Xiaomi Raises EV Target Amidst Sales Surge

Xiaomi raised its full-year target for deliveries of electric vehicles to 350,000 units from 300,000 for this year, while reporting a nearly 50 percent jump in fourth-quarter 2024 revenue.

The move came after Xiaomi increased its production capacity for EVs, which it began manufacturing last year after making smartphones, home devices and smart gadgets for most of its 15-year history.

“Xiaomi has been making full efforts to increase its production capacity and has made some progress,” said Xiaomi co-founder and chief executive Lei Jun in a post on social media platform Weibo.

EV success

He added that Xiaomi had produced its “strongest annual report in history”.

The company said it has delivered more than 135,000 EVs to date.

Xiaomi’s shares closed up 3.3 percent in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday ahead of the publication of financial results, after rising 284 percent over the past 12 months on investor optimism around Xiaomi’s EV initiatives.

While the company’s auto unit has not yet reached profitability, strong sales and deliveries helped the company’s overall net profit beat analysts’ forecasts.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 48.8 percent to 109 billion yuan ($15.1bn, £11.6bn) ahead of the 103.94bn yuan predicted by LSEG analysts.

Net profit rose 69.4 percent from a year earlier to 8.32bn yuan, compared to analysts’ predictions of 6.399bn yuan.

Xiaomi president Lu Weibing said Xiaomi sees great potential for Xiaomi’s products overseas, with plans to sell cars outside of China in 2027, but he cautioned that the complexities of exporting are “quite high”.

Expansion

Lu said the company’s goals over the next five years include moving into the ultra-premium market segment, expanding from smartphones and EVs into other categories, creating a product ecosystem and “to move from China to the world”.

The company retained its spot as the world’s third-biggest smartphone maker, with handset shipments rising 5 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter to 42.7 million units, taking 13 percent of the global market.

It ranks behind only Apple and Samsung, according to Canalys figures.

Shipments in its home market of mainland China rose 29 percent to 12.2 million devices, bringing it to fourth place with 16 percent of the market, Canalys said.

Xiaomi’s 15 percent growth for full-year 2024 made it “the biggest contributor to the industry’s volume growth in 2024”, Canalys said, citing its momentum in China and success in emerging markets.