Xiaomi Names a New Vice President for its Car Business

Yu Liguo has been appointed as the Vice President of Xiaomi Car, according to the latest news from AI4Auto, a public WeChat account that covers artificial intelligence and the automotive industry.

Yu Liguo is the first publicly announced executive with a traditional automotive industry background to join Xiaomi Car, which is expected to accelerate the company’s progress in the industry. He was previously the head of strategy planning, investment, and cooperation for BAIC New Energy and was responsible for the establishment of the high-end brand JiHu Auto, under BAIC New Energy.

As the new Vice President, Yu Liguo will manage the overall daily operations of Xiaomi Car and lead the personnel and organizational development of the company’s Beijing headquarters. He will report directly to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun.

According to insiders, it was Yu’s successful leadership in the creation of the JiHu brand and his experience working with Huawei and Magna during his time at BAIC that caught Lei Jun’s attention and led to his appointment.

The appointment of a new executive is a significant development for Xiaomi Car, and the company’s progress is expected to accelerate under Yu’s leadership.# Translation

During the tenure of Yu Liguo as CEO of FOXCONN, he got caught up in a controversy due to inappropriate remarks.

In March 2021, a user shared a post by Yu Liguo, the FOXCONN CEO, on the FOXCONN APP community.

The trigger for the incident was his post as a FOXCONN car owner complaining about the operation of the FOXCONN APP community, as well as a tweet questioning the details.

Yu Liguo’s reply was considered “a disguised warning and intimidation” by the user.

Subsequently, FOXCONN apologized to the user.

Afterwards, Yu Liguo gradually faded out of the public eye.

In October 2021, rumors circulated that Yu Liguo may have joined Xiaomi’s automotive division.

In December 2021, public information showed that Yu Liguo had resigned from the position of director of Beiqi New Energy.

Currently, the introduction of Yu Liguo on the FOXCONN Automobile website is displayed as “404”, while on Baidu Baike he has been crowned as “Deputy CEO of Xiaomi Automotive and Political Commissioner of the Beijing Headquarters of Xiaomi Automotive.”

Xiaomi Automotive, who are the other key people?

Before Yu Liguo, Xiaomi Automotive also appointed another vice president, Li Xiaoshuang.

Li Xiaoshuang is an early employee of Xiaomi and was responsible for the home appliances department. After joining Xiaomi Automotive, he was responsible for product, supply chain, and market-related work, reporting to Xiaomi Automotive CEO Lei Jun.

When Lei Jun announced the establishment of Xiaomi Automotive Company, he released a photo of the “core team,” with all Xiaomi core executives in the front row.

In the second row, there were many other Xiaomi technical staff – presumably key technical staff for car manufacturing.

For example, in the third position from the left, Ye Hangjun, the current chairman of the Xiaomi Technical Committee and member of the Xiaomi car preparation team, is responsible for the intelligent driving team.

In the fifth position from the left, Yu Kai, who is still an early employee of Xiaomi, was also present when Lei Jun went to Guangzhou Automobile E-An for a research trip in early May. He is said to be mainly responsible for cabin preparations.

In addition, Li Tianyuan, the designer of the BMW flagship model iX (third from the right), appeared in the photo.

However, there was not a single person with an automotive industry background in this photo except for the designer Li Tianyuan.

At that time, it was interpreted by the outside world that Xiaomi Automotive urgently needed talented executives with traditional automotive industry backgrounds to join in order to accelerate the progress of the project.# Xiaomi EV’s equity incentive plan to be adopted at the shareholders’ meeting on October 25

According to the news in September 2021, Xiaomi will hold a special shareholders’ meeting on October 25 to approve the adoption of Xiaomi EV’s equity incentive plan. The planned authorization limit is 1 billion shares, accounting for 10% of the total number of issued shares.

Coincidentally, Yu Liguo was also reported to have joined Xiaomi Auto around the same time.

How far has Xiaomi Auto gone with its car production?

When it comes to car production, the major clues are money, people, and location.

Money is not a big problem for Xiaomi Auto, as Lei Jun promised an initial investment of 10 billion yuan, which is enough to cope with the start-up stage.

People are a more urgent challenge for Xiaomi Auto. The initial team mostly consists of Xiaomi Group’s old employees, with a lack of talent in automotive engineering and self-driving related fields.

It is said that Xiaomi Auto has been digging people at high costs since its establishment.

Lei Jun emphasized the core of the intelligent experience – the self-driving team, which was ultimately achieved by directly acquiring the self-driving start-up company DeepMotion in one fell swoop.

Last October, during the third-quarter earnings conference, Lei Jun revealed the latest progress of the team:

The number of team members has exceeded 500, with 453 on-board R&D personnel and more than 20,000 resumes received.

Regarding location, at the same time that Xiaomi Group registered in September, it confirmed that the headquarters and factory will be located in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.

At the just-concluded Beijing Two Sessions, it was also clearly stated that promoting the construction of Xiaomi Auto and Ideal Auto in 2022 is one of the key work priorities.

Lei Jun promised that Xiaomi Auto will achieve mass production in the first half of 2024.

From the current publicly available talent configuration of Xiaomi Auto’s team and the overall progress of the project, do you believe in Lei Jun’s pledge?

If Xiaomi Auto goes public, would you look forward to it and buy it?

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.