Xiaomi getting into the vehicle manufacturing business. Three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Xiaomi has plans to make electric vehicles using Great Wall Motor’s (GWM) factory.

The use of the Great Wall Motor factory is notable because as Reuters reports, the vehicle maker hasn’t offered manufacturing services to other companies before. Even more bizarre is that GWM will provide engineer consultation on the project.

The question many folks will be asking is why is a smartphone maker building an electric vehicle?

The short answer is, because it can.

The longer answer is that it likely wants to diversify revenue streams. As we mentioned, Xiaomi makes a lot of products and it made $29.8 billion in sales by May 2020. But would a vehicle bump up sales figures?

Potentially, but if we look at Great Wall Motor’s sales by May 2020, it only brought in $11.9 billion compared to Xiaomi’s $29.8 billion. Of course, Great Wall only makes cars and Xiaomi wouldn’t abandon its core business, at least we wouldn’t expect it to.

While Xiaomi and Great Wall declined to comment, the people close to the matter told Reuters that first Xiaomi electric vehicle could launch in 2023.

It seems the rumours of an Apple Car have reached other smartphone makers and they’ve considered it to be a good idea.

The one problem we’re seeing is a global semi-conductor shortage which is also affecting the motor industry, is set to last until at least the end of this year.

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