Inside Xiaomi Super Factory in China where new cars are produced every 76 seconds
- Xiaomi says it only takes 76 seconds to build one of their cars
- Each car is built using over 700 robots, supervised by 20 employees
- Xiaomi has already delivered 7,000+ units as of May 2024
Published on May 03, 2024 at 4:18 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on May 07, 2024 at 6:44 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Smartphone maker Xiaomi has unveiled a car called the SU7, and everyone seems to love it.
It’s already sold out, and that means that Xiaomi will have to ramp up production.
Fortunately for the brand and its buyers, the company only takes 76 seconds to produce a car.
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Apple may have scrapped its plan to develop a car, but other tech companies haven’t.
Huawei and Sony have both unveiled a car, and so has Xiaomi.
The new Xiaomi SU7 sold out in a matter of hours because it’s just as fast as a Porsche Taycan or a Tesla Model S Plaid, but it costs the same as a family car.
The range-topping Xiaomi SU7 Max model comes in with over 670 horsepower, and it does 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in just 2.78 seconds.
And yet, it costs roughly the same as an entry-level Tesla.
So the company is giving a mid-range car, with top-tier performance figures, a budget price tag.
But then there’s only one way to make back the money, and that’s by scaling up production.
Xiaomi says they’re able to build 40 units every 60 minutes, which works out at one car every 76 seconds.
They did this by cleverly combining robots and people.
More than 700 robots operate in the factory (381 for the bodywork alone), each with their own task, and they’re ‘supervised’ by 20 employees.
Xiaomi says this makes the process twice as fast and three times more efficient than the industry average, and will hopefully help them meet the tight deadlines.
The tech/car company initially claimed it wanted to sell 100,000 units in its first year, and 300,000 units per year in the next three years.
This projection, as it turns out, was way off.
Less than 24 hours after the unveiling, Xiaomi had already received 90,000 reservations.
To be fair, we should point out that Xiaomi took a leaf out of Tesla’s book, and made the pre-order process cheap, fast, and straightforward.
All you have to do is head to the website, pay a deposit of just 5,000 yuan ($691, give or take) and that’s enough to secure a reservation.
Deliveries have already started, with over 7,000 units already in the hands of their owners.
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